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Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

Tag: politics

  • Is The UK State Biased Against Palestine?

    mayberetiredpastor

    Is The UK State Biased Against Palestine?

    You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour.

    Leviticus 19:15. Old Testament, The Bible

    The reactions of the Home Secretary (Yvette Cooper), the Prime Minister and the BBC Governors to the Gaza-related protests by Palestine Action and Bob Vylan give cause for concern. Palestine Action made the headlines by successfully breaking into an RAF Airbase and spray-painting  an Hercules aircraft engine. Yvette Cooper’s reaction was to immediately proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation (1). Shortly after, Bob Vylan, during his set at Glastonbury Festival, led the audience in chants denouncing the Israel Defence Force, an act that the Prime Minister then denounced publicly as “appalling hate speech” (2) and which led to furore in the BBC with the result that the video was removed from the BBC iPlayer and a number of senior staff suspended (3).

    As a protest group, Palestine Action appears to have conducted several high profile acts of vandalism against a number of companies and establishments whose activities they feel support the Israeli war in Gaza. Their purpose appears to be to push the UK government into reducing support of Israel’s military. They have apparently cost some companies large amounts of money to repair the damage done.   On this last occasion they have succeeded in seriously embarrassing the government and the RAF. But does this warrant their proscription as a terrorist organisation? Surely the criminal law is sufficient to address serious damage without proscribing it as terrorist activity? It does seem that their activities as a protest group have been just too effective for the government (and perhaps the targets) to stomach and so the Home Secretary has chosen to define them as a terrorist group to silence them.

    As many have pointed out (see e.g. 4), Bob Vylan’s words must be set alongside the actual deeds of the IDF  in Gaza where appalling acts, if not actual war crimes, have clearly been committed and continue to be committed on a daily basis and yet the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary remain questionably muted about the latter while full of righteous indignation concerning the former and Palestine Action. Where is the impartiality and balance?

    It is difficult to escape the suspicion that our government institutions are infected by an entrenched bias towards Israel and against Gaza and Palestine. One wishes, as many do I’m sure, for a more genuinely even-handed, and courageous government, unafraid of the power of others – whether great or small. The Prime Minister, self-confessedly is not a person of religious faith, but I assure him that he does and will stand before a Judge who will hold great and small to account.    

    1. https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-06-23/debates/25062337000014/PalestineActionProscription   acc. 13.7.25 14:18
    2. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33514nryy1o   acc. 13.7.25 14:35
    3. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjkmlj1348o   acc. 13.7.25 14:53
    4. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BA75C8hAu/ 

  • Hostile Environment

    mayberetiredpastor

    Hostile Environment

    5 For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.

    2 Peter 1:5-7 New Testament, The Bible

    Recently, BBC News ran an article highlighting the struggles some people have had to prove their British citizenship even though they had lived in the UK all their lives and their parents were British Citizens (1). One man was happily employed in a well-paying job but on applying for his passport for a trip abroad he was suddenly told he was not a citizen and had no right to live and work in the UK. His employer had no choice but to sack him and he spent years in the wilderness having no official status, becoming homeless and severely depressed. It has taken years for his citizenship to be acknowledged and he has been left still traumatised by his experience. Other examples were given. Despite all the fanfare surrounding the “Windrush Generation” and how the Home Office would put right the unfairness suffered by that generation, their children and others still suffer. They suffer because of the “hostile environment” culture put in place at the Home Office by the then Home Secretary, and subsequently Prime Minister, Theresa May. The “hostile environment” means that instead of assisting applicants to determine their status the Home Office makes it as difficult as possible in the hope that people will give-up and leave the UK so “helping” to make the immigration numbers look “better”.

    The Bible passage quoted above would be familiar to most Christians who would generally seek to apply them to their lives as individual human beings. This is good as far as it goes, but the message of the gospel means that virtues such as these are not intended to be confined to a person’s private, religious life. They are intended to spill out of the individual and to shape society. Consequently, Christians seek to shape society so that it exhibits goodness, knowledge, love etc. The Bible is perfectly clear about the treatment of foreigners and immigrants. God defends their cause and we are to love them (Deuteronomy 10:17-19, Old Testament, The Bible).

