Lottsathoughts

I have just returned from my fourth visit to Calais to volunteer with the charities that are helping the refugees who are stuck there. The problem seems as intractable as ever and I don't pretend to know the answer. Indeed, I would argue that there is no answer, if by “answer” we want a magic wand that can remove both current and future refugees from Calais without excessive state-sponsored force, give the town over entirely to white, French-born citizens and not take unlimited and unexamined numbers of refugees into the UK for an indefinite period. That said, I am concerned that our society in general and our Government in particular takes an odd approach to problems where simple answers are elusive. There is an old saying that the definition of insanity is to keep repeating the same action again and again, expecting a different outcome, yet that seems to sum up the attitude of the French and British Governments on this problem. The French seem convinced that 24/7 harrass...

We have to avoid a witch-hunt. That's what I keep reading. It's been said by many about the sex-scandal in Westminster. It's been said in response to the Toby Young fiasco. Catherine Deneuve and Liam Neeson have both used the term this week about the Hollywood allegations. No doubt the indignants will be saying it already about John Humphrys. And it makes me madder than ever. Ironically, the term itself - “witch-hunt” - has links with misogyny in this country. It may historically be the case that worldwide, men as well as women, have been persecuted as witches, but in the British Isles it was traditionally women. Difficult women. Argumentative women. Intelligent women. Women who refused to submit to normal sterotypes. Women healers. Call them a witch and burn them. How the tables have turned. Now women are gaining the confidence of solidarity , largely through the power of social media, to draw attention to the various forms of sexis...

A New Year. An old problem. Uppermost in my mind at the moment is the ongoing refugee disaster in Calais. This has been out of the mainstream media for some time now, since the closure of The Jungle in October 2016. Maybe everyone believes that the plan worked – closing the camp, we were told, would make the refugees themselves vanish. You have to wonder where these ideas come from – do the politicians themselves believe these things? Or do they just cynically say them anyway, knowing that the press has the attention span of a gnat and will be gone before you can say “safe drinking water”? As everyone who was previously involved foresaw and warned, the refugees are still there – only now there is nowehere safe for them. Nowhere to pitch a tent. Nowhere to have a shower or use a toilet. Nowhere to cook or to get legal assistance. Nowhere to get warm or dry. No way for charities to keep formal track of who is who, and therefore, much greater difficutly in protecting unaccompanied chil...