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news
Refugees Welcome.PNG“Refugees Welcome” – British cyclists complete world’s largest GPS artwork
A pair of cyclists from the UK have finished what is the world’s largest GPS artwork, riding 2,200 kilometres to sketch out the words “Refugees Welcome” across southern England.
Georgie Cottle, 27, and David Charles, 39, undertook the challenge to raise funds for the charity, Choose Love with their total currently standing at more than £50,000.
The pair, who set out on their journey a month ago, have smashed the previous record of 761km.
“We chose to spell out ‘Refugees Welcome’ across this region because this is the biggest entry point for asylum seekers reaching the UK,” said Georgie.
“To finish the last letter in Dover felt very symbolic and sends a message of compassion to those arriving here.
“The challenge has been in response to what’s been happening in Afghanistan, and also Priti Patel and the UK government’s monstrous overhaul of the asylum system.
“The new policies will put the country in direct opposition to the 1951 Geneva Convention by shutting down more of the few remaining legal routes to the UK.”
“The south of England is hillier than you might think, so it’s certainly been a challenge” she continued.
“I spent my 27th birthday cycling out the ‘O’ of in Welcome, so that was really cool.
“But the challenges have definitely been overcome by the amount of amazing people we’ve met on the route and we’ve had a further 35 people sign up to help us finish the challenge.
“Everyone’s been so supportive and even in places we haven’t been sure they’d support our cause, they really have.
“Normal people, like us, really do just want to help to try to do something to help people in need,” she added.
On their fundraising page, the pair set out the reasons behind the challenge, saying: “The British government is trying to make it almost impossible for refugees to claim asylum in the UK.
“Home Secretary Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill is putting the UK in direct opposition to the 1951 Geneva Convention by shutting down even more legal routes to asylum in this country. Incredibly, it will also criminalise the courageous, life-saving work of the RNLI.
“That's why we're getting back on our bikes, cycling really really far and fundraising for grassroots organisations that offer refugees the welcome that our government withholds.”
They also wrote of their own personal reasons for taking on the challenge.
“I have been a keen bean cyclist since I was 19 and found myself cycling the length of America, sort of by accident,” Georgie said.
“Since then I have explored much of Scotland, Wales and New Zealand with my trusty Raleigh Capri (called ‘Sunny’).
“I first got involved volunteering with refugee and asylum seeker communities while studying Arabic in Jordan in 2016, at the height of the crisis. I learned one heck of a lot about what it meant to be a 'refugee', what people had to give up and why people were forced to flee.
“I now work with refugee and asylum seeker communities in Glasgow and it seems that people's journeys are being made ever more difficult by governments here in the UK and in Europe.
“Spell It Out is an incredible challenge that I am so privileged to be a part of. We are both really looking forward to getting on the road, and rallying as much support as possible for Choose Love!”
David said: “I've been going on ridiculously long bike rides for ten years now, including two stints on the London to Athens relay with Thighs of Steel.
“For me, bikes are the ultimate freedom machine, carrying me across continents, powered by nothing more than a croissant (or seven). I have also seen the transformational potential of bikes when put into the hands of refugees and asylum seekers, both here in the UK and in places like Calais, Athens, Chios and Samos.
“Bikes give us both independence and community and I'm proud to use mine in solidarity with those fleeing persecution, conflict and torture.
“I've been so lucky that I've been able to travel freely around the world, thanks only to the freak chance of being born in a politically stable, wealthy country. The sheer injustice that some human beings aren't allowed to cross borders makes me furious and anger is an energy, right? I hope so, because I've got an awful lot of cycling to do!
“We are far from powerless,” he added. “Please donate generously, make a noise and show the world that refugees are always welcome here.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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87 comments
Dickens? So not many centuries, then?
Wikipedia has a couple of references before Dickens, going back to 1604
Oh, OK...
Those earlier references don't seem to be using it in the same way, though - seems to be more just a stereotyped description of Westphalians. Whereas Dickens seems to be using it in a way much closer to the current meaning.
Of course, that doesn't mean he coined it - a lot of things attributed to Dickens (and similarly Shakespeare) seem to turn out to be them just using phrases that were (or probably were) already around at the time.
It's interesting you mentioning Shakespeare as he gives a prime example of the use of an insult to denote temporary skin colour in Macbeth - "Thou cream-faced loon" to a servant who's white with terror, just as "gammon" refers to the propensity of a certain type of middle-aged male to go bright red in the face with rage; the idiotic suggestion of the earlier commenter who tried to claim it's a racist remark is arrant nonsense.
With one newspaper article, supposedly "Gammon" was the Victorian slang equivalent to Bullshit which is the reason for the term in Nich Nick. But is is strange that it is used against someone being very nationalist in his terms but I suppose "Bullshit" could be used when people claim they are happy for refugees to all come here when it is quite obvious the actual figure they want is 0 unless they are white and can pay their way and don't talk too foreign-like.
