Pat and I have just returned from a wonderful week away in
Lanzarote. We have increasingly become creatures of habit, staying at the same
hotel each year and enjoying the sun and the chilled out life style of this
lovely volcanic island. This year was especially pleasant – the sun never
stopped shining and it seemed to us that the hotel excelled itself. Today, as I
sit in my office watching the sleet fall from the grey winter East Midland’s
sky Lanzarote seems a very long way away!
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| A quiet drink under a setting sun |
Each year when we visit Lanzarote it is not long before I
say, at some point, that the hotel and indeed the island itself must be very
glad of the English and German pension funds. At this time of year, wherever
one walks the tourists are, like Pat and I, very much senior citizens from
northern Europe: Dutch, Scandinavians, French but above all Germans and
English. The work and business provided by this huge influx of older people all
with their pension pots must be a very real and important boon to the island’s
economy and employment situation during these off season months.
It was with this thought in mind that I sat one evening as
the sun was setting on the hotel’s bar terrace enjoying a cold beer and
skimming thought the news from the UK and wider world on my smartphone. I read
of the latest bizarre and worrying news coming out of Washington and the
frightening machinations of President Trump but that paled rather into
insignificance (no mean feat!) as I read, mouth agape, at the latest actions of
the UK government and the wider politicians at Westminster. As the UK Brexit
machinery rumbles on, and the positions harden I read that, amongst many other
indefensible things, the government has decided to abandon the promised and
agreed decision of a few months ago to take in some 3000 unaccompanied refugee
children – children that everyone agrees are amongst the most vulnerable in the
world. To date some 350 have been taken in and the scheme - known as the Dubs Amendment
after its author Lord Alfred Dubs – is to be scaled down and closed. Lord Dubs
was himself a child refugee and came to Britain as one of the Jewish children
fleeing Nazi persecution on the famed Kindertransport when Britain took in some
10000 such children in the months leading up to the second world war. The
reasons given for this scaling back seemed to be threefold: that we could not
afford to take in too many, that if we did take them in then this would
encourage more to come, and that as a nation we are already giving large
amounts of money in various aid budgets to help with the wider refugee
situation.
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| Lord Alf Dubs stands in the Calais refugee camp |
As I read this, and of the many people such as the
Archbishop of Canterbury who had protested at this decision by government I
sadly looked around me at the other tables where there sat people like me
enjoying their evening beer under a golden sunset; each of us well enough off
to be able to do this. Whatever, the government might like to tell us for its
own devious devices we in the UK are one of the richest nations by far on the
face of the planet. Earlier that day I had read in my copy of the digital
Guardian that sales of new cars in the UK is at a record high and as I thought
about that I tried vainly to make sense of the claim that the cost to the
nation of the Dub’s amendment made it worthy of scrapping. In the end, and as
always, it is all about choices and as each year passes I am convinced more and
more that the old adage is true: “Money has the loudest voice but the deafest
ears.”
But, of course, it is not only all about money. That is a
convenient excuse. We pay a few billion into the fund for assisting those
people from war torn countries – countries in the middle east that are war torn
in some large measure because of our actions there – and somehow this salves
our national or governmental conscience. On the same day that I read this news
of the scrapping of the Dubs Amendment I also noted that many of the tabloids
didn’t report it at all – far more important to them was the death of the socialite,
celebrity and reality TV star Tara Palmer Tomkinson. Yet only as few months ago
when child refugees were being drowned as they tried to cross the Mediterranean
it was the tabloids who produced the heart rending photographs of these
distressed children; tabloid campaigns were set up and social media sites fed
on the emotional tales that the tabloids. But no more. The bandwagon has moved
on’ Distressed child refugees no longer sells newspapers, the media – both
social and news – now feeds the Brexit frenzy and the Brexit reading populace
cry “keep out the foreigners, control
our borders, cut immigration”. Now tabloid readers would much rather learn
about the unfortunate death of a dubious socialite known for her bizarre
lifestyle and fashion comments than it would about the rights and wrongs of a
very real world crisis.
The scrapping of the Dubs Amendment is undoubtedly part of
the sea change that we have seen in the UK, America and the wider world which
has brought the growth of jingoistic nationalism, racism and xenophobia. As the
Conservative government force through the Brexit legislation they know that
this is their hour; “the people have voted for Brexit” so Theresa May tells us and
“we must take back control of our borders”. Even the Labour Party has given in
to the logic and provides no form of opposition. On the same day that the
scrapping of the Dubbs amendment was quietly and surreptitiously slipped into
government policy, Parliament voted by large majority to accept the
government’s plans for the UK leaving the EU; MPs who only a few months before
were strongly anti Brexit and campaigned actively for the nation to remain as
part of the European Union tossed their beliefs to one side, and voted with the
government. Suddenly what only a few months ago was a huge majority of MPs who supported
the UK remaining in Europe has become a majority voting for us to leave. Only a
very few stood by their principles and voted against; clearly they all had one eye
on their Parliamentary and Ministerial salaries, fearing defeat at the next
election. As I say, “Money has the
loudest voice but the deafest ears.”
