I am delighted by the apparent sea-change in media opinion on the treatment of refugees, but concerned that in modern society compassion only seems able to operate in a wave of emotional hysteria rather than as a fundamental, underlying everyday principle. There is also a danger that those arriving in the Mediterranean and Balkans are viewed, quite wrongly, as in some way different from those in the awful camps at Calais, who have been demonised all summer, reaching its peak when a child being killed by a train led to vicious media headlines about delays to British passengers.
Cameron and May’s apparent willingness to budge at least minimally in admitting more from Syria must be matched by a willingness to admit those from the Calais camps who are genuine refugees. I still have a home in Ramsgate from which you can actually see France. I for one am willing to make accommodation available at no charge to help out in the crisis.
These are troubling times. In London the National Youth Centre has cancelled a play, Homegrown, which explored Islamic radicalism, because it had an “extremist agenda”. By this they mean that it did what it was meant to, it explored the reasons that attract young people to terrorism including a revulsion at western foreign policy and the alienation from society of urban youth in a society that values materialism above all but increasingly restricts access to prosperity and choice. These are precisely the issues that modern playwrights ought to be considering, if they are worth anything.
However it goes against the government’s insistence that radicalisation is nothing whatsoever to do with our invasions and bombings of Muslim countries or the huge and burgeoning wealth gap in our society. We are supposed to view terrorism as a spontaneous outbreak of pure evil, for no reason. So the play was cancelled, after consultations between the National Youth Theatre and the Metropolitan Police. When you have the police deciding on the content of plays, you really are on the road to being a fascist state: we already have the police involved in what can be said in universities under the government’s definitively illiberal Prevent strategy.
Just as there is still no official admission that our invasions and bombings greatly boosted terrorist organisations, so there is still no official admission that the wave of terror and destruction we helped unleash on the Middle East, either by direct invasions or bombings or by proxy, by funding and through the Gulf States, is the root cause of much of the refugee crisis. It is good we are moving a tiny way towards helping. We should do very much more. And acknowledgement of our own culpability in the crisis should be an essential part of a new attitude.
Republicofscotland.
I cannae watch that, it makes my blood boil. The greedy bastards, killing bastards!!!.
An abhorrent, loathsome and venomous Liam Fox whose shadow foreign policies revealed mendacity and fraud concerning the Bicom/Hintze Atlantic Bridge policies of imperialist war in the geo-political interests of Britain and the US, continues his UK ‘bag man’ service for ALEC’s (American Legislative Exchange Council) right wing agendas of war, privatisation, the deregulation of big business and the major financial institutions, and the dismantling of social provisions.
Fox is using his position and agent Cameron’s support to promote a ‘no fly zone’ in Syria under the charade of protecting war-torn desecrated and dying women and children displaced into ‘well placed’ refugee camps in a marauded and plundered Syria.
Cameron will use the sentiments and heightened emotionalism of the British people to further the plan routed through Cameron/Fox-ALEC-Republicans to EU/NATO
I have usurped your intention Mr Fox and have informed the appropriate channels to catch you short.
Bastard!
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fox-nuclear-deal-the-fulfillment-of-an-iranian-wish-list/
Of course the Refugee crisis is of our own making, not so long ago William Hague was bragging about how much assistance the UK government was giving the opposition [Free Syrian Army] in Syria. The leading financial sponsors of the terrorists in Syria, the Saudis and other GCC countries have taken in just 33 Refugees, a shameful number considering the close proximity, similar Religious and ethnic make up of most of the Refugees.
The EU needs to change the arrangements whereby a Refugee must claim the required status in the first country he/she set foot in, to a fairer system whereby all EU countries should be forced to take a quota based on population or some such formula. Of course the destinational preferences of the refugees must be important.
@glenn – good idea about making survival packs available to refugees. I wonder if 38 Degrees or Avaaz would be helpful here? I think they have both sent out alerts about this topic, and Avaaz in particular is good with on-the-ground NGO connections.
Did you mean Lord Hague of Benghazi and Sirte Mark?
‘David Cameron is facing accusations of “cronyism” after handing 26 peerages to former Tory ministers and aides.
The list includes ex-Tory leader William Hague and Mr Cameron’s Downing Street “gatekeeper” Kate Fall.’