    Theresa May is well-known as the daughter of a Church of England minister and has publicly stated that she is a Christian (2). It is difficult to understand, then, how she could have thought it was godly and Christian deliberately to develop a culture of hostility in the Home Office. We often bemoan the state of our society and the world in general, but if Christians, particularly those with worldly influence, ignore or refuse to seek to embed the virtues of the Bible into our culture and do the exact opposite we have no right to complain.

    We must not confuse virtues with issues. Issues are the matters of policy – gay marriage, assisted dying, immigration etc. – virtues are about the kind of society we want to be, it’s fundamental culture – goodness, gentleness, mercy, honesty etc. Christians may differ and divide over issues but about virtues we should be of one mind and heart.

    Christians say they desire to see God’s Kingdom come. When we  support or even promote a culture antithetical to biblical virtues we work against the Kingdom and betray our King.

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_May
    2. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93lzl1vpeqo

  • Not A Matter Of Right And Wrong

    mayberetiredpastor

    Not A Matter Of Right And Wrong

    12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; 13 let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

    Romans 13:12-14, New Testament, The Bible.

    Off the cuff remarks can be dangerous. We inadvertently say things we would never dream of saying in a more considered manner. These “Freudian slips” can also reveal deep, unsettling truths about ourselves or about our view of the world. Last week, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, made an off the cuff remark in response to a reporter’s question. He said  that “it is no longer a matter of right and wrong”. I confess that I have forgotten whether the context was the uproar concerning the so-called “loop-hole” exploited by a Palestinian family to gain entry to the UK or the aftermath of the White House ambush of President Zelensky.  But, the remark stands out as a deeply revealing comment about the state of our world at the present time. Right and wrong no longer have any role in the international relationships of our world. President Trump’s State of the Union address made clear what matters: “America will be rich again!” was his triumphant cry which was greeted with huge applause and cheering from the majority benches.  

    So many biblical texts spring to mind in response to such a declaration (the parable of the rich fool Luke, 12:13-21; serving God and Mammon, Matthew 6:24; the root of all evil, 1 Timothy 6:10, to name but three) that it seems unnecessary to state how unbiblical and anti-Christian such a world is. Except that so many apparently professing Christians appear to be in complete agreement with such sentiment. The world is in a very dark place.

    Last time, I wrote that Christians need to speak the light of truth in the darkness, so, the Palestinian family did not exploit a loophole but followed Home Office procedure to the letter and fully within the law (1); President Zelensky is not a dictator and did not start the war.   But truth is more than words. It is also about how we live our lives. Our daily acts that demonstrate who we are following and which reveal the light of a different Kingdom ruled by different laws: not bowing to Mammon, the god of wealth; welcoming the outcast and stranger; treating others as we would want to be treated; receiving and giving grace; serving one another and not grasping for ourselves.

    It is the season of Lent, the period of fasting in the church calendar before the celebration of Easter. The true fast that God desires is the breaking of injustice, the releasing of the oppressed, the breaking of every bondage, the sharing with the poor and hungry,  homing the homeless and clothing the naked (Isaiah 58:6-7). Every small act that contributes to these pushes back against the darkness that is enfolding us.

    1. https://www.declassifieduk.org/rights-and-wrongs-over-gaza-judgment-exposes-starmer/

  • Judgement Comes

    mayberetiredpastor

    Judgement Comes

    13 For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. 14 They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace. 15 They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.

    Jeremiah 6:13-15, Old Testament, The Bible

    37 Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

    Matthew 5:37, New Testament, The Bible.

    Apart from a few initial expressions of outrage and astonishment there seems to be little continuing outrage expressed at President Trump’s proposals for Gaza. Although many do object and deride the proposals it is in terms of what is practical and possible. The proposal to remove all the Palestinians from Gaza and turn it into a playground for the rich is being given legitimacy. Gone is the language of “ethnic cleansing”. Yet, this would be the clearest example of ethnic cleansing since World War II and it would be perpetrated by an American President with the agreement and delight of a Jewish Prime Minister and his government.  There seems to be an awful irony here.

