So. Refugee Street.

As it has across much of Europe and America in the past year or so the migration/refugee crisis has become an extremely fashionable political football here in the UK.

The cause de jour for liberals wishing to show how caring they are has become the so-called Dubs Amendment (to the 2016 Immigration Bill). Named after its author Alfred Lord Dubs - who himself arrived as a child refugee from Nazi Occupied Czechoslovakia - this obligates the British government to admit and support 3,000 child refugees.

This passed into law in June 2016. However the British government has rather dragged its feet in actually putting the policy into practice.

Matters have been sped up by France's plans to close the so-called "Jungle" migrant squatters camp in Calais which has been taking place throughout this week.

So after the past 8 days coachloads of refugees have been arriving from France to a Home Office reception centre in South London. Some of the journalists who were there to witness the first arrivals quickly noticed that some of these children were distinctly adult looking. So more journalists turned up along with first pro-refugee protesters and then anti-refugee protesters along with lots more journalists to cover the protests.

The thing is this reception centre is about a kilometre/mile from my house. From that reception centre the refugees were transferred to a local accommodation centre. That accommodation centre isn't so much within walking distance of my house as between my house and places I would normally walk to. The pub for example.

Where I live has been the main port of call in the UK for Asylum Seekers/Refugees along with other more conventional immigrants probably since the passing of the 1967 Protocol to the Status of Refugees. In fact the political asylum system is probably the town's main employer. As a result people around here tend to talk about the refugees like you talk about the weather. In the sense that sometimes it's heavy and sometimes it's light. But it's always there.

It must be said though that as I was at the pub on Tuesday (25/10/16) it struck me - probably for the first time - just how many refugees there were.

I think the main reason for this is that normally asylum seekers/refugees (it's where their status is decided) arrive at the accommodation centre from all over the World on their own or at most in twos. As a result they tend to be as baffled by each other and the local population as the local population is by them. Due to the closure of the Calais camp suddenly we've got loads of young men - all certainly under 20 - who've clearly known each other for years. As a result they really stand out as a distinct bloc.

From experience I know that following their initial arrival this very large group will be broken down into smaller groups - often of one - and then dispersed around the country. For this week or so though I think everybody's feeling a bit over loaded and slightly unnerved. Even people who themselves arrived as refugees.

Today my mother came up and we went out to lunch. Due to the influx of refugees - or more specifically the protesters and journalists - we actively avoided going into the town centre.

It may surprise you to learn that basically this was the main topic of conversation.

17:05 on 28/10/16 (UK date).

Edited at around 10:30 on 30/10/16 (UK date) to add;

Seeing as I'm wrapping up local news.

Longterm readers will know that I've long had problems with a Housing Association - Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT) - who own and rent out the property directly next to mine with which I share an adjoining wall. They've recently purchased the property directly behind mine and move some Italian tenants in. Obviously they seem to be getting a little bit cocky.

One thing that may be adding to their arrogance is the refugee influx. Although they receive a grant from central government every year my local authority spends £/$150million on just child refugees/asylum seekers. The majority of that money is spent on accommodation costs meaning that the money basically just goes straight into the bank accounts of the NHHT. With them being large donors of the UK Labour Party that does make you wonder just how altruistic the Labour Party's refugee stance actually is.

On Tuesday (25/10/16) and Wednesday (26/10/16) the tenants on the other side of the adjoining wall started playing very loud music. This was so loud that even my father who is deaf was disturbed by it. So we decided that one of us had to knock on their door and ask them to turn it down. This of course is the house that had its front windows smashed in back in 2013 leading to me being arrested and maliciously prosecuted. So my father went.

On reflection I think they rather innocently brought a new stereo system and put the speakers up against the adjoining wall without thinking. However on Wednesday night it wasn't so much the volume as the pressure changes caused by the bass affecting the fluid in my ears. That does not encourage calm decision making. Particularly with the amount their CD skips making it hard to believe someone's actually listening to it to enjoy the music.

