This is off my usual topics, but it's my blog, and I can decide when to do that.
1,500 people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year trying to escape Africa, and Libya in particular. That number is much higher than last year because governments have decided to withdraw most rescue services for those seeking to make this crossing.
I believe that a serious error of judgement on their part.
The vast majority of people fleeing Libya are doing so on the basis of legitimate fear. That fear has been heightened following the West's intervention in its affairs. They are refugees and it has always been the duty of governments, the world over, to accept refugees, not least because we never know who will be next.
It's my belief that any party that forms a government after May 7 must change UK policy on this issue, offer Royal Navy support to ensure the safety of refugees, and require the EU as a whole to act to ensure lives are not lost at sea.
Nothing less will do.
I believe in government and its power to do good. This is an occasion when actions must demonstrate that capacity.
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Even if I accept that it is an “error of judgement”, there is no excuse for the government’s stance
They said they took the decision because they believed that the possibility of rescue encouraged people to try to make the crossing, describing, unbelievably, the chance of being pulled out of the sea as a “pull factor”.
I do not think anyone could possibly truly believe that. I think that they will say anything at all which looks like an argument, to support their vicious policy, rather
But if I take them at their word, then the hypothesis has been tested. It is false. When that happens a rational person abandons their belief, and having abandoned it changes the decisions they have based on it.
That they are not doing that tells us all we need to know about their approach to this, and to many other things.
They are doing this in your name and in mine.
It is shameful
Agreed
Almost as vile as the Katie Hopkins oral effluence were Hilary Clinton’s words after Gedaffi’s murder: “We came, we saw, he died.” Words so flippant that they should condemn the person to be unfit to govern for good. I have no brief for Geddaffi (although conspiracy theories about him developing an oil ‘dinar’carry some weight) but he did warn the world that getting rid of him would unleash the worst sort of chaos. The West’s interference can be guaranteed to have the non-Midas touch.