Them Migrants!!

I didn’t see it as a personal attack.

I just found it very strange, and wondered what it might have to do with anything.

@kent f OBE wrote:

I think everyone needs to grow up.
We all know the angle Scep is coming from….its compassionate and humane UNCONDITIONALLY…..lots of us have opinions regarding “foreigners” according to our upbringing…many dont see colour or religion…they see humans…..some see refugees…scroungers….thieves…..and some see “my children are missing out”
Scep …others are seeing things from a practical point of view….no matter what anyone says…these people need to be housed….taken care of through the health service…and so on
None of us here know the answer to any of the questions….but does it have to get so personal?
Yesterday in the chat room there was a conversation about sending all foreigners back home….apparantly it is a simple solution….then in the next breath the same chatter was telling us about possibly moving to Australia….. :roll:
To say they are thick as shiit is a compliment…..by the way that was ok for me to be personal :lol:

Ms K,

I don’t see that.

Yes, I do take an unconditionally humane stand. I think you do as well. That is, this is horrific, it’s a crisis which is out of control, the drownings of so many – including women and children – in what the refugees are calling “the sea of death” is deeply upsetting.

The problem that needs to be discussed is precisely practicalities. You are rightly saying how can we deal with this, given the logistics involved of housing, clothing, feeding, educating, caring for so many people. I absolutely agree with you on the problems, and that’s where the arguments should begin.

The personal nature of the attacks – including the weirdest attempt to portray me as a liar because I won’t be drawn into a detailed discussion of my living arrangements when I was in Bristol in 1975 (deeply weird!) – is to do with what seems a total lack of feeling about the tragedy and the death of nnocents. It’s also to do with politics, and the serious hostility to immigration from some people here, which takes a gut, xenophobic form rather than a rational form.

I’ve said over and over that this crisis is too much for one country to handle. It has to be dealt with internationally, and the UK should be taking a lead with Germany in pushing the EU to take a more coordinated approach to a crisis that is going to grow. That’s the only way for the crisis to be handled. Germany says it can take 800,000 – their economy isn’t much wealthier than ours. We can certainly take in more than the piffly 20,000 Cameron has agreed to.

The fact that Britain has been a major operator in creating this crisis – invading and bombing countries from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya is also to be taken into account. In Syria, the policy of the West is to intensify the war in Syria until their main enemy, Assad, is overthrown. This has now led Russia to do its bit in making people in Syria desperate to get out. So instead of wanting more bombing and war, I say it’s time to stop the militarist approach to the Middle East before it really starts to get out of hand.

So it’s not the question of practicalities which is at Stake, Ms K – I am happy to take these up with yourself, Lucy or Trapper (and have tried to). I also think that the practicalities may well be overwhelming, but we have to do out utmost to help, especially as we are a serious factor causing it.

I think it’s the insistence that refugees be treated as people to whom we have an obligation, people in desperation, people who could easily be us, which is causing the problems and the personal attacks. I think this lack of humanity has caused Jen’s angry post too. I’m going to try to ignore provocations form some people here (some of them very strange, if you ask me) and treat it as a practical problem.

I didn’t see it, Ms K.

I have never liked that programme.

But the younger people are a real hope – a real difference among them. I noticed it wiht my younger son and his mates. They grew up disliking the dog-eat-dog society around them and are looking for different ways to deal with things.

I really hope they succeed.