July 30: Keeping our borders safe

It is a measure of how seriously what is developing into a crisis is being taken that the COBRA emergency committee met under the chairmanship of the Home Secretary yesterday to address the best way to tackle it.

For it must be tackled, and urgently. A tide of illegal migrants simply cannot be allowed to enter Britain by force, because if they succeeded the inevitable consequence would be that countless more would be emboldened to try.

The struggle to maintain effective border controls in Calais is a complex issue that needs to be addressed on several fronts, not the least of which is the closest possible co-operation between Britain and France.

Robust controls must be maintained at Calais at all costs. This is not just a matter for the French or Eurotunnel since the migrants are determined to reach Britain, and it is in this country’s interests for the Government to offer both financial support and additional manpower.

If the problem was allowed to cross the Channel to Dover, it would be that much more difficult to prevent migrants from vanishing into Britain.

In the longer term, if pitched battles at Calais are not to become commonplace, the issue of why migrants are determined to reach Britain – even at the risk of their own lives at the hands of unscrupulous criminal gangs of people smugglers – must be addressed.

A concerted effort to deter migrants from heading for the Channel ports in the first place needs to be mounted.

The message that Britain will not allow uncontrolled immigration has to be hammered home, not just in the migrant camps of Calais, but in the countries from which this tide of desperation is flowing.

Eastern promise

Global business goal

YORKSHIRE has historically looked to the world for trade, and so the Prime Minister’s call for investors in the Far East to come here is not just timely, but stands in a grand tradition.

This region is open for global business as never before, with increasing levels of investment from abroad producing prosperity and jobs.

Setting our sights on the vigorous economies of South East Asia is a shrewd strategic move.

The delegation that Mr Cameron is leading is promoting the Northern Powerhouse initiative, and business leaders from Leeds and Sheffield are among those making the case for Yorkshire.

They have much to offer investors – a thriving business community, a first-rate skilled workforce, and a can-do attitude likely to prove particularly appealing to economies that have grown spectacularly as a result of initiative and hard work.

The trade mission can also point to a fine track record of attracting major international investors to Yorkshire, the most recent of which, Sky, delivered a vote of confidence in the region earlier this week by choosing Leeds for its new cutting-edge digital hub.

That will bolster the confidence of companies from South East Asia considering investing here, as will the ambition and determination of our major industrial and business centres to make the Northern Powerhouse into a global player.

Let us hope the investors of the Far East take to heart what Mr Cameron and our business leaders are urging them to do. For if they do choose to invest in Yorkshire, they will not be disappointed.

Reaching out

Helping hand for the lonely

IT is a distressing statistic that one in five people over the age of 60 has nobody to whom they can turn in their loneliness.

The Yorkshire Post’s Loneliness: The Hidden Epidemic campaign has done much to highlight the plight in which too many people find themselves, and the devastating impact that isolation can have on their health.

The latest report from our partners on the issue, the Campaign to End Loneliness does, though, offer hope that sensible practical measures by councils, such as maintaining transport links, can help people stay connected to others.

Identifying areas of good practice in Leeds, where older people are supported and kept in touch is a way forward that can provide a model for other places and help tackle what has become a growing concern in this country.

Steps like these, involving community support and volunteers, need not cost much. But for those they help out of loneliness, they are priceless.