Should charity begin at home?

Do you think money grows on trees? This is a retort frequently used by parents when children ask of them more than they can be expected to afford? And politicians, in much the same vein, refer to the money tree.

At present I can think of nothing more worthy of such a rebuff as the chaotic mess regarding our policy on immigration but more especially that considered illegal though this term tends to be totally vacuous in this context. For sure, some of those coming from war torn countries are in the main worthy of our support though certainly not the economic migrants crossing the channel which almost certainly constitute the majority using this route. However If this wasn’t enough to make one despair it seems we are also taking in those fleeing Hong Kong. Also we know that of those who’ve departed Afghanistan a significant number have as many as six children. In this country it is not deemed economically viable to have more than two or three children as any more would be likely to make the family become a burden on the state.

We are told that thousands of people living here, those on low incomes in particular, have been on housing lists for years: simply building more houses ad infinitum is not the answer. Also we hear that many families have been made virtually destitute owing to the loss of earnings during the pandemic and food banks can hardly cope with demand. We all witness many homeless sleeping on the streets. No wonder some councils have shut up shop regarding housing migrants as the money tree for these has dried up, local resources already being stretched to the limit. Please does anyone have any answers to this fiasco before we start taking in any more, let alone what we have at present?

David Abbott, Stoke Golding