Readers fed up with funding France while borders stay broken

In MetroTalk: readers vent about paying France to stop the boats and a rail system that feels like a bad B&B. (Credits: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.

Leaving the EU made Channel crossings harder to stop

The number of asylum seekers arriving across the Channel has significantly increased since Brexit (Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Former Conservative home secretary James Cleverly and Reform leader Nigel Farage blame the government for the number of Channel crossings.

The number of asylum seekers arriving across the Channel has significantly increased since 2023.

Britain left the EU on January 31, 2020. Under the so-called Dublin Convention, European law had allowed Britain to send requests to other mainland countries to take charge of or to take back asylum applications. Britain no longer has the power to ask France, or any other mainland European country to take back asylum seekers.

Both Mr Cleverly and Mr Farage advocated we leave the EU and the protection afforded by The Dublin Convention. Fi O’Connor, Broadstairs
(On The English Channel)

Frustration with privatised rail profits

Robert James (MetroTalk, Tue) is correct to say that there will always be problems on the railway network, whether it is government or privately operated.

What sticks in most people’s throats the most, however, is individuals creaming off huge profits and bonuses at the expense of a shoddy service. As we have seen with the water debacle.

It just seems worse somehow when it is privately owned.

It’s a bit like staying at a B&B and being told there is no breakfast and the hot water and heating is intermittent, only to then see the owner five minutes later in the hallway with their holiday cases packed. Ta-ra, I’ll send you a postcard. Dec, Essex

Trump is like Mount Etna

A reader makes a comparison between Musk and Mount Etna which erupted in Sicily yesterday (Picture: Salvatore Allegra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Mount Etna has had a bit of an eruption with a lot of noise, smoke and a ‘code red’ warning. There is certainly the potential for far more destruction and without any real warning.

Etna is nature’s version of Donald Trump, a lot of hot air and very destructive with no way to control what comes next.

Etna could keep erupting on and off forever, whereas Trump only has about three-and-a-half years to cause damage – but that might still be enough time to mess up the US, its economy, its medical and education system along with many other aspects of the country. Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

Is Musk misunderstood, rather than malevolent?

This wasn’t a Nazi salute he was clearly just gesturing his thanks to the crowd (Picture: by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

The letter from Stephen Spark (MetroTalk, Mon) attacking Elon Musk for his cuts to US government spending cannot go unchallenged.

People like him jump on the bandwagon of narrow-minded hatred toward a certain individual, oblivious of the bigger picture.

They don’t understand that sometimes drastic measures are required if something is to change… for the better!

Mr Musk did exactly that. There will always be casualties as a consequence but that’s the sad reality of getting out of the bad position and into a better one.

Would it have been better, as Mr Spark seems to suggest, for the US to continue with the terrible level of money being wasted? I also find it disingenuous when people like him say things regarding Mr Musk and the chainsaw – used as a prop to represent the amount of money he was going to chop from the state budget. What’s wrong with a little larking about?

Also, the matter of the ‘Nazi salute’ given by Mr Musk at the Trump rally is nothing short of pathetic – the man was merely giving thanks to everyone by indicating ‘to everyone’ with a common arm and hand gesture. Suddenly that’s a ‘Nazi salute’ by Mr Musk haters. No, it wasn’t! There’s a lack of intelligence going on there – and unreasonable hatred.

I’m not a great fan of Mr Musk but
I don’t loathe him either. I look at things rationally, unlike some other people. It would behove them to do the same and society would be all the better for it. Richard Row, Harborne