    It gives us a clear insight into the moral framework of Trump and his administration: the world is seen entirely through the lens of the real estate developer and a rather shady one at that! Everything is up for grabs to the one who has enough market muscle to make it their own. Hence, Putin will have his way and annexe a huge portion of Eastern Ukraine and Ukraine will have no say in the matter, in fact, Ukraine will have to give up its mineral wealth to the US as well or face obliteration!

    Returning to Gaza, it is noticeable that the proposal for removing the Palestinians does not include an offer by the US to give refuge in the US, rather they are to be taken-in by Egypt and Jordan. Thankfully, Egypt and Jordan have refused to take part in this charade.

    With the ascendancy of Trump we have truly entered into a great moral darkness. It is more important than ever that truth be spoken so that the light can shine in the darkness. The proposal to remove all the Palestinians from Gaza must be named and condemned for what it is – ethnic cleansing – and it must not be sanitised and legitimised by describing it as anything else. There is a judgement that is coming and it will not deal lightly with those who oppress the widow and the orphan or who teach that good is bad and bad is good.

  • The Strongest Democracy?

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Strongest Democracy?

    First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

    1 Timothy 2:1-2 New Testament, The Bible

    We have been in the US since the beginning of the January on grandparent duties. Consequently, we have had a ringside seat as President Trump began his second term as president. It has been like watching a horror show – deeply disturbing yet fascinating at the same time! He has already done many things that have left us open-mouthed,  but the  most disturbing was the very first thing he did on taking office: the pardoning of those who had been convicted and sentenced for their actions in the January 6th attack on the Capitol building at the beginning of Biden’s presidency.

    I was astonished to realise that an American President apparently has untrammelled powers of pardon. Previously, I had assumed there were strict conditions on who could be pardoned and that this only happened rarely. But President Trump in an unceremonious flaunting of untrammelled power set aside mass convictions and sentences that had been imposed after due process of law. What we see here is the unravelling of the rule of law. The law is not perfect but it ensures that everyone is held equally accountable (in principle) before it. This was severely undermined by the Supreme Court ruling that a president cannot be held legally accountable for actions taken in the capacity of president and now, Trump, by overturning convictions he doesn’t like, has made the law subject to the personal whims of the president and there is nothing that can be done about it.

    This seems to me to be a major turning point in American democracy. Americans have delighted in boasting about the strength of their model of democracy. But now we see that, at its core, it is weak and, perhaps, now is crippled. Unspoken convention has been the thing that has held American democracy together, but now there is a president who pays no heed to unspoken convention and who is supported by a Congress that likewise has abandoned convention. The consequence is the crumbling of democratic rule. In it’s place we have the rule of a dictator – although I suspect Trump would prefer the title “King”. Which is ironic given the history of the US.

    Christians are commanded to pray for kings, governors and governments. This is sometimes read as simply praying for the well-being of the ruler(s). It is, in fact, a holding to account of all human rule. We ask that they be held to account and conformed to the standard of the heavenly court. Certainly, this is a time for prayer for Americans.

  • Ancient Economics For Modern Times

    mayberetiredpastor

    Ancient Economics For Modern Times

    6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, “Let them marry whom they think best; only it must be into a clan of their father’s tribe that they are married, 7 so that no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for all Israelites shall retain the inheritance of their ancestral tribes.

    Numbers 36:6, The Bible, Old Testament

    So, at last, we have a half-way sensible budget! Last week, the UK Chancellor delivered her first budget. Thankfully, the neo-liberal rhetoric of the general election was just that – rhetoric. What was actually served on budget day was a clear expression of traditional Labour values. Half-way sensible because General Election promises has meant the Chancellor resorting to raising employer national insurance contributions – a maybe dubious move. But, at least there was a return to common-sense economics – you get what you pay for! Someone has to pay in order to restore public services to good health and for investment in the economy. The new government has decided that it should be businesses.

    What the Chancellor’s first budget demonstrates is that the economy of a society is determined by the ethical framework that is applied. The social ethics of the Bible as expressed in the law of the Jubilee (1) are usually considered irrelevant and unworkable in a modern capitalist society but the underlying principles are, in fact, directly applicable. As encapsulated in the biblical quotation above the gift of the Promised Land is for the people of Israel – not just a ruling elite. It insists that every family possesses an inalienable right to their own parcel of land.

