Yesterday my friend George made a very pertinent comment on the cabin roof. He asked why we in the UK eschew corrugated metal roofing. On the continent you see all manner of houses using different coloured metal roofing (green, orange, black, brown), and it looks aesthetically superior to our standard roof tiles. Much cheaper to fit too. Our penchant for tiles can't be anything to do with thermal efficiency - slate has the insulation index of a slab of ice. Must be our love of the Welsh and their slate mines.
Here's a good test for incoming migrants/refugees to see if they're compatible with the British way of life - fly them into Heathrow and have them stand in an orderly queue at passport control. They'll either stay in an orderly queue and wait, try to queue jump or get fed up, lose the will to live and demand to be returned to a war zone. Only those who understand the concept of the interminable British queue - especially the ones that form at UK passport control - would be of a suitable temperament to be admitted. There's no more heinous breach of etiquette in the UK than a breach of queue rules...
Seriously though, the decision to allocate a quota of refugees is one currently being driven by emotion, and naked emotion without thought to the consequences does not produce good policy. A quota must be finite as any influx must be funded. It seems those shouting loudest for them to be admitted are the same ones complaining about underfunding of the NHS, social services and education - the very services that will bear the brunt of immigrants - it just doesn't compute. They are also the ones bleating about the Tory immigration targets having failed. However, what happens when that quota is fulfilled and the next small boy is washed up on the shores of the Med? Further waves will surely come as a direct consequence of admission of the first wave and the people smugglers will be rubbing their hands with glee.
The solution lies not in dealing with the symptoms, but the cause. Some are saying that those migrants who are young and fit should be admitted, trained and armed to go back to fight ISIS and Assad. Not too bad an idea, if you ask me - they'd be fighting for their homeland.
While it can be said that the UK has an obligation to Libya and Afghanistan, no such obligation extends to Syria. There has been no UK involvement there - so far.
There's no denying that a large number knocking at the door aren't refugees at all and merely economic migrants - but opening our doors is not going to solve world poverty at a stroke - well, not without serious social and economic consequences for ourselves.
Why the Muslim countries of the Arabian peninsula aren't doing more is a mystery. So much for the Ummah.
Here's a good test for incoming migrants/refugees to see if they're compatible with the British way of life - fly them into Heathrow and have them stand in an orderly queue at passport control. They'll either stay in an orderly queue and wait, try to queue jump or get fed up, lose the will to live and demand to be returned to a war zone. Only those who understand the concept of the interminable British queue - especially the ones that form at UK passport control - would be of a suitable temperament to be admitted. There's no more heinous breach of etiquette in the UK than a breach of queue rules...
Seriously though, the decision to allocate a quota of refugees is one currently being driven by emotion, and naked emotion without thought to the consequences does not produce good policy. A quota must be finite as any influx must be funded. It seems those shouting loudest for them to be admitted are the same ones complaining about underfunding of the NHS, social services and education - the very services that will bear the brunt of immigrants - it just doesn't compute. They are also the ones bleating about the Tory immigration targets having failed. However, what happens when that quota is fulfilled and the next small boy is washed up on the shores of the Med? Further waves will surely come as a direct consequence of admission of the first wave and the people smugglers will be rubbing their hands with glee.
The solution lies not in dealing with the symptoms, but the cause. Some are saying that those migrants who are young and fit should be admitted, trained and armed to go back to fight ISIS and Assad. Not too bad an idea, if you ask me - they'd be fighting for their homeland.
While it can be said that the UK has an obligation to Libya and Afghanistan, no such obligation extends to Syria. There has been no UK involvement there - so far.
There's no denying that a large number knocking at the door aren't refugees at all and merely economic migrants - but opening our doors is not going to solve world poverty at a stroke - well, not without serious social and economic consequences for ourselves.
Why the Muslim countries of the Arabian peninsula aren't doing more is a mystery. So much for the Ummah.
1 comment:
A bit of history for you.
A secret Anglo-French pact of 1916 put Syria in the French zone of influence. The League of Nations gave France a mandate over Syria after World War I, but the French were forced to put down several nationalist uprisings. In 1930, France recognized Syria as an independent republic but still subject to the mandate. After nationalist demonstrations in 1939, the French high commissioner suspended the Syrian constitution. In 1941, British and Free French forces invaded Syria to eliminate Vichy control. During the rest of World War II, Syria was an Allied base. Again in 1945, nationalist demonstrations broke into actual fighting, and British troops had to restore order.
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