Annecy: Je Suis Sick of This Shit

Four young children and two adults were attacked yesterday morning in a children’s playground near Lake Annecy, in France, by a knifeman, who jumped over the fence and deliberately stabbed them. The ages of the children are between one and three; one of them has British nationality, one is Dutch and the rest are French. There have been reports that two of the children and one adult are in a life-threatening condition, while the other two children were only slightly injured.

To say that this is absolutely horrific is an understatement, and if you have not seen the video, I urge you not to watch it. What would compel a man on a summer’s day, in a tranquil area where people are trying to enjoy themselves, to walk into a playground and stab innocent children and their carers? A children’s playground is supposed to be a place of safety. If our children are not safe here, they are no longer safe anywhere. How will these children and their families ever relax again after this?

The attacker is a 31-year-old Syrian, who had refugee status in Sweden. It is not clear what he was doing in France but, of course, Europe’s borders are no barrier to movement. It appears he came from a war-torn country, where there is strife, and brought that violence with him. Sadly, we are not strangers to this kind of terrible act in the UK.

In January, an asylum seeker stabbed a young British man to death, and we later found out that he had already killed two people in Serbia. There is no doubt that this man escaped from his country, travelled to Britain and carried on doing what he presumably thinks is ‘normal’. Another example was an Afghan refugee who stabbed a women to death during a sexual encounter in Belfast. A final example is the Sudanese man who was shot dead by police after stabbing six people during a rampage at the Park Inn Hotel in Glasgow. It is all well and good when the police arrest them or, in extreme circumstances shoot them, but this is a task they should not be facing if politicians did their jobs, and prevented these savages from entering our nations in the first place. After this recent attack, which could just as easily have been in a playground in the UK, perhaps our government will wake up to the dangers the citizenry are facing – but I wouldn’t hold your breath. 

It is not yet clear whether these murderous migrants are genuine asylum seekers who entered legally or if they washed up in a dinghy on the south east coast of England illegally. These details are rarely provided, and in any case, the British government treats both groups the same way: a warm blanket, a cup of tea and a comfortable hotel from which they can escape into the English countryside and disappear. I think we can safely assume that most of the murderers arrive on dinghies, having misplaced their identification and claiming to be much younger than they really are.

The only solution is to stop the boats and that is, apparently, what Rishi Sunak is working on. Given how effectively we stopped our own population from travelling and policed its movement during lockdown, it should be a piece of cake to stop people arriving illegally (you would think).

I can feel the ice beginning to crack under my feet for even stepping into this controversial area. But if someone arrives illegally, cannot be identified or is a known criminal, there seems to be only one solution. If we cannot stop them entering in the first place, we must send them straight back to where they came from.

My heart goes out to the victims, and to France which is still reeling from the last heinous murder of children. But until our politicians are forced to get serious about the consequences of their disastrous immigration policies, I’m afraid there’s no point putting the candles away any time soon. 

Jack Watson has a Substack newsletter called Ten Foot Tigers about being a Hull City fan. You can subscribe here.

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