    What we see here is the delineation of society’s stakeholders as the people. The social ethics of the Bible lay down the principle that each and every stakeholder in society should have the same inalienable right to the economic resources necessary to support themselves and to flourish. In modern economies land is not the basic resource we use to measure and allocate economic resource that role is taken by money. Applying this fundamental biblical principle thus means that every individual should possess appropriate financial resources to support themselves and to build their lives. The idea of a universal basic income/universal basic wage sometimes discussed amongst economists is thus not so far-fetched if you are keen on seeing biblical principles applied in modern society. This is the idea that every adult receives out of general taxation, as a right, an income that would enable them to live at a minimum standard.

    Many Christians when first encountering this notion feel that this is something for nothing and a recipe for laziness. But this is exactly what it was in the Bible – inalienable land by right for nothing! But they still had to work their land wisely. In the same way, people receiving a universal basic income could choose to do nothing, but to prosper and be fruitful they have to work and use their basic income wisely. For the state, the advantages seem numerous: welfare support, welfare benefits, state pensions etc. all  become unnecessary. Administration of a universal benefit is simple and inexpensive (no need to means test or assess eligibility). Taxation becomes simple as all earned income  can be taxed directly at some appropriate level without the exemptions and allowances that bedevil most taxation systems and which create cliff-edges when benefits/exemptions are removed/reduced as earned income increases.  People would still be able to prosper and, for some, become rich, but inheritance tax (the year of the Jubilee) will ensure that excessive wealth accumulated by individuals is returned to the wider economy and thus to every stakeholder.

    The law of the Jubilee and its underlying ethical principles might have been originally decreed for an ancient agrarian society, but they can be applied directly to great benefit to modern society. For Christians this must surely be a good thing.

    1. The Most Hated Tax, Diary of a Maybe Retired Pastor, 25.10.2024

  • The Most Hated Tax

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Most Hated Tax

    25 If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next-of-kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold ….  28 But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.

    Leviticus 25;25-28 The Old Testament

    The most hated tax in the UK is, it seems, inheritance tax (or, estate duty). This is the tax paid on the inheritance passed on by parents to their children. The success of the right wing media in embedding this antipathy amongst the general population is impressive and rests on the narrative that the inheritance we pass on is the result of the hard work of the parents over their working lives. It’s their property. It feels like legalised robbery. What is never emphasised is that the majority of people will not have to pay any inheritance tax because no tax is payable below £325,000 (or £500,000 if you pass your home on to your children). Only those who have more than this when they die will have to pay any tax. The majority of people do not have this kind inheritance to pass on. What is also never said is that inheritance tax is one of the most effective ways in ensuring that extreme wealth is released into the wider economy rather than being hoarded by a small minority. It is the reason why the power and privilege of the aristocracy was broken in the last century thus enabling general living standards to rise and promoting a more equal society.

    The year of the Jubilee (referenced above) is usually treated as an interesting but obscure provision in the Bible for the ancient people of Israel. Every 50 years, any land purchased had to be returned in its entirety to the original owners. Wealth accumulated by the minority could not be held in perpetuity and passed on to their descendants – it had to be redistributed back to the people. It was, in essence, a 100% inheritance tax! The wealth of the land was to be equally shared so that every Israelite had the opportunity to prosper.

    By and large, Christians are just as antipathetic to tax, inheritance tax in particular, as the general population. But the law of the Jubilee challenges that antipathy. If you are a Christian who professes to take the Bible seriously, and believes that its provisions are relevant to today’s society, then the law of the Jubilee should give you pause for thought: Should you reevaluate your antipathy towards inheritance tax?   It is not simply an effective tax it is a divinely ordained tax and its presence as part of our taxation system should be welcomed as an example of kingdom ethics at work in our modern society.

    The Jubilee law is part of the Holiness Code in Leviticus. It begins with the call to be holy because God is holy (1). Christians are called to reflect God’s character not only in their personal lives but also in the society that they build. The UK Chancellor will very shortly present the first budget of the new government. It is widely anticipated that changes to inheritance tax to raise more income to fund essential public services will be included. How will Christians respond? Will we raise our voices in complaint at more taxes and threaten to leave the country, or will we welcome the alignment of public policy with biblical values and the greater reflection of God’s character in society?

