British Nationalism?

Apologies for the overtly political nature of this article, but to be honest I found its sentiment rather moving.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jess-readett/immigration-compassion_b_8027866.html

Britain Has a Problem With Compassion, Not Immigration
by Jess Readett

I remember reading Katie Hopkins tweet detailing we 'send the gun boats' out on migrants and thinking little of it, simply because that woman deserves little thought. I brushed her attitude aside as an ignorant anomaly, hungry for attention, and not one of the UK population as a whole. But it appears her tweet does indeed reflect the fear, lack of understanding and selfishness of a nation somewhat lacking in compassion.

One controversial approach here, in response to concerns about 1. abuse of refugee screening by illegal economic migration and 2. projections of rapidly increasing numbers of refugee and resultant economic costs, was the 'Temporary Protection Visa' (TPV).

The idea basically being "After being granted a TPV, refugees were required to reapply three years later, in case conditions had changed in their homeland."

I cannot stand the opinions of Katie Hopkins... I'm sure she does it on purpose to get attention...

But she is unfortunately a symptom of a larger problem, exacerbated by fear mongering media (yes, The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers, I'm looking at you) and a government that only reacts to issues once they've gone too far.

We have thousands of people who will do literally anything to get into our country, and we put up higher fences in Calais hoping that France will deal with it so we don't have to.

I've seen the point of view detailed in the article... and have had more than one discussion about how some people are more than willing to criticise our country, but can't bear if anyone else comes here, as if that person is about to camp on their doorstep and eat the food directly from their fridge.

I think it's because we have this awful habit of separating 'us' from 'them', when in truth we all habit the same planet, and while countries need to ensure they can support the people currently living in the country, having a blanket statement that says 'I don't want any of them here' is, quite frankly, heartless. I note though, we are not the only offenders.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2tsu0h

ren wrote: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2tsu0h

Oh the British Cynic in me loves this