Tuesday, June 30, 2015

"HE AINT HEAVY HE'S MY BROTHER"

The above title will be remembered by my age group as a song sung by pop band the Hollies, long ago when hair was long and time was short. It’s actually a line lifted from a famous movie called “Boystown” Starring Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and the Bowery Boys. The boys are in an American style borstal run by a priest called Father Flanagan. Father Flanagan watches the gang of boys crossing the borstal yard and he notices that one of the boys seems to carried everywhere by another boy, the priest says to the carrier “I notice you carry him everywhere that must be tough and quite a weight” and the carrier says, and this my attempt at a New York accent “ he aint heavy fadda he’s my brudda”.  

Once again we are witnessing the Tory Government and their gutter press allies foaming at the mouth as they embark on one of their now regular displays of synthetic rage, this time we are back to immigration. The population is being diverted by a show of sabre rattling from the Tories who are desperate to be seen as tough on immigrants and once again many of the UK citizens display their lack of awareness and judgement by falling for it.

Firstly the evidence does not show that the UK makes itself attractive to illegal immigrants by being a soft touch, quite the contrary in fact, that is a Rupert Murdoch style myth. The UK is in fact shirking its duty to the EU by reneging on agreements with Europe on quotas. There are Illegal Immigrants and asylum seekers scattered over many European countries and the UK is no different.

The whole issue of immigration and asylum has in fact become an inadvertent test of what kind of people we are. Do we want to behave like rats or humans?, do we want to be the kind of people who will stop an overcrowded leaking unseaworthy boat full of wretched people including the sick, pregnant, frail elderly and children and send them back across hundreds of miles of open sea to where God only knows what awaits them?.  Who would like to volunteer to take this new born baby from its mother's arms and throw it in to the sea? No one eh? But, when you stick your head in the sand and say it’s nothing to do with me, that is effectively what you are doing. Look at the hungry child and see a hungry child, look at a pregnant mother and see a pregnant mother not an illegal immigrant not an asylum seeker, a hungry child and a pregnant mother, first and always,  that is what you need to see, the rest is extraneous. 

My grandparents were immigrants; many members of my family have immigrated to various countries. How could I deny these desperate people a chance of a better life? I think it is normal that a human being when seeing another human being in trouble should intervene in whatever way they can to help them. I find people who can ignore others who are in a desperate situation very disturbing.
There is hardly a problem that is not associated with them by people who thrive on hatred and our appalling media but the facts do not support the accusations. I look at desperate young men risking their lives to escape tyranny and I look at families of elderly grandparents pregnant women and tiny children living in squalor without food, water or medicine and it is not in the least bit complicated for me. We live in the 6th richest country in the world, they are our fellow members of the 'family of man' I repeat, it's not in the least complicated.

I say to the media and the racists among us who say “why are we sending aid to these countries when the people are leaving in droves?”  The tradition and system of better off countries providing 3rd world aid is something to be proud of, it's one of the reasons that most of us are proud to call ourselves human beings. Sometimes I can’t help thinking that judging by many of the cruel comments we hear that there are a lot of people who are clearly unhappy with the outcome of World War 2. I have never met an immigrant who did not want to work. I worked for many years with Polish immigrants to this country and I have never met harder working or more generous people in my life. None of the European Countries including the UK make it easy for them and they are not the cause of any of our problems. To those who blame and scapegoat immigrants I say, Immigrants are not your enemy, the Capitalist Society which we all live in is your enemy. David Cameron and his government are not illegal immigrants, they are the ones who make the rules not the immigrants. Many of the countries that they flee from were in times gone by exploited and their forefathers persecuted by us in fact.  

It is inconceivable that illegal immigrants or Asylum Seekers would choose the UK because it is more attractive and somehow more welcoming, it is anything but. It's not difficult to work out that Calais becomes their last stop in Europe when they have been hounded out of so many countries; Calais to Dover becomes the obvious geographical last chance. The Tory press distort immigration and Asylum figures shamefully. E.G. Britain took in more immigrants last year than 17 other EU countries combined they say, this is technically true but they don’t tell us that Britain took in less 32,00 than 5 other EU countries namely Germany with 202,000, Sweden 81,000, Italy 65,000. France also 65,000 and Hungary 43,000. Nor did they tell us that the 17 other countries were all comparatively small. Asylum seeker numbers are similar where Britain were 7th with 14,000 and again Germany 1st. with 48,000. Sweden 35,000, Italy 21,000, France 21,000, Switzerland 17,ooo, and the Netherland 15,ooo. Surely it’s time to stop reading the Murdoch version and read the official version and try to get the figures in to context.   

