Cameron’s offer of 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years is derisory – Paddy Ashdown

Paddy Ashdown writes for The Guardian:

After being taught an excruciating lesson in compassion, decency and leadership by Angela Merkel, and sensing himself behind opinion again, [David Cameron] has produced a plan to take in 20,000 refugees – over five years.

Yes – five years. Not week or months, but years.

Paddy goes on to say:

Not only is he offering a derisory number of places for refugees, but the prime minister chooses to help those who are already safely housed and fed in refugee camps outside Europe, rather than those who suffer (and die too) for want of these things inside Europe. Could it be that the toxic term here is not “suffering”, but “inside Europe”, because of the effect these words have on his backbench Europhobes? If so then – irony of ironies – the desperate and the destitute tramping towards us on the dusty roads of the Balkans are hostages to Cameron’s headbangers, just as he is.