Immigrants! That's right; I am appalled

If you have clicked on this article because you are hoping to find in me some kindred spirit who also is appalled at the immigration issue in Calais. Well you are absolutely right. I am appalled at the way so many people in the media, and wider public, are reacting to the situation.

Reports have cited nearly 3,000 people are at the camp in Calais and described some of the terrible journeys they have taken from war torn and desperate countries in to the hands of kidnappers and gangs to meet only xenophobia from Britain and France.

If we decided to grant space in our country for these 3000 people it would equate to a 0.005% increase in the population. What difference would this really make? Very little to the lives of you and I (my reader sat comfortably in Britain) but to these bold people who have fought against the odds? It would change their entire world.

No matter how high we build the fences, no matter how much money is spent on security, no matter how many police and soldiers are drafted in, they will keep coming. Why? Because it is worth it. We cannot even begin to understand the situation from our perspective of British socialisation.

 For too long have the countries of the west benefited from a state of affairs which has pillaged other countries through war and exploited an imbalanced global free market which sees that we are the winners whilst ensuring that there are definite losers.

Now there are people across the world looking to our country and saying “I want a bit of that”. Yet we are jealously guarding our spoils and sneering at the desperate attempts of ‘migrants’ who are leaping on to lorries and trains. Our own Prime Minister and described these people as a ‘swarm’. Equating the lives of real people with an insect infestation that must be wiped away.

The greatest thing that we could do to ensure the security of our borders is begin to give back to the parts of the world from which we have taken for too long. We need compassion. We need to hold our government to account. We need to focus spending on aid. We need to move away from wars for resources or from conflicts in lands where the situation is far too complex for us to understand the implications of our meddling. We need to talk. Most of all we need a little remorse.