Deportation of Sakchai Makao (Mark II) - ** News Thread **

[CarolineB]

Good Luck for tonights Fund Raiser

Shetland For Sakchai Edinburgh Gig

Start Time: 8:00 PM

Location: Medina's

 

 

£4 on the door

Bands playing are all very well established Edinburgh acts

Shrinking Violet, 10:04s, Little Pebble etc

[Polarbear]

I have not received many replies from MPs, however David Cameron's office was one that I did receive a response from.

 

Dear Mr

 

Thank you for your further email,

 

As Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron follows the convention of only signing Early Day Motions which have been tabled on behalf of or in cooperation with the Conservative Party.

 

Thank you again for writing.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Beal

Correspondence Secretary

David Cameron's Office

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA

 

Seems like he didn't sign it because Alistair did not table it on behalf of the Conservative Party!!

 

That makes it all the clearer that his interpretation of this "convention" between the party leaders is rather different to Ming's understanding of it. If they will have all these unwritten rules...!

[rangerover]

One of several replies, mostly supportive, perhaps this one requires a little more attention.

 

 

 

hugh4fmk@tiscali.co.uk

 

Thank you for sending an email to Hugh Robertson, Member of Parliament for Faversham and Mid Kent.

 

If you are writing as one of his constituents could you please ensure that you include your name and address, so he can send you a written response?

Please be aware that MPs can only represent their own constituents.

 

Emails are treated in the same manner and with the same level of importance as other constituency communications by post, telephone and fax. The volume of email and post is considerable so please accept that this has to be prioritized and you will be sent a full reply as soon as possible.

 

Best wishes. Angela Stainton-James It is not at all helpful and is a perfect

example of why the system has descended into such chaos.

[hjt]

One of several replies, mostly supportive, perhaps this one requires a little more attention.

 

 

Thank you for sending an email to Hugh Robertson, Member of Parliament for Faversham and Mid Kent.

 

If you are writing as one of his constituents could you please ensure that you include your name and address, so he can send you a written response?

Please be aware that MPs can only represent their own constituents.

 

Emails are treated in the same manner and with the same level of importance as other constituency communications by post, telephone and fax. The volume of email and post is considerable so please accept that this has to be prioritized and you will be sent a full reply as soon as possible.

 

 

 

I've had a few responses from MPs - looks like a standard, meaningless, phrase they all use. Having e-mailed well over 200 MPs it's disappointing how few do respond.

 

Feeling REALLY vexed for Sakchai today as I dread he's maybe sitting at Sumburgh waiting for the fog to lift. Hope I'm wrong!

[mary doll]

Sakchai, James & Joe are now in Aberdeen having flown from Scatsta. They will be getting the 16:22 train to Newcastle this afternoon.

 

Its a great relief to know they have made it off island. Best wishes to the whole posse.

 

x x x

[derick]

Sakchai, James & Joe are now in Aberdeen having flown from Scatsta. They will be getting the 16:22 train to Newcastle this afternoon.

 

Its a great relief to know they have made it off island. Best wishes to the whole posse.

 

x x x

 

Good!

They'll be fine.

Keep an eye on the longer game though.

derick

[breeksy]

Yes, Scatsta stepped in when Sakchai, Joe and James couldn't fly through Sumburgh and let them fly free of charge - it's great that the local support for this cause goes this far, as it does have to be an exceptional case that Scatsta will allow non-qualifying flyers travel.

[montfield man]

Brilliant to hear that Scatsta came to the rescue.

 

The "Shetland for Sakchai" bank account is now up and running.

 

If anyone wants to make a donation or has funds to pay-in, it is at the Bank of Scotland, 117 Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland, the sort code number is 80-08-82.

 

The bank ccount name is "Shetland for Sakchai".

[JustMe]

That is good to hear.....one of the things that worried me was Sakchai getting fog bound in Shetland and some stuffed shirt of a Judge ruling that he was in contempt of court by not turning up ontime.

[BlackEagle]

Along with the usual “out of office†or auto-response emails, several encouraging emails have come from the Conservative side of things.

 

Dear ...

Very many thanks for this. I am happy to look up this EDM with a view to supporting it.

Best wishes.

Tony (Baldry)

 

Dear ...

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to e-mail me raising you thoughts over the issue of Sakchai Makao.

 

It is not often that events in Shetland make such headlines the strength of feeling about Sakchai’s case can only be a testimony to the welcoming community that is the Shetland Islands. I apologise that the Conservative Party haven’t voiced as much concern as you would have liked, although unfortunately so very often it is less a case of issues not mentioned, and more a case of not reported. My colleague and fellow MSP for the Highlands & Islands, Jamie McGriggor raised the issue of Sakchai in a debate at the Scottish Parliament recently calling on the Home Office to allow him to stay, and lambasting its operational effectiveness.

