#kiyiyavuraninsanlik - the picture that may have shocked Europe into action

The distressing picture of the young Syrian child washed up on a Turkish beech has shocked the world - will it become like the 'Napalm girl' from the Vietnam war- a picture that will go down as one that defines a generation, one that marks us down for what we have become- selfish?

There has been plenty said over the last few days on what we have done to help, or how little we have helped or what we should do to help. We know that many people no longer believe politicians - but the speech from Yvette Cooper seemed to hit the nail right on the head and her call for this Government to do more have been echoed by church leaders, politicians, celebrities and more importantly - the public - so much so that within 24 hours, Cameron has had to make an embarrassing climb down after stating that we would not let more refugees settle in this country today he has stated that the UK had a "moral responsibility" to help those displaced by the four-year conflict in Syria. But then again Cameron has always been more of a PR man that a PM!

His behaviour (and more distressing - his silence) over the last week has been far from we would expect from a world leader let alone our Prime Minister. We have not done enough as a country, a few local commentators have been quick to say how much money we have spent helping those in war torn zones but where we could and should help more is allowing refugees into this county.

The figures do not lie- we have done very little - but of course the mixing of the words refugee, migrant and illegal immigrant by the media do not help the public to understand that we have been pathetic in our attempt to help those from Syria.



25,771

People applied for asylum in the UK in the year ending June 2015


2,204

Were from Syria

87% of Syrian requests for asylum were granted


216 Syrians have been granted protection under a special scheme to relocate vulnerable people - this is the most embarrassing figure of them all- 216!


4,980 Syrian asylum seekers and their dependents have been granted asylum since 2011


145 Syrian asylum seekers have been removed from the UK since 2011

Now David Cameron is right on one thing we should take from Syria and the camps in Jordan and Turkey - but trouble is he should have done that 3 years ago- now it is too late, so Cameron the PR man lets the media dictate policy, Germany will take 800,00, in Sweden for every 1,000 of their population they will allow an asylum seeker in and hear Cameron says we will take more but no figures and a plan will come out some time next week - how many more will die whilst he keeps a low profile?

Recently the British hero Nicholas Winton passed away- one of the people behind the Kindertransport, what would he think of some of the selfish attitudes displayed by many over the last few weeks. When you’re next in London at Liverpool Street station, seek out the statue on the station forecourt that celebrates the actions of many that saved those children from persecution, and maybe compare that with the scenes being acted out today in railway stations in Austria and Hungary.

History is an important subject, but only if we learn from it- where it seems with the likes of Farage and the far right of the Tory Party that many wish to re-enact the 1930's rather than learn the lessons from that era.

We have those making any excuse they can to stop refugees being made welcome - the worst one - peddled by many in the Tory Party including their local leaders here in Ipswich is that some of those fleeing Syria maybe from ISIS! That terrorist organisations seems to have little problem brainwashing people already here in this country to commit hideous crimes not sure they need to sneak them into the country. in fact with their oil wealth, pretending to be a refugee would be their last option of getting terrorists into Europe.

Then we have our own MP- Ben Gummer trying to blame the crisis on the opposition refusing to back Cameron in his proposal to bomb Syria- forgetting to mention that the PM did not even have the full support of his own party. I always thought Mr Gummer was a more 'liberal' Tory but his actions - or lack of them over this humanitarian crisis have shown him to be as bad as his leader.

We should do more, we should welcome refugees into this country - as we did in the 19th Century and in the early 20th century, as we did those fleeing Uganda and Sri Lanka.

But as long as we have a PR man as our Prime Minister- be prepared to always take the easy option
We must allow refugees in and we must act now.

#RefugeesWelcome

My week ahead, 2 - 8 August 2015

Sunday 2 August, 5pm – Meeting with Stella Creasy

Tuesday 4 August, 6pm – meeting with Angela Eagle

Wednesday 5 August, 7pm – Charity Indian meal, the Alishan Pavilion, Kesgrave

I see it is a compliment that in less than one week, three of the candidates for Deputy Labour leader are coming to speak to Labour members in Ipswich. It shows that in Ipswich we have a strong local party with a reputation for hard campaigning plus we still seek to help our colleagues in the rest of Suffolk and North Essex.

