A warning? With major powers funding disputes around the globe and especially sub-saharan africa, there are many displaced people looking for a better life. The west cannot turn a blind eye to the atrocities in Sudan – they are being funded bypeople outside the region, possibly Russia, possibly Qatar or Saudi Arabia, and I suspect the weapons will emanate from America and Europe. So we can stop bleating about a problem for which we are, at least partially, responsible. Starmer cut the foreign aid budget to spend more on defence – a very short sighted measure. It is the instinct of the right wing populists to set up impenertrable borders (walls, fences or in our case patrol boats). These people are desperate (and whilst there may be assassins amongst them, most are just commiting everything to a better life), there are those in the UK who would shoot them on sight, and sink their boats – appalling attitudes to human life.
So Andy Burnham, what is needed here is not a pragmatic approach but an idealogical one. We should immediately stop all trade with the pariah state of Israel, Cut the arms trade to areas of conflict – however minor,; increase our aid budget and trade with impoverished regions., work with others to strengthen the UN and ICJ. The aid budget also needs careful examination to ensure it is aid, not hidden dodgy trade deals! With global warming – and AB do not enhance it by encourging drilling in the North Sea and Atlantic, the number of refugees is likely to increase. Before you condemn them try some empathy for a change.
Jodrell Bank maybe about to close due to pragmatism – whilst not washing nappies, or feeding the homeless, I personally think it would be a disaster for the UK. Surely there are a few billionaires whilling to chip in small change (for them) to keep eMerlin operational, where is the hope and pure interest? I am minded to remember Madrid Airport – fresco’s and modern art brightening the walls and corridors; arrive at Heathrow or Gatwick, or I guess anywhere in the UK and it is like walking into B&Q or a hypermarket – boring. I welcome AB’s educational initiative, but we must not lose sight of the stars, or the arts!
And Trump is uping the rhetoric by accusing any critics of being communists – quite why this has such resonance in the States is another thing I do not understand! I guess the DNA of migrants in the past was to be free of any government interference – hence the ability of psychopaths like Trump, Musk and the techbros to accumulate such paper wealth.