The whole thing does rather grate because a large part of the manifesto that the Conservative Party used to win the 2015 General Election included provisions to dismantle housing associations exactly like the NHHT.

Signing their assets over to me would certainly help settle a debt. Shutting them down would simply be in the public good.

Also I've remembered that over dinner my mother mentioned that her local authority have recently been holding a tourist enticing music festival. As part of that she along with my other mother went to see a production of Puccini's "Tosca." We got a good 20 minutes of conversation out of that.

The big talking point being that as a semi-amateur production staged by local people they had great trouble finding a blunt, prop dagger to use during the production. Being unable to find a proper prop dagger they used a blunt ceremonial dagger volunteered by someone whose father had been awarded it during the Second World War. What this person initially failed to mention was that their father was German.

So the direction to the actor went along the lines of; "Don't stab anyone. And for god's sake hide the swastika!"

The point being that rather than being some summit of grand political significance this was just two people who vaguely like each other making small talk over lunch.

Demonstrating though that apparently no detail of my life can be considered too inane I should confirm that on Thursday October 11th (11/10/16) I got a carpenter in to fix the main staircase in my house. As a result I went out to get a new watch battery fitted and finally relented and brought an "Oyster" card. I didn't mention it at the time because frankly at that point I was just trying to come up with excuse not to go home.

In light of this recent round of shed fires I get the impression though that Mr Tayto would like me to mention a TV Show called "The Missing" which is broadcast on BBC1 on Wednesday night's in the prime 9pm slot.

The first season was apparently well received even though I missed it completely. This second season is rather hard to talk about because rather than telling a story it tells different parts of a number of different stories.

I think there's the story of French girl that was abducted in 2004. Then there's the story of a British Army brat who was abducted in Germany in 2006. Then there's the story of the British girl returning to her family in 2014. Finally there's the story of the initial French detective still pursuing the case in modern day Iraqi Kurdistan.

Personally I think this is all just a gimmick to cover up the writers lack of talent. As they can't write a story that will hold your attention for a season they instead tell you little bits of lots of stories in each episode in the hope that by hiding crucial details you won't notice just how thin each story actually is.

The bits set in Iraqi Kurdistan really p*sses me off though. I'm constantly sitting there going;

"The Peshmerga's uniforms, equipment and insignia are all wrong. The current frontlines are nowhere near where they are on the show. And, oh yeah, This is blatantly filmed in Morocco."

Anyway I hope that helped.

11:15 on 30/10/16 (UK date).

Edited again at around 18:30 on 30/10/16 (UK date) to add: Yeah, One more thing.

The NHHT also own another rental property directly to the north-east of my, at this point let's go with; "Compound." This property has a tree in its garden.

Rather demonstrating that they are the parasitic scum of the earth despite hoovering up taxpayers cash to maintain this property the NHHT are singularly failing to maintain it. So this tree has grown to the point where it is damaging one of the structures on the prime development land that I currently possess. It is also damaging structures on the property of one of my neighbours who now finds himself trapped between NHHT rental properties.

So met with a surprising burst of energy my father decided to trim this tree back to the property line. As a result much as I enjoyed lunch with my mother it did deny my the opportunity to get drunk and muck about with a chainsaw.

My mother has one of those decorative wood burning stoves that have become fashionable of late. So with her visiting as we suddenly had lots of logs we did offer if she would like to take the logs. She also allegedly has new Turkish neighbours who after a summer visit to Turkey was apparently instructed - by the mother-in-law - that they should do more to raise their pre-pubescent daughters in the Islamic tradition such as wearing the Hijab. Obviously though I would like the opportunity to warm my hands before making a full issue out of that.

With my mother declining the logs due to black carbon concerns my father has decided to burn the logs within the confines of the compound. Not only did he display absolutely no concern for the fact that neighbours may have had their washing on the line he displayed absolutely no concern for the fact I had my washing on the line.

So in summary;

It turns out my lesbian mother no longer wants my father's wood. Make of that what you will.

18:50 on 30/10/16 (UK date).