It is not everyday that I defend prime minister David Cameron, but today is certainly going to be one of them. When he is being attacked by Ukip’s failed MP, Nigel Farage, what else can I do?
Apparently, all Cameron needs to do in order to deal with the migrant crisis in Calais is to get tougher on illegal immigrants and to send the army in. It’s all so easy. Every night, thousands of desperate people try to pile on to vehicles and trains in order to reach the UK and every night someone is badly hurt or even killed. It must be so easy to be Nigel Farage.
Farage comes from the “something must be done” school of politics, without having the need to offer an alternative strategy. It’s something that seems to go with the nationalist politicians’ territory. Our government doesn’t have the first clue as to what to do to end this crisis, but then neither does anyone else. That’s why the crisis is ongoing with no potential ending in sight.
The real reasons, of course, lie elsewhere in the killing fields of Syria or the war torn areas of Africa and the problems are complex and varied. The arrival of large numbers of desperate people in Calais is a consequence of the problems in other countries.
A caller on BBC Radio Five Live this morning said the answer would be to end overseas aid, which of course is the exact opposite of what countries need to do. Even a right wing politician like Cameron can see the logic of helping those abroad, even if it’s just to stop them coming over here. A failed state is a failed state in anyone’s language and with a failing state comes a mass exodus of people. If we, the relatively wealthy west, cut off aid, does anyone think it will make things better at Calais? Of course not.
Cameron’s response has been that the current situation is “very concerning”, but that the government is working closely with the French authorities and is contributing money to assist with security at the port. What kind of response is that? A very good one, actually. The situation is very concerning but we are working with the country that, in the end, is the one where all the migrants are gathering. What else could he do? Send in the SAS? Perhaps it has not occurred to Farage that, believe it or not, France is not in the UK and it is not in the power of the British PM to send the troops in. The French have plenty of their own, if they are needed.
For once, I suppose, it is reasonable for the media to speak with Farage since he is, laughably, an MEP for the south of England, when he can be bothered to turn up, but as ever his contributions are laced with his usual anti-foreigner soundbites and empty slogans. For him and his ugly party, the whole thing is about the real enemy: Europe.
I happen to think we should take our share of refugees. Not all of them, but a fair, proportionate share. Not handing out benefits, as some of the media will claim, but as a part of a humanitarian exercise. That is the only short term fix I can think of, barring sending the army in and, presumably, shooting everyone.
We touched on it earlier, though, the real issues behind the migrant crisis. The world as whole, through the United Nations, needs to address the issues facing failing states all over the world and to put an end for the need for people to leave their homes in a dangerous and usually failed mission to reach the promised land, or the UK as we call it.
And more than that, it will cost money. If we don’t spend it, this will just get worse and worse.
