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In Hastings, people prefer to be kind to refugees, rather than reject themNick Cohen’s excoriating analysis of the government’s unforgivably cold-hearted response to Ukrainian refugees nails it precisely: Boris Johnson and Priti Patel demean us all in their assumption that most of us are racist and xenophobic (“The Tories claim we are worse than we are – and it’s the Ukrainians who suffer”, Comment). They are wrong. Even before the tragedy of Ukraine, poll after poll showed that most people want to be kind and decent to those seeking refuge. But Johnson and Patel pay attention only to that minority who don’t. And whip them up.In my own small town of Hastings, local refugee support groups have a strong presence, and collectively many thousands of followers on social media. When tiny boats crammed with desperate refugees arrived on our beaches a few months ago, there was an outpouring of support, including over £34,000 collected in a few days in hundreds of donations by local people. The response to the people now fleeing the tragedy in Ukraine is similarly powerful. Over 1,260 have signed a petition to our MP urging her to oppose the nationality and borders bill and vote for the Lords’ amendments which threw out so many of its iniquities. On the streets, in the pubs, the cafes, the churches, we find an empathy that far outweighs the repulsive narrative so mendaciously claimed as what “the British people want”. Continue reading...