George Clooney: "Donald Trump is insane"

Oh, I'm in the UK, Carol, but travel an awful lot, and the example I gave recently of gunrunning from Albania to Belgium in a Brussels registered car showed the weaknesses of the system to me.

And even if people worked in one country and lived in another, why would going through a border control be a problem? At least you would know who the people were - and along the way create a few more jobs! From what you're saying about commercial traffic that confirms to me that business has the upper hand in many ways.

A haulage truck was stopped in Portsmouth today and it was found to have 28-30 illegal immigrants stowed away in it.........It happens a lot

PAN,
I got a little confused because I had thought you lived in the UK but when you mentioned the 'non border controls' I thought I was wrong.
Of course there are also disadvantages on not having border controls, a loss of control and security is the biggest of them. I personally think that Schengen I with France, Germany Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg worked, and if the had just added Switzerland and Austria, it would have worked. To add so many other countries, often instable, was a huge mistake. But IMO tgat was a way to 'protect' former communist countries from Putin's influence.

Of course people could pass a border control every day - it's just a matter of time. I do remember the times when there were border controls everywhere, and when we went to Britain, we always spent hours at the different border controls. So that's a sort of comfort to have no controls, but as we all know - a loss of security as well.

About the truck with immigrants: It's good that they found them. I remember that last year a left truck was found in Austria with nearly 40 people who died of asphyxiation and were already dead a few days when the truck was opened.

PAN,
one thing which just came to my mind when I thought why the UK never joined these agreements:

I think that your country doesn't see itself as part of the European continent. In one month we'll see if you still see it as part of the EU...
And certain issues of this 'separation' absolutely make sense, if you just think about having separated animals for months before tgey were allowed to enter the UK (Australia still does it) to prevent the introduction of epizootic diseases. This would make no sense for single countries on the continent, but it does make sense for a country on an island.

It's not meant as a critic, just want to understand our different points of view...

PAN, Carolhathaway - Haven't been able to travel in ages. Do passports still get stamped when you go from one country to another? It was fun seeing how many stamps you could get and how different they were.

I never considered what a pain in the neck it must be to live in one country and work in another if you had to get a passport check every time you went to work. A lot of people who work in NY live in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. They'd be screaming in the streets if they had to go through a passport check to get to work.

More seriously though, open borders do create a security issue. With all the technology we have you'd think they'd find some way to solve this problem.

Lizzy,
I have to say that I don't know it. The last time I had to show my passport was last year when we went to the UK, and it wasn't stamped. Two years ago we flew to Barcelona and had to show our passports and tgey weren't stamped. But to travel within the EU you don't actually a need a passport but an identity card which can't be stamped.

The last time I travelled outside the EU was in 1999 (before my kids were born), we went to L.A., did a tour of the Southwest of the US. Our passports were stamped, but I don't know it now...

In the UK we are moving very swiftly to technology-driven passport control and security.

For instance, we now have electronic passports that take your photo as well as checking records when you go through passport control.

So, for instance, if I go from a UK airport to anywhere in the world, apart from everything going through a scanner as normal, you are screened (in my case often have a bit of a problem with underwired bras!) but everything is automated.

When I get back, the same system reversed, and when you leave the airport to get on a train, there is cctv on all platforms and outside stations. People may complain if for instance they're also spotted on a double yellow line trying to pick someone up and then get fined, but it works from a safety point of view.

We don't have ID cards here.

To be honest, I would rather be a little inconvenienced for the sake of my own safety, so I don't have an issue with any of it and that includes border controls

carolhathaway wrote:Donna,
yes, that's what really worries me.
And Austria - like Germany - has just borders to other EU countries. So building up fences at the borders means the end of the Schengen Agreement...

This would make a real change in travelling. My kids don't know borders and border controls. We usually go to Denmark on our summer holiday, and you just realize that you've crossed a border because there are signs. When we went to Britain last year it was the first time that they actually needed to show their passports, that was in Calais, and we had crossed three borders before,,,

But I think that's just unconvenient for us. For the economy it would mean a real damage because trucks transport goods all around Europe (maybe it would at least stop transporting animals for thousands of miles).

Well, as a EU citizen myself I have managed to travel across only one border without a passport whole schengen time. From denmark to sweden driving over the bridge. If I had taken a ferry, then passport needed. 

I have seen huge, days long truck queues in Austria and Germany borders. Whenever I go to Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or even my homecountry I do travel quite a bit, I always need to show papers, always. Not a problem. So does my dog

Because of schengen we see a lot of unfit transports/ trucks etc. sicksacking everywhere in europe. Drivers can drive 24h non-stop, no checks, carrying whatever... chemicals, animals...this is the other issue, for sure.

Totally agree, Carly, and it's a massive problem.

The principle of it as far as business is concerned must have seemed like a massive plus, and I suspect the big business lobbyists were hard at work.

But you can't help wondering if the beauracrats with their busy lives, full diaries and chauffeur driven cars who make the decisions are somewhat removed from the reality........and the now tenuous advantages

I heard today that the Austrian far right populist presidential candidate Norbert Hofer lost the election by about 30,000 votes.  The guy seems like a Trump wanna-be.  Although he's probably is smarter.  

A sigh of relief by many in that country?  Hoping that's a good sign of what will happen in the US come November.

Donna,
I'm actually very glad that Austria didn't get a right-wing president even tgat he just lost to about 30,000 votes.

I have to explain that - not like the US president - Austria (like Germany) devide the jobs the US president has: The president represents the country, does state visits, signs agreements, appoints and dismisses ministers etc. He doesn't rule the country, that's the chancellor's job. You could compare his jobs with the Queen's jobs in the UK.

BUT since he's also a sort of moral instance, it's very important what he says and does. In Germany we've had very good and also not so good presidents, and that's the same in Austria (well, I guess everywhere in the world ).
And since the right-wing candidate said a lot about refugees, immigrants and the EU AND was voted by nearly 50 % of the voters, I think the country is divided. The election campaign left a lot of scorched earth since you can't deny what was said. I've said it a few times about Trump: What happens to the people who vote for him? The ones he represents? They feel that somebody understands their fears, and they will soon discover that their hopes won't become true - either because (hopefully) he will loose the elections or he won't fulfill his pledges (welcone to reality). The tone within our society has changed very quickly. Things seem to be allowed to be said which hadn't been allowed for decades. I don't know who started that but it seems to be a worldwide phenomen.
And I think that that's very sad. And at least Austria and Germany should be very careful about that since they / were responsible for a horrible war after somebody found a whole religion was responsible fof all the evil in the world...

Right carolhathaway it is worrisome what happens after such a divisive election. I think it's incumbent upon the newly elected officials to be sensitive to the issues and the fears that many people harbor. This will certainly be a problem for our new president to address after the election. Assuming Trump does not win. You can't ignore that section of the electorate and their grievances. I don't know how our government will handle this after the election. There seems to be a sense of desperation in our country that I personally don't see or feel but yet it must be there. Sanders and Trump are exploiting those feelings.

After the election our Congress will still probably be deeply divided so getting important legislation passed will be a challenge. And if we don't start working on reinventing our economy to benefit the lower and middle income groups our country will become more divided. It is critical that Congress does its job. It has under President Obama refused to pass an immigration bill. A jobs program bill has languished in Congress.

I have really been hugely disappointed in my country during this election. It appears that racism and bigotry is far more prevalent in the US than I thought. The lack of civility towards others has increased to a great extent thanks to social media. I also feel that our media, with some exceptions, has done an inadequate and reckless job of covering Donald Trump. It has played a key role in legitimizing his candidacy.

These turbulent times always run in cycles. So I'm cautiously optimistic.