    1. Leviticus 19:1-2

  • The Statue of Ozymandias

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Statue of Ozymandias

    4 I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.

    Joshua 23:4-5

    The last year has made it evident that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is driven by the belief that the rightful borders of modern Israel are the borders of ancient Israel (variously defined in the Old Testament). They consider it not merely a matter of historical inheritance but the promise of God Himself. It is theirs by divine right. Consequently, ceasefire negotiations have merely been a smokescreen behind which the Israeli government can complete its effective annexation of Gaza. It is the reason why the return of the hostages has never been a major priority and why Israeli settlers in the West Bank are brazenly encroaching on Palestinian lands. It is the reason why the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has been able to operate a ruthless campaign of mass civilian casualties even while claiming it is minimising civilian casualties (an essentially meaningless claim). The ethical framework of divine right provides the moral justification and moral imperative – what they are doing is not only justifiable, it is holy.

    The UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has urged the UN Security Council this week to insist on a ceasefire by Israel, but western leaders, in particular, have not understood that conventional international responses will be ineffective because the Israeli government is no longer operating within the same political framework. Even if not stated in so many words, Netanyahu and his government are engaged in an holy enterprise.

    Israel is no longer talking the same language as the US or the West.  As a result, Israel is deaf to the blandishments of the West, which leaves only coercive actions – refusing to supply military equipment to Israel, economic sanctions – or hand-wringing. Netanyahu’s government has, probably rightly, judged that the latter is what will happen.

    Those who are religiously inclined in the West (and many western leaders, especially in the US, profess to be so inclined) may well struggle with what appears to be clearly stated in the Christian Bible concerning the borders of Israel. But the Christian Bible is not just the Old Testament, it is also, and primarily, the New Testament, and with the New Testament there came a hermeneutical shift of tectonic proportions initiated by Jesus Himself. Jesus read the Old Testament so differently from His contemporaries that it caused huge tension between Himself and the Jewish authorities. For the New Testament, Israel is so much more than borders on a map. Indeed, political borders are irrelevant. The Israel of the New Testament is a people knowing no borders, it is unbounded, encompassing peoples from every nation and language having no geographical limit. The promise of God in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament in an astonishing way beyond any mortal anticipation, and just as the Old Testament states, God does it Himself. The borders that Netanyahu and his government are pursuing are a mirage in the sands of history, no more holy than the statue of Ozymandias.  

  • Wes Streeting, Please Up Your Game!

    mayberetiredpastor

    Wes Streeting, Please Up Your Game!

    The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.

    Proverbs 16:23,  The Old Testament

    We have just spent rather a lot of money on essential maintenance of our house. I knew that we needed to attend to issues that had been developing over the years. We replaced our roof a few years after we moved in and in memory it is still the “new” roof. But damp in certain spots and actual leaking during a heavy rainstorm this year convinced us that essential maintenance work was due!   Similarly, our external walls were showing signs of deterioration and some  repointing was in order. We were not prepared for the amount of work that needed to be undertaken when the builder came round and inspected the roof and walls! As we thought about it more carefully, we realised that our “new” roof was over thirty years old and that the brickwork on the house is nearing 100 years!  So, we bit the bullet and agreed to all the work. Now that the work has been done, we feel reassured that the house will be good for another 30 years and that what we pass on to the children will be worth passing on.

    Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of Health for England, has begun his term by asserting that the problems facing the National Health Service (NHS) cannot be solved by throwing money at it (1).  It’s disappointing to hear a Labour Party Secretary of State still deploying neo-liberal Conservative rhetoric when discussing the problems facing the NHS, even after a huge parliamentary majority has been won by Labour. The facts are indisputable, in every single year of the previous Conservative governments inflation adjusted spending on the NHS has been several percentage points below what is acknowledged as the stand-still spending requirement (2).

    Health economics is complex, but we can get some idea of the scale of the cumulative reduction in financial support for the NHS by the 35% pay claim of junior doctors to restore their pay levels to 2010 levels. We can reasonably assume that the overall funding deficit for the NHS must be on a similar scale. What would happen if our own household incomes shrank by a third over 15 years? Well, for one thing, the essential maintenance that my wife and I have just carried out could not be afforded and we would have increasingly significant problems with leaks and damp in our walls as the fabric of our house deteriorated.

