And once again the BBC fails to see the clear distinction between migrant and refugee, chopping and changing throughout the article. Again. Agreed though, Germany and the Scandinavian countries put us to absolute shame. All we get are white chav ****s worried that 'mussies' will take some of their own benefits.
I think you'd be surprised. I'm involved in a group that are travelling to Calais to take clothes, tents, medicine etc to refugees. What I've found so far is that our Govt want to paint a picture of 'Immigrants flooding the UK to steal our benefits' and ordinary people aren't buying it. They see the images of dead toddlers washed up on beaches and are compelled to do something. If our govt won't help, then it will come down to us to do something about it
It's a humanitarian crisis, and we all have a choice. We either care enough to want to help - even if we have to give something to achieve that aim - or we do nothing. Our Government not only chooses to do nothing, but it victimizes these poor souls in order justify to us, the voters, that it is entitled to do nothing. But so what, right? Our Government sends young men to their deaths, to fight wars against an enemy who wasn't an enemy until it (and the media that works for it) created that enemy. 70 dead in the back of the odd lorry, here and there, is nothing compared with the tens of thousands of foreign civilians killed in bombing raids.
That's an interesting way to describe a bunch of people smugglers, Piskie. Seriously though, the whole thing won't be solved by Europe taking in millions of refugees. Being prepared to deal with ****s like ISIS at source and avoiding any moves that create similar movements is the only thing that will do it. I don't think that the warmongering Bush approach to foreign policy is the way to go, but Corbyn's total reverse is probably just as bad. There are some wars that are simply unavoidable, I'm afraid. Interesting to see the accusation that no Gulf States have taken any refugees, so far. Wonder if it's true?
I agree that the long term solution is not housing more and more refugees. But the current situation is a humanitarian crisis and our govt don't seem to be doing a great deal to address the problem.
I think that the Tories are ****s, but they're probably a little confused about what the public want them to do. The whole mood of the nation seems to have switched completely in a few days because of a couple of photos and a story about a couple of kids. This ****'s been going on for years, but sometimes people need to see the reality of it to give them a kick up the arse.
I think the govt/media badly misjudged this situation and what they thought the reaction of the public would be. They peddled the usual soundbites about swarms of benefits scroungers, thinking that people would back their stance on tightening borders. Then people started seeing the pictures of drowned children and orphans in refugee camps and felt compelled to do something to help. The govt have been a very sorry second in keeping pace with addressing the humanitarian needs of this situation.
It's difficult to separate the two but the Calais 'swarms' and the Syrian refugees aren't really the same, although obviously the two will eventually get blurred. The perception is that those at Calais are in the main migrants attempting to come over here for a better life and living but those crossing on boats are refugees seeking refuge from a conflict not of their making. How the government are supposed to draw a line between the two I don't know but it's very easy to have genuine sympathy for the latter and be far less sympathetic to the former as they aren't refugees. This will be why they are suggesting rehousing those currently in Syrian refugee camps, as they know that those are genuine refugees. I don't think the Tories are any worse than labour in this. Labour will use this as a point scoring excersise of course but Blair caused much of the worlds problems in cahoots with his pal Bush.
I'd like to get Bush and Blair, strip them both naked, and dump them in the middle of Bhagdad, chained together, with the works "We started the war that caused your misery" tattooed across their backs. If they make it to a safe place, I'll allow them a pardon for their war-crimes.