William Hague set to make £20MILLION after quitting as a Tory MP
4 Apr 2015 – William Hague is on course to make an astonishing £20m after leaving Westminster, his friends have revealed. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/william-hague-set-make-20million-5461579
Just revealed last year’s referendum cost the tax payer £15.8 million, that’s almost £10 for every nationalist voter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-34157264
Poor Ffion. Publicly humiliated. And stupid.
Coverage of William Hague story is a shaming day for Fleet Street
But the foreign secretary does not come out of this controversy too well either
2 September 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305306/Foreign-Secretary-William-Hague-leave-baseball-caps-teenagers.html
Authored by the stooge Michael White no less.
Wrong link there. S/be
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2010/sep/02/william-hague-shaming-day-for-fleet-street-michael-white
Does anybody have a link to last night’s Labour leadership debate please?
Thanks!
“Just revealed last year’s referendum cost the tax payer £15.8 million, that’s almost £10 for every nationalist voter.”
_____________
Ha poppycock, that’s nothing compared to Brexit which will cost a eye popping €300 bn Euros, that loss doesn’t even include the monies tk hold the referendum which will also be in the millions.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/27/british-exit-brexit-eu-would-cost-uk-billions-german-study
Nevermind I’m sure Osborne will find monies the same way he miraculously found £500 million quid to bolster Trident.
I don’t know who’s the bigger hypocrite you or Osborne.
“I cannae watch that, it makes my blood boil. The greedy bastards, killing bastards!!!.”
____________
I know what you mean Robert, I just wish they had succeeded in blowing up the Duke of Sutherland monument. God knows how mant times its been defaced.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/blow-up-the-duke-of-sutherland-but-leave-his-limbs-among-the-heather-1441798.html
I agree, Craig. Good points, all.
******************
Specifically, the stage play to which you refer should not have been cancelled. I do not ‘buy’ the excuses given by the National Youth Theatre.
******************
“Anyone else noticed that when the BBC interviews a migrant it is usually an attractive young Syrian Christian woman rather than one of the aggressive young Muslim men who make up the vast majority of the migrants?! Anon1
That simply is not true – and on so many levels. What do you mean, “aggressive young Muslim men”? And they are not ‘migrants’, they are refugees.
Alcyone,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdT1Mz1cYqA
I found this final leadership debate the most fascinating yet, because Corbyn had the overwhelming support of the audience (who voted more than 80% in his favour), and seemed to concentrate on winning over his three leadership rivals instead. The body language between Corbyn and Kendall was particularly interesting!
It runs to an hour and twenty minutes. The final 20 minutes is where you get the best body language stuff.
In response to an appeal on Facebook, Syria Calling, 5000 families in Iceland have offered their willingness to take Syrian refugees into their homes.
In March, 2015, Shimon Samuels, director Simon Wisenthal Center, an Israeli propaganda outlet, accused Icelanders for hating Jews based on country’s famous artist, Snorri Asmundsson’s video showing Israeli racism against Palestinian Muslims. It depicts a woman clad in Muslim face-cover pulled out of the frame by a man wearing Israeli flag on his arm, the artist himself playing posing as Israeli Eurovision star Dana International, singing Israeli national anthem, and two young men with Down’s syndrome dressed as religious Jews. Watch the video below.
http://rehmat1.com/2015/09/04/5000-icelanders-offer-to-take-in-syrian-refugees/
Thanks very much RobG and for your comments as well.
In return:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/animal-life/these-pictures-of-a-one-day-old-baby-orangutan-with-its-mother-is-the-cutest-thing-youll-see-today-352142.html
Suhayl, when the Daily Mail (or BBC) did a piece from Calais they always showed black Africans, and not the Middle Eastern people who were there.
Likewise, the Daily Mail have quite disgustingly shown the actions of striking French port workers (such as blocking motorways) and described it as the work of migrants.
In most civilised countries a rag like the Daily Mail would have been prosecuted for hate speech and propaganda.
Meanwhile.
The secret of Queen Elizabeth II’s record reign: faith, patience, and a touch of cunning.
A touch of cunning….you’re not kidding.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/11845161/The-secret-of-Queen-Elizabeth-IIs-record-reign-outstripping-Victoria.html
On Wednesday Queen Lizzie will become the longest reigning monarch in English history, she will also become the longest running recipient of welfare benefits since they were introduced.
A life on benefits has been good for old Lizzie, and her extended family who’ve never had a real job in their lives, a begging your pardon mam.
The former head of security at Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper empire has threatened to go public with “shock” revelations about the company.
Mark Hanna, who was cleared of perverting the course of justice in the phone hacking trial last year, said he heard other defendants make “confessions” when he was “extremely close” to them during eight months in the dock.