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| Nicholas Winton shortly before his death |
And, against that back drop, that means that we exclude any
easy targets like child refugees – they come penniless, with no useful skills,
utterly dependent upon our munificence; in other words they are a financial
liability, and to add to their ills they are not white Anglo-Saxon, speak a
different language and worst of all, it seems, may not be Christians. In the
Gradgrind, Scrooge like world of 21st century Brexit England that is
one step too far: Charles Dickens writing a century and a half ago would have
recognised the landscape, he condemned it so many times and it is now back to
haunt us. The government know that in reality they are safe from real
criticism; Mr & Mrs Joe Public like the idea of helping those in need as
long as those in need as long as it is only tweeting, putting photographs of
Facebook or maybe sending a few pounds to charity – in other words much the
same stance as the UK government. “But”, say Joe Public and Theresa May, “don’t
come to live next door to me, stay in your own back yard”. That is the long and
short of it.
This situation is well illustrated when one examines the
position of Theresa May, our Prime Minister. As an MP May represents Maidenhead
in the Thames Valley – her constituency has not taken one single child refugee
of the 350 so far taken in by the now defunct Dubs Amendment. Yet, Maidenhead
and the surrounding area is one of the very richest regions in the UK. It
beggars belief that this area, a place of the country’s highest property
values, of high end motor cars, of the country’s highest per capita income, and
of the preferred place of residence of many or most of the country’s
celebrities and captains of commerce, business cannot afford to take in just
one child refugee. That very fact should make Theresa May and the other good
burghers of Maidenhead and district bow their heads in shame.
But it doesn’t. Let us take the story a little further, for
the depths to which those in power will now stoop knows no bounds.
Lord Alfred Dubs came to the UK on the Kindertransport in
the months leading up to the outbreak of war in 1939. He was born a Prague and
came together with 668 other similar children from largely Jewish backgrounds.
The transportation upon which he came was the result of the work, often
dangerous in the circumstances, of a young English stockbroker Nicholas Winton.
Winton’s work lay largely hidden - he never spoke of it - until relatively
recent times but eventually it was revealed and he became known as the English
Oskar Schindler for his role in saving
so many threatened children. Dubs was one of those children. When he
came to England Dubs grew up, had a successful career and became a Labour MP
and minister. He now sits in the House of Lords and his Amendment, to assist
the bringing of young refuges from the middle east, must have seemed to him to
be absolutely right; perhaps he was trying to repay the huge debt that he
himself had enjoyed.
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The statue of Nicholas Winton at Prague
railway station.
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Nicholas Winton, the brave humanitarian, who gave Dubs and
668 others their chance of life died in 2015 aged 105. He lived in Theresa
May’s own constituency at Maidenhead. When his role in the Kindertransport
became known he received numerous accolades: knighted by the Queen for "services
to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia". He received the highest award that can be
given in Czechoslovakia, the Order of the White Lion. He received the freedom of the City of London
and many other awards from various bodies. In September 2010, a statue of
Winton was unveiled at Maidenhead railway station by Theresa May, his local MP
depicting Winton sitting on a bench and reading a book and at Liverpool Street
Station in London and at the main station in Prague there are statues depicting Jewish refugee children –
the one in Prague shows Winton carrying a child.
On Winton’s death
in 2015 Theresa May spoke at his memorial service. She was the local MP, and a
future PM – this was too good a photo opportunity to miss. Her speech was glowing
in its tributes: Winton she told the mourners was ‘....an
enduring example of the difference that good people can make even in the
darkest of times.......I hope that his life will serve as an inspiration for us
all … and encourage us to do the right thing.’
Indeed. Good people can make a difference. In dark times it is important that we all step up to the mark and make a difference. We should indeed all be inspired to do the right thing. Winton’s daughter, following the scrapping of the Dub’s Amendment this week wrote an open letter to Theresa May reminding the PM of her words at Winton’s memorial service: “As the world once again teeters on the edge of dark times, I ask you to remember those words...... Don’t sit there wringing your hands. My father had 5,000 children on his list to rescue and he managed to save 669. In his scheme of things he failed, but on the other hand there are 669 children who were saved and about 6,000 people alive today because he did that........He was the kind of person who, once he made up his mind that something was right and needed doing, wasn’t going to be put off. He was only 29 at the time, but nevertheless had that kind of stubborn certainty. He found likeminded people, got them on board, and between them they moved mountains......”
