For someone who trumpeted the ‘big society’, David Cameron knows little of charity on the ground Britons hate immigrants; Britons need immigrants. History has resolved this paradox through occasional charitable outbursts, when the country’s natural defences are besieged by desperate people seeking shelter. Charity conquers aversion, and the nation has always grown stronger in consequence. The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, welcomed the fact today that Europe was currently seen as “a place of refuge and exile, a beacon of hope and haven of stability”. That should be source of pride, not fear. He is right. Yet to him the Syrian refugees were a political test for the European Union, a test it was failing. Along the frontiers of Greece and Germany, the refugees were not a test. They were a human tide pleading for help – and help now. Continue reading...
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