Oh... it would be too much to hope that someone could have come up with something original this century!
Thank you.
Gammon, like the female equivalent "Karen", is a racist term white males call each other when they are trying to impress their left-wing cronies. I believe it makes one feel really good about oneself. See also "virtue signalling".
p.s. genuine question: how many refugees are welcome? Please give a figure, not an insult.
Yeah, white male on white male racism, truly major social problem...not sure you've really thought that one through.
Honestly, this site gets more infested with rightist whackadoodle trolls by the day, did they have a secret meeting and decide to attack a decent site en masse or is the ever-increasing cycle hatred of their ilk drawing them automatically?
P.S. Gammon and Karen are not even close to being synonymous.
Yeah, at least one for every 100 Guardianistas.
And, as we don't like to discriminate, or put a number on the upper limit we are able to support, I say let's welcome every refugee on the planet to Britain. After all, refugees are welcome! 82.4 million enough for you (UNHCR statistic)?
My dear fellow, as you've just admitted in your own words that you are a rightist whackadoodle troll I see little profit in engaging with you any further.
So, no answers, just insults. How predictably left-wing...
I refer the "gentleman" to my previous answer.
Without supporting their comments, I think this is a bit of a misrepresentation. Even if you take what they wrote at face value (and ignore the heavy dose of sarcasm), all they said was that there was one rightist whackadoodle troll for every 100 Guardianistas. They didn't admit to falling in to one group or the other.
You're missing the use of the first person plural pronoun I think...
Different paragraph though. I'm pretty sure that's 'we [the commentariat]', rather than 'we [the rightist whackadoodle trolls]'.
Well so nice of you to invite them. Although you will be pleased to know that it is 30 millions who are refugees (seeking refuge elsewhere). The bulk of the rest are internally displaced, ie staying in their country but been displaced for some reason. So people like the Uighers in China would come under that or the Syrians whose town was destroyed in fighting but are staying in a camp still within the border until it is safe for them to return and rebuild.
And of the refugees, the vast majoirty then stay in a neighbouring country as it is probably closer to their culture and not a massive shock to go somewhere were people might hate them for the colour of their skin or wish their children had been left to drown.
But I'm glad you are so gracious to your fellow human beings on this planet. I'm sure you give lots to foreign aid worker charities, and let your MP know that you are against the goverment for reducing foreign aid to support these camps and introducing policies making it even harder to claim asylum and refuge in this country.
How many can we take then? Just give me a number!
As many as want to come. I've already mentioned that just because someone is seeking asylum doesn't meant they want to come here so I don't expect to have to force them.
However I'm happy you want 30 mil.
Has it occurred to you that your simplistic demand for "a number" is symptomatic of the inherent simple-mindedness of right wing politics?
Hmm are they a race though? If so, can I claim protection as a cyclist under anti-discrimination legislation, or do I have to develop some physical characteristic to do so (like bigger thighs, or bicycle face)?
As for how many are welcome - the answer is obviously "as many as we can if they are- or their children might be - handy with a football, tennis racket, trowel, stethoscope or even just home secretary material". Given I'm not in charge of the world or even the UK I don't get to decide how many are welcome so you can pick your own number too. Using "refugees" makes it hard even to get numbers on people arriving to date because all the stats divide people up along different lines (asylum claimants, "economic migrants" etc.). If it's a genuine question you might start here:
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-in-the-uk.html
https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-to-the-uk-asylum/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
I don't like the term Karen as the genuine real named Karens get tarnished with the same brush. Gammon on the other hand is just a generic term that has had multiple meanings as shown by the Wiki article (unless you happen to be a big UKIPPer going for the position of London Mayor in which case it did become a personified).
4 times as many as we take at the moment
Refugees or economic migrants? Big difference between the two groups but we seem to be taking boat loads of the latter at the mo (~800 per day). Perhaps the £50 grand raised from all this will be spent on bigger boats to come over from France?
I'm glad someone can tell the difference! It's even more impressive since although you see a big difference you haven't indicated how you've considered any evidence from the people concerned.
Good questions to ask would be "do immigrants (refugees or otherwise) provide benefits to this country? If so what are they? (Obviously we tend to focus on the direct financial but even if it costs us we still need carers and cleaners.) When do we get that benefit - do we get these mostly from recent migrants (we could charge for entry!) or do positives accrue over the years someone remains here? If the latter how long does it take on average for someone to make a positive contribution?". One source suggests that "it's a complicated picture" (too lazy to summarise their summary).
If you want to see an immediate positive financial benefit then sell passports to the rich. Unfortunately we already seem to have several informal schemes which offer various financial and social benefits to e.g. billionaire Russians but I'm not convinced all of that money is reaching the wider society.
Oh mate. "Gammon is racist"? Sooo 2016.
I'm a white, middle-aged man who's overweight but guess what? I'm not a Gammon because I don't espouse Gammon political views. Honestly, it's not hard.
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