 

It is disappointing that whilst we are striving to integrate migrants into the local community, we have a situation where a migrant, who is now a fellow Shetlander, becomes the victim of a shambolic immigration system now desperately trying to restore confidence through populist headlines.

 

I very much hope that Sakchai will continue to live out his life in his new home of the Shetland islands and both him and the islands be used as an example of how successful migration can be to our communities.

 

I appreciate you raising these points with me, and if there is anything else you would like to discuss at all, please do not hesitate in taking the time to contact me again.

 

Kind regards,

Dave Petrie

 

Thank you very much for your kind message

M Crawshay-Williams

Boris Johnson's Office

 

I have replied encouraging them to sign the EDM. A couple have said they won't look into it unless someone from thier constituency tells them about it. My response to these has been along the lines of:

 

"I greatly appreciate your response. This situation regarding Sakchai Makao and the Home Office should interest many MP's. People from Shetland have been contacting MP's across the board to encourage their interest in this issue, and many from various parties have signed the EDM as a result regardless of their constituencies. There is a conspicuous absence of Conservative MP's on the list of signers and I personally am disappointed by that. I believe the Conservative party in particular should be taking note of this and responding to it."

[Polarbear]

EDM DAILY UPDATE

 

Support for EDM 2373 reaches 100

 

2 more Lib Dem MP's have registered today:

 

Laws, David

Oaten, Mark

 

The breakdown of the 100 is:

 

Conservative Party 2

Democratic Unionist Party 1

Labour Party 30

Liberal Democrats 57

Plaid Cymru 2

Respect 1

Scottish National Party 6

Social Democratic and Labour Party 1

 

Page 30 amended.

 

Best wishes,

[Polarbear]

Extract from AC quoted in today's 'Shetland Times' to encourage you:

 

"The online community Shetlink have played an important part in raising the profile of this case among MPs. I know that colleagues have been impressed by the support they have shown to Sakchai and I have no doubt that this has helped to increase the number of MPs prepared to support this motion.â€

 

[Thanks, Alistair! - and to peeriebryan and his merry band for running the platform that makes it all possible]

[BlackEagle]

Thanks, Polarbear for the great work on stats and keeping us up to date on the Westminster side of things.

 

There's another good article in today's P & J.

[DavieG]

Hi everybody

 

And thanks for all the great work still going on. Cheers again Polar Bear for all your over and above work and great to see the EDM is still growing strong.

 

Will get a full retort to you all tomorrow hopefully, well most of you anyway, but suffice to say am keeping in touch with everything as best as I can.

 

In Tasmania at the moment so internet access is pretty limited but keeping in touch with all the main players at the moment by phone if all else fails.

 

I'm really glad the good luck rally went so well on Tuesday given that it was, of course a muc more personal thing than the previous one held in Clickimin. Just goes to show.....

 

Press interest is still high and I've been doing interviews most of the week of and on with people like Radio Five Live, Radio 4 Today and twice for the BBC World Service which gives us global profile too. One interview was as part of a panel on the wider immigration issues so that seemed to give the the wider more incorporating angle that we have of course been discussing. Lets hope that this case, as we mentioned earlier and so often, can have wider spin off's for others too. From the content of the interview it seemed that this case had been a 'light bulb above the head' for many others so - result in that respect.

 

I see the papers are still doing their bit too. The Observer did a great piece on Sunday and Lesley Riddoch had a good piece in the Herald today I'm told. More to come tomorrow and undoubtedly Saturday I am assured.

 

Interest is still growing with Friday being so close so lets hope for the best there from all angles. I / we might be a few thousand mile away but our thoughts and hearts are very much with everyone, especially Satch of course and all fingers etc are crossed.

 

Thanks to Montfield Man for keeping you up to speed with the eventual opening of the bank account and sorry for the unavoidable delay there. Good to have it all official.

 

In the meantime thanks again so much to you all for everything and all the marvellous and ongoing, never-flagging support. We are not out of the woods yet but lets hope that there is some light at the end of this long and dark tunnel at least.

 

As I say will get back to you all in more detail asap. In the meantime cheers everybody and fingers crossed.

 

Finally just in case he's reading this - all the very best to you Sakchai for Friday. Me, Arlene, Michael and Richie are all holding our breath but equally believe that real justice MUST be done and we will soon have you home for good. That will be a great day I can assure you.

 

Davie

[Brian]

Norman Geras is still covering the campaign most days:

 

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2006/07/baton_twirlers_.html

 

Fingers etc. crossed for friday.

 

Brian