I watch and listen to the people concerned, they are at the end of their tether, not getting to Dover/UK means they have to go back the way; after everything they have been through. The truth is that they would jump at the chance of settling in any of the EU countries, if France would take them or Germany or Italy etc. they would not be trying to cling on to the backs of moving lorries to come here, to suggest otherwise is risible. Imagine walking in their shoes for a while, swapping you house for their tent for a week or two, remember, we are all human beings right?.  

8 comments:

Running Man said...

https://shop.labour.org.uk/media/images/products/2015/03/Pledge_4_Mug_-_Controls_On_Immigration.jpg


This mug is for sale from Labour Party Website. Clearly you are personally not aligned with the party on this which is admirable. However this is indicative of the right swing of both Labour and Tories as they try to out UKIP UKIP.

SNP are only UK mainstream party with pro immigration stance..... Issue being that Scotland requires more population but Westminster policy is set to meet London and SE needs only.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Running Man said..Wednesday, July 01, 2015 7:57:00 p.m.

"We plan a controlled points-based system to support the migration of skilled workers for the benefit of Scotland’s economy. An independent Scotland will have an inclusive approach to citizenship and a humane approach to asylum seekers and refugees." SNP White paper on immigration.

The coffee mug you refer to "Labour fair on immigration".

"SNP are only UK mainstream party with pro immigration stance" obviously not true eh?, you need to get the idea out of your head that you are talking to your snp half witted pals.

Running Man said...

Its says "Controls on Immigration" ......It does not say fair on Immigration....clearly you struggle to read. I thought it was supposed to SNP that were dim witted.

Running Man said...

" An independent Scotland will have an inclusive approach to citizenship and a humane approach to asylum seekers and refugees."


Reads pretty clear to me Terry, seems totally aligned to what you said......a wee peek at the Labour maifesto and I see this below:-

"We will strengthen our borders, recruiting an additional 1,000 border staff "

If anyone is being dim witted its you......but we can put that down to the ravages of age and a thick dogmatic streak.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

"SNP are only UK mainstream party with pro immigration stance"

This is a lie and it's your last chance to admit it.

Every party has an immigration policy, including the snp and no party has an open doors policy for all immigration, unless the snp have told you something different?.

When the abuse and insults creep in logic creeps out and your lies are exposed.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

All parties claim to be fair own on immigration and this is your last repeat on this one.

Paul Kelly said...

How bigoted a man you must be that you cannot even admit you agree with the SNP on any level because of a dogmatic Tribalism. Dealing with the fact's isn't your strong suit Terry as pretty much everone knows.

If the SNP were to say "vote Labour in the next election" you would probably vote Tory just to spite them.

This is the reason Labour are in the middle of dying. They have a head office in England who have simply lost interest in Scotland whilst leaving a Scottish Branch Office trying to 'fight the good fight' in Scotland with a backdrop of prospective Labour leaders like Liz Kendall about to finally and officially place Labour on the Right of Centre.

I feel sorry for you Labour "Lefties" up here, abandoned by your party.

Mentalities like yours are a by-product of Party conditioning, your party no longer stand for their beliefs are traditions but rather stand for the Party itself. With the vitality of the party being paramount ahead of beliefs.

This is why we have a Labour Party trying on the Tory clothes in England. Only.... we have Tories already.

Ah, all these super intelligent politicians who cant help but murder their own party in the chase for governance.

I suspect in some time the same will happen to the SNP, it will become a monolith like Labour and lose its beliefs. At least, they have a focal point in Independence.

Oh Terry you spend many hours calling everyone else an Idiot yet you stand there with your soiled underwear and complain that someone "smells of..."

You are a living oxymoron.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Paul Kelly said.Friday, July 10, 2015 10:05:00 a.m.

I refuse to have anything to do with the snp because I am 100% opposed to racism and fascism in all it's forms. The snp are ethnic nationalists, they were formed as an anti English/Irish/Catholic political party and they remain so today. They are loathsome bigots and I detest their bigotry.