A reason to be proud of the Lib Dems: Tim Farron appeals for Britain to help refugees
Here’s the new film from the Liberal Democrats, tapping into something that has been a proud part of Britain’s past and something other countries have often praised us for – our willingness to help those in need even if they are born somewhere else. They are still fellow humans.*
On that Britishness point:
Today we announce a plan to take in 10,000 refugees each year of the next Parliament, while May refuses to help unaccompanied children. pic.twitter.com/66OOlNmEzj
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 11, 2017
And finally, on a similar theme, here is Paddy Ashdown:
* Though one important argument to remember to win over doubters is that refugees bring benefits to places which offer them sanctuary.
A short while after the Srebrenica massacre, we joined a march through central London calling for intervention in Bosnia. Half way through, our young son got too tired of walking and started to cry. A group of green bandannas wearing bearded Asian men, some shouting, ‘God is great’ in Arabic, offered to help, to carry him. But they were too frightening to him and we said it was all right, we would take a short break and rejoin the march further down. They begged we stayed. “You are the only blue eyed people here”, said one. As I was about to say: “My son and my husband, not me; I am a Bosnian and Muslim like you and my family are right now in peril in Bosnia…” he added: “Look around you; look how angry they all are; we need people like you, here with us, to prove there are British people who care… thank you, thank you for that… I was born here … I no longer feel we belong here…” and then he dissolved in tears, and so did I, for I could not disabuse him now…; and the group of us – our family and six bearded young British born Asians from somewhere far from London – stood motionless in embarrassment for a moment in the middle of the road, passed by a wave upon wave, a sea tide of other angry young Asian men. They had come on coaches from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Midlands, south Wales, Glasgow… They had traveled from dawn, some overnight. They were emotional, frustrated, and angry. Thousands of them. Their mosques did not organise the coaches; they did, by word of mouth – it was before the mobile phones. Islamic terrorism in the West would start five years later with 9/11 attack. Bosnia did not cause it. But it did not prevent it.
We harvest rich fruit of human capital when we show generosity to those who are in peril and we sow a poisonous seed of disregard for others’ lives when we fail to aid those in desperate need. Generosity may cost a bit on individual level, but is on a collective level a lot cheaper than selfishness. It is isn’t just decent politics, it is shrewd politics that Tim Faron and Paddy Ashdown practice – investment in humanity is unquantifiable and all the more important for it. The part of the world we may choose to ignore will come knocking on our door when we least want them.