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Theresa May talks of the right thing to do at Nicholas Winton's
memorial service - except she seems to have forgotten
what she said or how to do it.
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Theresa May has yet to reply or comment in any way. I suspect she knows that she has been rumbled. But I also suspect that she doesn’t much care – in wealthy Maidenhead her Parliamentary seat is safe and against the political backdrop of Brexit Britain she appears impregnable; the racist, xenophobic, flag waving jingoistic Brexit mob are calling the shots. The moral high ground has been lost and forgotten.... the “enduring example that good people can make even in the darkest of times....... which serve as an inspiration to us all...... encouraging us to do the right thing....” seems to have slipped from May’s memory or her party’s manifesto. It is a sad sign of the times in which we live that our PM, herself the daughter of a vicar as she often likes to remind us, seems unable to implement in any meaningful, way the righteous actions or the aspirations that motivated the Good Samaritan in the country that she is now responsible for.
So, as I sat, at the end of a glorious day, sipping my beer on the bar terrace and watching the sun set over the Atlantic I looked at the other guests, all of us comfortably off, perhaps self satisfied and wondered just what kind of people we in the UK are becoming. What sort of people can spend more on motor cars than ever before but can still be unprepared to take in a few vulnerable people? What sort of people are we that we conveniently forget our previous beliefs and obligations as we have done with the Dubs Amendment? What sort of people are we that we can allow our politicians to forget the obligations that they have made on our behalf? What sort of people are we that can prefer to read about the unfortunate, maybe untimely death of a rich socialite rather than of the great issues facing mankind? What sort of people are we that we can allow our Prime Minister to conveniently “forget” the words that she uttered in a memorial service only few months ago?
And as I took another sip of my beer I sadly thought that the Good Samaritan would get short shrift in 21st century Brexit England. He would fail and be mocked on every count. The tabloids and social media would have a field day. Brexit England clearly does not “do” helping others in need. It does not “do”, as the Samaritan did, helping those of a different culture or nationality. It does not “do” taking hard actions in dangerous situations as the Samaritan did – it was easier to close the Dobbs Amendment down, it might lead to more benefit scroungers arriving at our rail terminals. It does not “do” meeting our obligations whatever the cost – unlike the Samaritan who told the innkeeper to spend whatever he needed to care for the injured man and the Samaritan would repay on his return. No, should the Good Samaritan raise his head in Brexit Britain the Daily Mail, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids and the right wing press would soon spot him as the left wing liberal that he is; they would soon have him in their sights for trafficking benefit scroungers or helping health tourists take advantage of our NHS.
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The view from our hotel balcony - a paradise but only a few hundred miles from where refugees are fleeing
from war torn countries. And our government seems keen to bury its head in the sand and renege on its responsibilities.
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And as I sipped my beer under a cloudless evening sky another thought occurred. Less than a hundred miles across the ocean from where I sat on the bar terrace lies north Africa and beyond that the thousands of miles from whence many of these refugees are increasingly coming. At the moment it is war that is largely displacing these people but increasingly other factors – climate change, employment, the desire for a better life – are swelling the numbers. And we in northern Europe sit quietly and sip our beers, somehow believe that it will all go away and that we can, Canute like, halt the swelling tide. Does Theresa May and her Brexit followers seriously think that Little England can, in this global world somehow remove itself from this great and increasing movement of peoples. To believe so is a nonsense. We have to learn to live with it, manage it and above all do the right thing. Whatever Theresa May, Brexit or Donald Trump may think we in northern Europe and the USA will have to learn some very hard lessons; our pension pots, our new cars, our glitzy shopping malls and our spend, spend, spend mentality will not sustain us. The world and the world order is, in my view, entering a new phase. May’s closing the door to a few vulnerable children, Trump building his wall and imposing travel bans at his borders, the UK’s increasingly volatile and vindictive anti immigrant rhetoric will simply exacerbate the situation and show us up for what we are – mean minded, self interested and prejudiced. But, just possibly facing the hard questions and ultimately doing the right thing might just enable a better, more cohesive, more equal world to grow. Given the trenchant prejudices and lack of moral compass prevalent in Brexit England, however, I don’t hold out much hope; as I have noted increasingly in blogs over the past year or two both the UK and the USA seem no longer capable of even asking the question is it right or is it good or is it just or is it decent let alone framing an answer to these moral considerations. The result of that inability is witnessed in the current leadership of these two nations: Trump, the Republican Party and Brexit Britain led by an inept government - all of them incapable of distinguishing courses of action that are not only in the best interests of our nations and the wider world but are also just and morally acceptable.
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