Being a refugee is not a crime

I have heard plans that our government intends to crack down on those crossing the channel in boats.

Let me remind people that I am also in favour of this and deporting those crossing the channel to Rwanda. But only once we have an asylum system that works and that involves decent safe and legal routes to come here to claim asylum

The sad fact is that, as seen in the video, we do not have safe and legal routes for them to come.  

I suspect that the government is allowing a backlog of asylum applications to build up so that it can claim that the system is being swamped and that the action that is needed is to ignore claims and deport asylum seekers.  Yes, they are to process certain applicants quickly, and so long as this is done in a fair manner, that is a good idea. 

But let us look at how thousands of Afghans who helped British forces remain stranded by by inaction by our government and many journalists who face persecution are also being left as well. Last month, only 22 Afghans had been resettled in UK under a ‘pathway’ to help vulnerable refugees and many who have fled to Pakistan face injustice there. 

I am proud of how we welcomed Ukrainian refugees to our nation, many of whom were in safe nations outside Ukraine.  I am ashamed how we are not doing this for others. 

Edit - another video has been published showing that there is no safe and legal route for many asylum seekers to get to our nation.  

Young and Beautiful

We had our son’s birthday weekend this weekend. We could not do it next weekend as I will be working then. So yesterday was a day walking and shopping and enjoying decent food. We started with a posh breakfast, went shopping, did more shopping, ate market food, did more shopping and after a period of rest, had an amazing Spanish meal. This morning we had another posh but spicy breakfast and are now at home getting ready for the week to come. For me, this is ironing, for the kids it is homework, though my son has claimed that he is to tidy his room, something that has been happening for the last week or so.

On to Arsenal. Yesterday we saw loads of despondent Arsenal fans so I feared the worst. The family made sure I knew the score before we went for dinner as otherwise, I may have been in a sad mood. Watching the highlights on Match Of The Day, I think that we were lucky not to have been three goals down. It was great to win, but we need to defend better. What I am surprised by is that we have the joint second best defence in the league, along with Chelski and The Team That Rhymes With City. We are still top of the league, but with our defence the way it is, can that last?

Sue Gray and bias in the Partygate report

The right have complained that the Sue Gray report into the parties that Boris Johnson had is biased.  Personally, I think that she was too kind to him.  This has come about as she is to leave the civil service to take up a job with Labour.  

There was a great interview on Radio Four on the Today programme.  Basically, she made no allegations and had not attended any of the parties.  There also is an interim parliamentary report which appears to be worse for Boris Johnson, stating that there is evidence that he knowingly misled MP's over PartyGate. Which means that there is no reason to run the investigation again, even though Boris Johnson has pleaded innocence.  

Boris Johnson lied about the parties he attended.  And from what I can gather, only one person, a woman who had not attended a party, has lost their job over this.  

That absent ring of protection around nursing homes

Matt Hancock has had his private WhatsApp messages released despite an NDA agreement by Isabel Oakeshott, the partner of Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, a party which has campaigned against the lockdown's that saved so many lives.

I learned this thanks to Twitter and while I do think that a person should not be judged on who they are in a relationship with most of the time, I would have to disclose such a relationship in my Wednesday job.

After PMQ's the capacity issues that were faced were raised by the Conservatives in urgent questions.  To put it simply, there was not enough capacity to test all those entering nursing homes and the priority was to test as many as could be tested as they left hospitals.  Sadly, this was not enough as some were not tested and of those who were, results came too late to stop infections spreading.  

What was not asked was why we did not have enough testing capacity (the reason is NHS cuts before the pandemic) and why the lessons of Exercise Alice and Exercise Cygnus were ignored.  

If anyone needs a reminder of how funeral homes were overwhelmed, this is the words of a lady in the US who runs one.

PMQs and answering the question

Quick post on PMQs, I will post on the nightmare that is Matt Hancock later this week if possible.  It was good to see Rishi Sunak getting taken to task on not answering a question.  It is a shame that this has not happened on the other occasions questions have not been answered.  

While Starmer has asked searching questions, this performance today was not good for headlines and soundbites, his questions being detailed, but not short and to the point, like the answers the Sunak gives (even though inaccurate).  

Dishoom Shoreditch

My wife and I travelled to London with two friends for an indulgent breakfast. We had intended to come with our children and Leia for lunch over half term, but COVID ruined that.

The children wanted to stay behind as my son wanted to de clutter his room and my daughter had been out late and wanted to catch up on sleep, college work and also her household chores.

Breakfast was great and after we had a little walk which took in Brick Lane. It is always great going back to where my wife and I have memories, though the area has changed a lot and is a lot nicer than it used to be before. Getting back I wound down getting ready for work next week, and I hope to be fresh and ready for what the week holds.

Sharper

That was an enjoyable film. My wife and I watched it together with Leia. My daughter was away at a friends house and my son, who had watched some Grey’s Anatomy with me earlier today, watched his own things.

We had tried to go for a walk in Brightlingsea in the morning, but it started to rain once we got there, and it stopped once we left.  My daughter had taken Leia for a walk before then, but a family walk, admittedly without my son, would have been good.

As for the film, it was good to watch and it did keep me guessing until the end. I loved how it kept us engaged so well even though there were a few minor plot holes.

Finally Arsenal won. We are still top of the league but with The Team That Rhymes With City winning by an even bigger margin, goal difference will be against us.