He said he was speaking out after it was confirmed that Rebekah Brooks was returning to News UK – formerly News International.
This guys either looking for a pay off, or he has a death wish, crossing Murdoch, is a dangerous game to play.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/media/11845245/Former-Murdoch-head-of-security-Mark-Hanna-threatens-to-expose-shock-revelations.html
Who gains most from this? Israel as there is no united front for the foreseeable future now against them,they control the USA therefore Europe,they have them doing their bidding,they control the finances they control the media,they have to be destroyed.
“I don’t know who’s the bigger hypocrite you or Osborne.”
I can debate without name calling which is more than you can manage.
RobG, yes, exactly. I agree.
The milkman of human kindness (in the comments section)…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3222045/Hungary-s-PM-says-influx-Muslim-migrants-leave-Europeans-minority-continent-threaten-Christian-roots-duped-travelling-refugee-camp-continue-protest.html
This is Putin’s take on the Refugees “Of course, we know that there are different approaches to Syria. By the way, people are running away not from the regime of Bashar Assad, but from Islamic State, which seized large areas in Syria and Iraq, and are committing atrocities there. That is what they are escaping from,” RIA Novosti quoted Vladimir Putin as saying on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“They [IS] kill hundreds and thousands of people, burn them alive or drown them, cut off people’s heads. How are people supposed to live there? Of course, they run away.”https://www.rt.com/news/314435-putin-isis-syria-refugees/
Hungary currently is ruled by a Far Right party.
The West hates Pooty primarily because of his failure to be the dupes of fame like Yeltsin and Gorby, too pickled or naiveté lustful to read the Tarot of Imperialism, not because he is KGB or former Soviet although Neocons have that monomania monopoly.
He is a scion and rapscallion. Perhaps he is even megalomaniacal, but he has a long journey to parity with his Western enemies.
I guess on a scale of hypocrisy he ranks about a three on a scale of ten, while NATO countries don’t even register a chicken-scratch on the first numeral.
As to intent, again we must filter the lack of credibility with some non-fact like things such as instinct to rate. The US again is in chicken-scratch as to genuine goals and public denial of same with pictures and graphs depicting their innocent and benign wishes for world peace, as long as they hold the arrow of enforcement as to those ideals. Europe is largely a dupe of the US and it does pain me some to have to state the obvious, but there it is.
One bright spot is the appearance of equality and civil rights in many western nations. They have to manage the media with some deft to set up their stories and that’s an impediment to a certain extent. That’s at least a good thing we can enjoy as well as spirits and anonymously courageous comments with no consequence in the real world.
The hate fest of the ignorant morons whose understanding of the situation would be hard pushed to fill in a back of a stamp. As their mendacity, stemming from their bigotry and prejudices, is so manifestly put on display.
The trains filled with refugees taking them to camps somehow has not registered with anyone!
In Australia Abbott said that: “unlike Islamic State group, the Nazis had a sense of shame, tried to hide atrocities”. This of course has resulted in
Jewish backlash
However, on this occasion evidently the scenes of the trains to nowhere and the stream of the refugees, are not sufficient grounds for the standards of evil to be reassessed.
Without any irony in reference to zionistan.
“Just revealed last year’s referendum cost the tax payer £15.8 million, that’s almost £10 for every nationalist voter.”
Terrible waste. That could have covered the UK PFI bill for almost 14 hours.
I admire your good intentions but I’m afraid swamping the country with even more virtually penniless immigrants isn’t the answer, and will only drive down the opportunities for everyone else and put more pressure on their services and housing.
“I admire your good intentions but I’m afraid swamping the country with even more virtually penniless immigrants isn’t the answer, and will only drive down the opportunities for everyone else and put more pressure on their services and housing.”
Well, tough shit Tom. Refugees from war-torn regions need our help. Especially so, in that we are at the very least partially reponsible for the chaos in the middle-east that has forced them to move from their homes.
Paul Flynn made a really good point the other day when he said that the affluent middle classes should be doing more to help refugees and migrants instead of exploiting them as low-paid nannies and labourers then raking the money back off them as unscrupulous landlords who crowd them into tiny houses in squalid slum-like conditions. I hate it when the upper and middles class snobs label the working class as ignorant and racist (when many of us are not) yet the bourgeoisie are the biggest bigots of all as they are hypocrites who wouldn’t want to live next door to someone from another country or race.