Yay Bureaucrats

[Timber Loftis]

Dan Snow, a British naval historian and TV host, saw the near-total shutdown of aviation in Europe as the perfect opportunity to rediscover the grit and spirit his fellow Britons displayed during the battle of Dunkirk. In World War II, a huge flotilla of small boats volunteered to rescue the British Army in France, saving it to fight another day.

With perfect weather, Mr. Snow set off from Dover yesterday with a squadron of five speedboats to pick up some 500 of his fellow Brits unable to find seats on the ferries running from the French port of Calais. Mr. Snow had cleared the operation with officials at the French embassy in London, but apparently one bureaucratic cubicle hadn't talked to the other. As his boats started boarding passengers in Calais, a dozen French border guards arrived, ordered everyone off and searched the vessels. After much argument, Mr. Snow was allowed to leave with only 25 passengers and a promise not to return for more.

The French have remained resolute in the face of complaints about their attitude. "There is no possibility of boats simply arriving in Calais and inviting strangers to return to Britain on them," an immigration ministry official in Paris told the Daily Mail.

If the shutdown of Europe's airspace continues, Britain's Royal Navy may be called on to convert its vessels into emergency passenger ferries. But that will take time to organize, leaving thousands of Britons with no easy way home. Mr. Snow's improvised flotilla could have helped, and no doubt arrangements to have arriving passengers cleared through immigration control could have been made. But in today's centralized Europe, the immediate response of any bureaucrat to a proposed private sector solution is an automatic "Non."

[by John Fund]

[wellard]

Bureaucrats are like this all over the world .... But it's good to see that the *cheese eating surrender monkeys* bureaucrats are on top form. I say the English should ban French fries and call them 'freedom chips'

Of course if it was a lorry full of illeagal immigrants from Algiers they would wave them across the border on to the ferry and give them a packed lunch and a bottle of vino to boot.

*walks off speaking in a ridiculous accent, monty python style*

[wellard]

More on the royal navy plans to evacuate Britons from Europe back to safety

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8629392.stm

[VulcanRider]

Sounds like the only time the French are satisfied is when somebody sends their Navy to get the foreigners out of their country...

[John D Harris]

ROTHFLMAO Bureaucrats... just gotsta love... Lord knows it won't do any good to shoot'em, they breed faster then you can make bullets.

[Chewbacca]

People can be such ash-holes!