Refugee news summary: Europe’s ‘shield’

Europe Greek-Turkish border European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen used  the language of the far-right earlier this month when she called the Greek border Europe's 'shield.' Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, told asylum seekers and migrants not to come to the border. After Turkey 'opened the doors to Europe', Greece suspended new asylum …

Make this election less racist

Days away from the election and not a single party has shown itself aware of the racism ingrained inside every issue in this country. The overt white supremacists -  our Prime Minister and the Conservatives, and the Brexit Party - are unapologetically on or above the red line. They're dangerous and simply stonewall concerns. Jeremy …

Expat or immigrant?

The threat to the dam has receded. The power is back on. The residents of Whaley Bridge, homeless for almost a week, have returned, and the blackout at Ipswich Hospital is over. "We have been overwhelmed by the generosity and community spirit shown from across the High Peak and beyond,” High Peak Borough Council said. …

Today

  Something happened Today Which set the cat among the pigeons and fluttered the dovecote Stop! Listen! How on earth do we respond? Armageddon awaits, if we get this wrong! So Let us put a loony up against an expert Let them both be white and middle aged and male Let us draw swords and …

Refugee Week 2019 – one year on

  A year ago, I posted a summary of global news about refugees and migrants. It was a horribly depressing picture. On the eve of Refugee Week 2019, it feels like nothing has changed and a lot has got worse   2018: The Guardian published a list of 34,361 people who died trying to reach …

Greta Thunberg’s Quiet Revolution

At last! Thank God for Greta Thunberg and her quiet revolution. History is filled with radically quiet, quietly radical women, overlooked first by its male guardians then by the ‘strong women’ movement – fantastically welcome, but in danger of excluding the mild, the shy and the dull (a charming adjective ascribed to Dorothy Hodgkin by …

Phyllis Pearsall – ‘Whose secretary are you?’

For getting around London in the days before pre-Sat Nav and Google Map - if  you can imagine such a quaint, techno-lite concept -  Phyllis Pearsall’s A-Z was indispensable. But most contemporary references to Phyllis are derogatory.  Take for example, the mentions she gets in the much-lauded London Review of Books. The tunnel-boring machine used …

10,000 employed to keep ‘them’ out of Europe

Some significant news was released yesterday but it was no April Fool. The European Commission agreed to reinforce its Border and Coast Guard with an additional 10,000 border guards. You might think the move would be fuel for sceptical Leavers convinced that the EU project will suck up its members into a super state, despite …

Kenosis

I wrote a letter recently, in which I asked for experts in psychology and kenosis. Which begs the question: what’s Kenosis? Well, it’s complicated.... The first time I came across it was in a book by Tobias Jones. It’s his definition I use when I talk about kenosis: creating sacred space by removing the will and …

Why ending of freedom of movement is not the right response to climate breakdown

I watched a talk yesterday by a respected philosopher. At first, I found his straightforward, gentle but firm presentation of evidence that humanity is unlikely to save itself from extinction, at worst; or face unprecedented and awful challenges, at best, to be a relief. There are fearless witnesses to our predicament out there - the …