Pity the foster parents who open up homes in good faith

Do you remember when all those “child” refugees from Calais were allowed into the UK almost a year ago, and people who questioned their age and suitability were slammed by the sanctimocrisy? Gary Lineker tweeted: “The treatment by some towards these young refugees is hideously racist and utterly heartless. What’s happening to our country?”

Well, what’s happening to our country, Gary, in case you haven’t seen the news, is that two young refugees, including one from the Calais Jungle camp, are alleged to have planted a bomb on a train at Parsons Green. Fortunately, only the detonator exploded. If the device had gone off, then we would have had a July 7-style massacre, with scores of dead.

I’d call that utterly heartless, wouldn’t you, Gary? And “fortunately” is a relative term these days. Thirty people were injured at Parsons Green and several, including a 10-year-old schoolboy, were badly burned. It says something about the times we live in that this counts as a lucky escape.

Thus far, all we have are allegations and arrests. The only thing we know for certain is that two deeply kind people, Ronald and Penelope Jones, have been caught up in a nightmare. Foster parents Ron, 71, and Penny, 88, have offered sanctuary over four decades to 268 children. Think of their horror when they opened the front door and armed police in riot gear stormed their neat home in Sunbury-on-thames.

The raid followed the arrest of an 18-year-old at Dover in connection with the attack. Four hundred of their neighbours were evacuated at a minute’s notice. Several said they were told there could be explosives in the Jones’s back garden. The mind buckles.

There is a touching 2009 photograph of Ron and Penny receiving MBES at the Palace from the Queen. They look as pleased as punch, and rightly so. It must have felt like the giddy summit of a life dedicated to others.

Last October, another foster couple, Sarah and Giles, revealed that they had fostered dozens of asylum seekers who turned out to be men masquerading as children. When they informed the Home Office, they were “fobbed off ”.

Such sturdy goodness and trusting innocence pitted against forces of darkness they can barely comprehend.

This country has a proud history of offering a place of safety to the most frightened and needy. People like Ron and Penny open their homes and hearts in good faith. An asylum process that properly vets applicants and puts the safety of Britons first is neither “utterly heartless” nor “hideously racist”; it is the very least we can expect.