Peter wrote:
the extremely generous UK welfare system
It can’t even remotely be compared with Denmark and Sweden which are really generous.
Possibly but a) do you get it easily without a work/residence history and b) do you need to learn a language which is really unusual in the world, and probably totally unheard of where most people are coming from. On item b) look at the vast media exposure to English, especially of the young people who form the majority of those making the journey.
And actually most immigrants do want to work (if I want my car washed around here, it will be some Romanians, and my whole family came from Czechoslovakia and we all worked without drawing £1 of benefits, ever) but the language is a key factor because you can’t work (except in some underground sweat factory making garments… yeah there are those too, run within the India/Pakistan community, but not all that relevant to modern immigration flows) if you can’t speak. My family chose England primarily for that reason. I did an English and German evening course, aged 11, 1968) and found English far easier of those two. That is equivalent to today’s automatic media exposure which – worldwide – is by far predominantly American/English. My parents could speak English, German, Russian, and additionally for my father Spanish, Italian, French, Portugese, god knows what else… My sister was 4 years younger… So the decision to come to England was done right there, a no-brainer. And this is a common sentiment.
Also the British people are very accepting of anybody. The old John Cleese “bloody foreigner” comedies are 1970s and depicting even earlier times. Whereas much of Europe is still rather like that; integration is hard. If you plan to have a family one day, you want to be accepted by the local community.
This is on the topic of Schengen and why the UK is not in it, and how the GAR form system deals with this effectively.
Got an email from Oban. They are closed until 5th Jan…
We have a COA for Oban which was issued in December 2023. It appeared a few airport seem to be missing from the published list. Coll and Colonsay will not be getting COA as both airport are only manned for the PSO schedule. Both islands don’t have any police to carrying out spot checks if required.
I emailed asking what “PSO schedule” is.
Got an email from Oban.
Thanks for doing that. I intended to do the same but I’m traveling at the moment and it’s hard to write a proper email from a phone.
So unfortunately now if I want to fly to Colonsay I’ve got two extra landing fees and some extra flying. That is I need to fly to past Colonsay to Oban then back to Colonsay and enjoy my stay. Then fly back to Oban and then back to Dublin.
What a waste. The islands were really great because with an out-of-hours permit I could come and go anytime I liked with just the gar form. Not anymore unfortunately.
Peter wrote:
Possibly but a) do you get it easily without a work/residence history and b) do you need to learn a language which is really unusual in the world, and probably totally unheard of where most people are coming from. On item b) look at the vast media exposure to English, especially of the young people who form the majority of those making the journey.
You’ll do very well with English in Denmark and Sweden. In fact, English works so well that many immigrants (at least in my line of work) never bother to learn Swedish properly. If you try speaking bad Swedish to a Swede, chances are (s)he switches to quite good English. I have colleagues who have been in Sweden for 25+ years – some with kids raised here – and still prefer to speak English with Swedes.
Another email from Oban:
it’s our scheduled flight between Oban, Coll, Colonsay and Tiree. PSO is Public services obligation, basically the flights are subsidised by the government to connect the island communities a bit like the ferries.
I believed you will still be able to travel to Coll and Colonsay from Northern / Southern Ireland as detailed in Annex B – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659420d3579941000d35a799/GOV.UK_GA_Guidance_0201.pdf
at least in my line of work
For sure – you are in the top few % of education achievement, and (as I know from much business with Sweden and that area) these people speak good English – actually in most of Europe, even if in some countries they don’t want to.
This is however much less so in casual/manual jobs. In general you can’t get any job unless you speak the local language. And also remember “perception is everything” when you are making a long journey from your home country, to somewhere largely unknown, and all you have is your Iphone and whatever you find on that.
I believed you will still be able to travel to Coll and Colonsay from Northern / Southern Ireland as detailed in Annex B
Southern Ireland? 
Anyway, he is wrong with that. Annex B merely lists the notification / GAR requirements. But these of course presuppose that the airfield used is approved for the flight in question (Annex E).
Somebody needs to contact whoever is in charge up there, because clearly not even airport managers can work it out!
They would have to clarify a lof of things, but historically, they never did clarify anything, so I guess a lot of things will remain unclear.
What about this:
1. Do they mean calling from in-flight? The context suggests so.
2. Does that mean they require flights planned to any non-designated (but CoA) aerodromes to plan a designated aerodrome as alternate in the ATS flightplan? That would be new. And you MUST divert to that one, not another designated one (unless “unable”) ?
And why submit a new report after having already diverted to a non-designated aerodrome? Calling local Border Force makes sense though.
Clearly, the people drafting this get absolutely no counsel from aviation experts….
