Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How we’re all homing in on helping refugees
One argument you often hear from people who say we shouldn’t accept refugees, is: “I don’t suppose you’d have one in YOUR house.”
What they might have misunderstood is some people feel that, as a society, we should welcome refugees.
So to suggest they stay at your house is like saying to someone who supports the National Health Service: “Oh you think we should look after the sick, do you? Well I don’t see YOU offering to operate on someone’s liver in your living room.”
If you support the funding of libraries, they can complain: “I don’t see YOUR kitchen full of books about steam trains and how to grow tulips, arranged in alphabetical order.”
For many years, British governments insisted we can’t take more refugees because “the British people won’t accept them”.
Politicians competed to see who hated refugees the most, making speeches such as: “Millions come from Eastern Europe just to use our NHS.”
Because entire populations of towns would leave Bulgaria so they could go to A&E in Peterborough and have a go on the X-ray machine.
But now, as most people are horrified by the war in Ukraine, the Government has been pressurised into appealing for people who will take a refugee from Eastern Europe into their home.
Over 150,000 have registered to house
a Ukrainian. Suddenly, even the Government has to say they like refugees.
So when Michael Gove was asked if he would use the scheme to offer a room to a Ukrainian, he said he is “seeking to see what I can do”.
Oh no! Some poor sod will arrive here, having had his street demolished, and within two days he’ll be on the phone to Ukraine, pleading: “I want to come back.
“He comes down in a dressing gown and dances in the kitchen. So horrible. I prefer Russian tanks.”
Now some people complain: “Never mind Ukraine, what about our own poor and homeless?”
Often these are the same people who don’t like paying for our poor and homeless either, moaning: “They should
Actress Natalie Portman has started her own football team, with backing from a collection of actors, as she wants to “change the culture of the game”. That should do it. When her team scores, opposing fans will chant: “You’re not projecting any more.” And if their striker slices a shot, they’ll hold their hands up and grimace: “I’m SO sorry, can I take that again?”
make an effort and get a job.” Their complaint seems to be: “We should moan about OUR sponging parasites, not foreign ones.
“If we let people in from abroad, we have to scream about BOTH lots, and I don’t have time for extra screaming.”
Cynical people struggle with acts of kindness. They assume there must be a selfish motive.
Perhaps they think the scheme to take in refugees is a scam, because you can register a Ukrainian as a guide dog, and that entitles you to buy home furnishings without paying VAT.
But it seems that if you give everyone the opportunity to be compassionate, most will want to take part.
So before long, there will be such a demand for Ukrainians that some people will get jealous.
They’ll be saying:
“The people who live at number 25 have an upstairs Ukrainian
AND a downstairs
Ukrainian.
“And the Hendersons have a holiday Ukrainian in Cornwall for the summer.
“It’s all right for some, isn’t it. It’s NOT
FAIR.”