    Which is exactly what has happened in the NHS. We know that waiting-times in the NHS are getting worse. What we may not understand is that a significant proportion of that increase is because the fabric of our hospitals is failing as timely maintenance could not be afforded (2). Power failures, leaks, unsafe buildings result in cancellation of procedures which increase waiting times. Staffing is, of course, another issue. The falling level of pay over the years means that more and more experienced staff leave for better opportunities elsewhere.  This not only means that more and more very expensive private sector (agency) staff are used to fill the gaps, but that the NHS staff body is becoming less and less experienced and can’t work at the same efficiency as the experienced staff they are replacing. And, of course, the failure to properly fund adult social care means that, at any one time, more than 10% of hospital beds are occupied by patients waiting to be discharged.

    All of this is the result of inadequate funding. What Wes Streeting would be right in saying is that increased funding will not result in an overnight fix. There is no fix that could do that. These problems cannot be resolved overnight, or even, in the lifetime of a single parliament. But increased funding is absolutely essential for any improvement at all. To pretend otherwise is simply disingenuous and following the playbook of Conservative neo-liberal-speak. Wes Streeting simply has to up his game if he’s going to make a real difference!

    1. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27175749/wes-streeting-nhs-major-reform-labour/ acc. 17:52 28.7.24
    2. BBC News – More money and staff – so why isn’t the NHS more productive?
      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0dmvdmmv80o  acc. 15:55 29.7.24

  • Migrants – Who Are the Real Criminals?

    mayberetiredpastor

    Migrants – Who Are the Real Criminals?

    28 Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; 29 the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.

    Deuteronomy 14:28-29

    Last week, the BBC featured an article in which they tracked down the person who provided the boat in which a young girl was suffocated as her family tried (with scores of others) to reach the UK from Calais. This was but one tragic story amongst the many as desperate people risk all to reach the UK. This particular story stood out because video footage was captured of the little girl with her father  getting into the boat. They had been living in Sweden and the children had been happily settled there for years but then they were deported (1). The moving interviews of the distraught father were a illustration of just how badly wrong our immigration system (or lack of it!) is.

    The identification and running down of the smuggler (2) was an impressive piece of investigative journalism but one was left wondering what was the point?  It would not solve the family’s problems or the sadness of the siblings. It would not alter the fact that people will continue to attempt the hazardous journey across the Channel. Unquestionably, the smuggler and others like him are exploiting a situation where they offer hope to desperate people, but the smugglers have not created the situation – they merely exploit it.

    The language which is used of irregular migrants frames the issue as a legal matter. So, people providing the means of transport across the Channel are smugglers, migrants adopting irregular means of entry are illegal, and – under legislation proposed and carried out under the now last UK government – such migrants run the risk of immediate deportation to a third country (the Rwanda plan) and are treated effectively as criminals such that they are detained, denied work, and potentially, permanently denied the right to apply for entry to the UK. Making this a matter of criminal law conveniently provides a framework for justifying the exclusion of migrants regardless of circumstances and avoiding our moral responsibility to another human being. They are criminals and so they are at fault. We, on the other hand, have no fault and so are free of moral obligation.

    The UK, of course, is not alone in this approach. Europe and the US, bastions of the liberal, democratic order, take the same approach. It is a convenient washing of the hands, an excuse for refusing to develop decent, humane, well thought-out immigration policies that address the desperate circumstances of migrants and fairness to the resident population. It enables us to turn a blind eye to the underlying causes of international poverty, inequality and the impact of power politics by the self-same nations and their rivals.

    Returning to the specific issue of the Calais migrants, it baffles me that we (the UK) do not simply set-up a visa processing unit close to the migrant camps. Surely that would be cheaper than deploying boats to police the Channel, paying the French police to monitor (not very effectively) the beaches, and building a big fence! This would remove the need for migrants to make the hazardous crossing and eliminate the opportunity for the smugglers and, perhaps, no more little girls will need to suffocate at the bottom of an overcrowded small boat.

    1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68930088 acc. 6 Jul 24 13:26
    2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx77l5ej2yyo acc. 6 Jul 24 13:28