At times like this, the universe reminds you that not everyone’s moral compass points in the same direction.
The response of the British state to the plight of Ukrainian refugees, for that is what they are, people seeking refuge, has been shameful even by the standards of Westminster.
Today the Londongrad legislature gave a theatrical ovation to President Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader clearly knew his audience and he pushed their Churchill buttons to get a response out of them.
“We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost. We will fight in the forests, the fields, the shores and in the streets.”
Meanwhile, the Brits are building a barricade of red tape to prevent people in Ukraine who want to come to Britain.
One proffered explanation is that the Brits are taking so few Ukrainian refugees because Blighty is further away than, say, Poland.
Watch the brilliant James O’Brien nail that one right away.
Yes, Ireland.
We are further away from the conflict and a fraction of the size of Britain.
Yet we are taking many more than the UK.
No visas, no red tape just a céad míle fáilte.
It would seem that Ireland’s warm welcome has somehow irked the Brits.
As most of my regular readers are in Fair Caledonia, a word for viewers in Scotland.
The legal reality is that the regional assembly in Edinburgh is powerless in these matters.
There isn’t any doubt that if Scotland were an independent sovereign state, then their stance would be markedly different.
For all their posturing and rebranding, the Holyrood legislature IS a regional assembly.
If I’m wrong on that, then someone, please point me to where the representative of Scotland sits in the United Nations.
Here’s our fella voting at the UN General Assembly.
The optics problem for the folks in Westminster is that if you’ve spent decades mobilising a politics based on the sentiments of the Famine Song, then it is difficult to pivot to a humanitarian stance.
Especially if the people creating the problem in the first place are bankrolling you.
Now, here’s a picture of the current British Prime Minister bedding down for the night with a Russian chap who isn’t in any way dodgy.
Snuggling down in plain sight.
Here is the same exemplary chap with two other paragons of moral rectitude.
I must say those shoes would be considered very dapper among the Ibrox klanbase Nigel.
Flegs on those marching feet!
Dear reader, it was all in plain sight for years.
Putin was a huge cheerleader for the Brexit campaign.
Some might say he was in the dressing room before the match.
The UK leaving the European Union helped his criminal regime in several ways.
Firstly, it weakened the EU.
Secondly, it prevented Londongrad from being subject to any future regulations from Brussels.
Of course, all of that mattered not a jot to the vast majority who voted Leave in June 2016.
Some of them needed to be mobilised around a vibe that would be recognised by the illiterati at Ibrox.
The image used in this notorious billboard advert was people fleeing from the conflict in Syria.
The entire fixation throughout the Brexit campaign on immigration. It proved to be a Trump card in the referendum and was a harbinger for what would happen later that year in the race of the White House.
Breaking Point and “build that wall” all pointed to a Famine Song vibe.
The fitba culture in Glasgow remains a fascinating contrast between racism and humanitarianism.
The featured image shows just how different Britain is in the face of this crisis.
They’re ok about approving some arms shipments to Ukraine, although their main gig in that regard is supplying the genocide in Yemen at the moment.
When it comes to basic human decency, the people in charge of the British state just seem to baulk at the prospect of helping people fleeing war.
We have strange neighbours.
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To be fair, there is no Irish policy, rather there is an EU wide policy and vassals like the Irish Government carry it out as instructed by their political Masters in the European Commission in Brussels.
This is just as, for example, when the European Commission recently moved to close *its* border with the UK in the North of Ireland. It did this without reference to the Irish Government (because the EU had no related orders for them).
On the contrary, the UK will decide its own policy for itself.
And there – the rights or wrongs of the situation notwithstanding – is the perfect illustration of what Brexit was about.
Although Holyrood is a lowly institution, filled with third rate people seeking to steal a wage, it does enjoy more autonomy in the UK than does the Dail in the EU.
Of course, unlike most “asylum seekers” (economic migrants) there is no question that the Ukrainian refugees are genuine. Although international law decrees that refugees seek help in the first safe country they encounter. International law is important, it is not something we can take or leave as we please.
But It is obviously right to help the Ukrainians and I am sure the UK will do so, on top of the weapons it has already sent.
The UK deserves crititism for the the visa fiasco , but in other ways has excelled in its support for Ukraine.
The EU on the other hand does what it allways does, looks to the US and UK to do the heavy lifting in a war in Europe.
Take the fighter jet fiasco, Poland has offered it’s jets to Ukraine only if the US hand them over, where’s the EU in this, Poland is a EU country, why can’t the 27 jets be taken to the 27 EU countries and distributed from there
This mess was created in the EU, the US warned them 3 yrs ago and was laughed at, the EU has funded putin and still is.
As a Brit I don’t mind crititism when it’s due as long as it’s even handed.
The big European countries have probably not done as much to aid Ukraine as the UK has.
At the end of the day hats off to all countries backing Ukraine and doing what they can.
Cringeworthy to witness the hypocritical scenes at yesterday’s House of Commons. An institution dripping in blood for centuries. They’ve collectively kept schtum about recent war crimes in Yemen, and the fact they’re arming Saudi Arabia to the teeth. Over 300,000 people have died in that conflict, but there’s no shallow football slogans, no flag waving, no ‘moral’ outrage aimed at Boris et al. Of course, the situation in Ukraine is a classic ‘look over there’ distraction for Westminster. Their culpability in dealing with the pandemic has quickly been erased from unworthy tabloids. All the while, Nato, and grubby little British arms dealers watch carefully at developments in Kiev.
The issue around refugees comes down to neoliberal economics and disaster capitalism.
Following on from the banking/credit crisis in 2008, the Tory government, supported by a compliant media, managed to persuade the electorate of Britain that the reason why services were being decimated WASN’T because the banks had stolen all of the money; it was because a load of foreigners had come into Britain and the services couldn’t cope. The blame for austerity was laid on the EU.
Because of this, the Tories have managed to persuade the gullible that the answer to all of this is to stop all of these foreigners coming into the country, rather than you know, maybe investing in supporting vulnerable communities. If they were to open the door to Ukrainian refugees, it might require doing the unthinkable and actually providing financial support for these people.
In 2024 there will be over 6,500 LESS 5 year olds starting school in Ireland. That equals around 260 classes of 25 children each. You will need all the immigrants that are available and then some. Think about it, if you haven`t already have.
Phil, in the ‘wealthy’ uk we can’t even house and feed our own, it’s the banker Thatcherite utopia
Sooner Scotland is free of this cess pit of a UK the better !
The idiots of the London government don’t want to upset their leader Putin and all those wealthy Russians who have donated to the Conservatives and will never be sanctioned in any way by Boris they will be allowed to continue buying million pound mansions and have their ill gotten gains laundered through lots of businesses they own through their shell companies. This country stinks.