For once we must say unequivocally that refugees from Ukraine are welcome here
WE should all be supremely grateful that, throughout this appalling Ukraine crisis, Boris Johnson has somehow managed not to make a complete and utter arse of himself.
In fact, The Prime Minister has performed rather well. Like, you know, Prime Ministers are meant to.
He got the mood of the country right.
He was fairly quick to impose severe sanctions.
And he has been striking just the right tone when dealing with Vladimir Putin’s savage and illegal invasion.
There’s always time, of course.
At the next summit meeting he could start jabbering about Peppa Pig, or something. And plunge us all into doom. But so far he’s done OK.
There’s just one area where he has got it wrong.
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And also where he has misjudged the mood of the nation. And that’s over refugees from Ukraine.
Other countries have been generous and magnanimous.
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The European Union moved quickly to say that Ukrainian refugees would be welcome for three years, after which they could formally apply for asylum.
Poland has already taken more than 450,000 refugees and it is a much poorer country than our own.
Even little Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has already taken in at least 79,000 people — and offered them jobs.
Boris has moved a little in the last couple of days.
He is now saying the visa scheme will be broadened. But it still isn’t enough.
He’s got it wrong because he thinks we, the public, are “anti-immigrant”.
It is true that the vast majority of British people want controlled numbers of immigration, year on year.
But this doesn’t mean we are opposed to immigration, or to the immigrants.
There is enormous public support for Ukraine and I have heard nobody — except Government ministers — voicing objections to taking in large numbers of people.
This is an emergency, a real, present, emergency.
It is very different to boat loads of young male chancers from North Africa and the Middle East and beyond trying to circumvent our asylum system.
LIVES ARE BEING DESTROYED
The British people can, I think, tell the difference.
And it may well be that we feel more welcoming because these would be people with a culture very similar to our own.
People who have a liking for our way of life.
As a liberal Western democracy we should at all times act with decency and kindness.
The Ukraine border is less than 1,000 miles from our coast.
These are people from our own continent.
People who are having their lives destroyed right now, in front of our eyes.
For once we should say, unequivocally: “Ukrainian refugees welcome here.”
It is not as if we have a shortage of jobs for them to do.
In the engineering, transport and hospitality sectors we are seriously short of staff.
That’s not anywhere near the main concern, of course.
The important point is that we should be magnanimous. And be seen, by the rest of the world, to be magnanimous.
Because when we finally tally up who helped the Ukrainians most, do we really want to be a footnote below tiny, impoverished, Moldova?
RMT on wrong track
A big thank you, then, to the transport unions for doing what they do best.
Bringing abject misery and chaos to the lives of hardworking people.
London was left at a standstill. All at the behest of Tube drivers who can earn as much as £80,000 per year.
And who have a basic salary of £55,000 per year.
Do you remember the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, saying there would be no more Tube strikes on his watch?
I remember, Sadiq. Even if you pretend you don’t.
A leader of the RMT union, Eddie Dempsey, was a fan of pro-Putin separatist Aleksey Mozgovoy, by the way.
He has visited the pro-Russian separatist areas of Ukraine to show his solidarity.
Helluva bloke, huh.
Human rights abuses
HERE’S a suggestion. Why doesn’t the Pope go on a tour of Ukraine?
There are plenty of Roman Catholics in the country.
They belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and number about five million.
Pope Francis has often denounced human rights abuses and imperialism.
Here’s his chance to make a real difference to the world.
Is there any country that needs salvation more than Ukraine?
Even Putin would think twice about shelling a city with the Pope inside it.
I bet one of his predecessors, John Paul, would have already been there by now.
Covid fears nuked
CRISES tend to concentrate the mind a bit, don’t they?
For example, you don’t hear very much about Covid these days.
As a dangerous annoyance it’s been easily eclipsed by Vlad the Mad.
No real point worrying about a bad case of the sniffles when you might be evaporated.
Masks and hand sanitiser won’t be much cop against a nuke.
And yet I still see people going about their business masked up.
Even out in the open, or driving their cars. It’s something they seemingly can’t let go of.
And there are still hand sanitiser dispensers in some of our super- markets.
Despite the fact that we learned a good year ago that all that washing was of no use whatsoever.
Insult to ordinary people
I NOTICE our MPs are about to receive a rather large pay rise.
They will be getting an extra £2,212 per year.
This is in compensation for the absolutely bloody marvellous work they’ve been doing just lately.
As it happens, I think our MPs should be paid more money, in general.
The present rate of pay means we get dimbos and dunces manning the benches in the House of Commons.
A bit more money might attract a better standard of MP.
But this pay rise, now, feels like an insult to ordinary people who are facing massive hikes in their energy prices.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was right to say the MPs should reject the rise. These are difficult times.
Dim and dimmer
LABOUR loon Diane Abbott reported her shock at watching TV footage of Russian tanks rolling into Croatia.
She was shocked?
Not half as much as the Croatians, I suspect.
The interviewer put her right.
“You mean Ukraine, don’t you?” Gawd help us.
Still, she was outflanked by the worst president in US history.
Putin would never win the hearts and souls of the Iranian people, Joe Biden said during his state of the union address. Um? WTF?
Hell, at least Diane got the right continent. Only about 500 miles out.
I wonder how much the sheer dimness of Biden led Putin to think he could invade and get away with it?
Holy brow, whatever next, ladies?
THE next in a special series called Women With Very Large Things.
Last week I told you about the supposed “influencer” Mary Magdalene.
She claims to have acquired the world’s fattest vagina.
She had it purpose built. Probably needs a respray by now.
This week it’s Sammie-Jo Hailford, from Grimsby.
She claims to have Britain’s Biggest Eyebrows.
They are indeed enormous.
It looks like she’s slapped a few feet of black, shiny, duct tape on her forehead.
She looks, if you don’t mind my saying so, bleedin’ stupid.
And now she’s upset because lots of people online have said pretty much the same thing.
Next it’ll be something else.
Some babe claiming to have the world’s most voluminous pancreas, or something.
The North will rise
So, no silverware again for Spurs this season.
I don’t suppose it will come as much of a shock to their supporters.
They haven’t won a major trophy in more than ten years.
And the last time they won the league title is more than 60 years ago.
And yet they were one of the breakaway clubs who were going to form a European super league. In what way are they a “super” club?
Anyway, well done Middlesbrough for evicting them from the FA Cup.
It’s about time Boro won a trophy, too.
The North will rise again!