The race for Deputy leader will be very close and i have been impressed by all of the candidates so far.

But it is the Labour leadership election that is making most of the headlines, I tweeted last week that many local Tories seem only want to talk about it. This was further highlighted this week when our Tory MP decided to use his alst column before his (long) holiday to give us his view on the race to be Labour leader.

He seems to have decided the result and was very critical of Corbyn (a paragraph after being complimentary about him!) – Gummer description of Corbyn – “who is republican and a sympathizer of Communist and extremist organizations elsewhere in the world”

Thank you for that Mr Gummer, but not sure I need your help in deciding who I will vote for – But if you wish I will repay you the compliment in 2019 and tell you who to choose to take over from Cameron.

But as you seem to be critical of him because of his supposed support for extremist organisations, then would like to know what he thought of Mrs Thatcher and her support and friendship of a certain General Pinochet?

But what Mr Gummer does not mention in his last column is anything about the crisis in Calais, he mentions he is going on holiday, guess it is not by ferry or eurotunnel? But this is an important issue to many of us in Ipswich, those whose businesses are being damaged by the events in France, those who are going on holiday via Kent and also the many who are concerned about the plight of those migrants trying to enter the UK, but the thousands who are risking their lives to cross from Africa into Europe.

Cameron and the Tories have failed miserably to help anyone – his use of the word ‘swarm’ did not help the situation and his comments just seemed an attempt to appease the right wing of his own party. The mess we left Libya in is one of the contributing factors to the mess in Calais and Southern Europe. But the biggest failure of Cameron and the Tories has been the failure to help remedy the Syrian refugee situation.

18 Months ago, wanted to go to war with Syria, Parliament stopped him but since then we have had (UN figures) over 3 million refugees leave Syria, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan – we (Cameron) promised to help – so far the UK has taken 185 refugees – and we wonder why there is a problem in both the Mediterranean and Calais. Cameron should hold his head in shame. Maybe after your holiday Mr Gummer you may wish to use your column to tell us why you seem happy we have taken so few refugees and give us your opinion on the Calais crisis rather than advising Labour members who they should choose to be our next leader.

Ipswich Refugee Week

The Refugee Council in Ipswich have just finished a week of events, aimed at highlighting the problems of refugees.
The Ipswich Labour Party invited a speaker to come to our management meeting and she gave a good talk, highlighting how few refugees we actually take in this country and how the right wing press just bundle them in together with legal migrants, illegal migrants, foreign students and legal immigrants.
What I found very informative was a small pamphlet they produced which had stories and poems from refugees who have settled in Ipswich, it did really get over the fear that led many of them to escape their own county and the problems many have experianced since arriving in this country.

I attach a poem from a refugee from Afghanistan:

Life in Afghanistan

The Talibans scared us
They wanted full power.
Women were harmed
and could not work.
No school for girls
were totally covered
when we went out.
Men were in prison
and men were whipped.
No football for boy
no parties, no fun
no music allowed.
Electricity gone
TV's smashed
blood was wasted
corpses eaten by dogs who then went mad.
Hard times.

There are some lighter moments in the pamphlet, including a piece by a refugee who is amazed that we do not all wear 3 piece suits and carry umbrellas, he also seems to have summed up the attitude to football of the people of Ipswich.

"Football is an example of equal opportunity in Ipswich. everybody supports their team. a defeat to Norwich can be very disheartening, but a defeat to Southend or Colchester is like rubbing salt in the wound!"

We all have to get the true facts about refugees over to the people of Ipswich (and the rest of the UK).
I understand many peoples fears about immigration and refugees but at present many peoples views are clouded by the fact that the national press have a very one side view of the problem.