I'm just an ordinary bloke. In an ordinary
life. I'm not young and not old. Sort of getting old ish, if you know what I
mean. I look at the news, usually on the BBC and listen to LBC, usually Nick
Ferrari and Iain Dale. I don't like the radio adverts but put up with them. I'm
not particularly well off; in fact I just jog along. As I said, I am just
an ordinary man in an ordinary life.
Why am I so bothered then
about the current Middle East crisis, particularly the mass movement of
refugees to Europe? It’s not as though I can do anything about it, what can an
ordinary bloke do? So, as with many other subjects that arise in my life, I think
about them a bit, talk about them a bit and then forget them and move on to the
next world shattering piece of news. But this is different. I can’t seem to
shake it off and its getting frustrating because - what can I do about it? It
doesn't help to have it rammed at me from every corner of the media in almost
every hour of the day. I tell myself - yes you've guessed it - 'what can I do
about it? What is the right way or the wrong way to deal with this? And does it
matter what I think?' Well does it?' Yes I suppose for me - it does.
My starting point has to be
my childhood and the people I grew up with. This of course is what shaped me,
made me what I am today. I can remember clearly the aftermath of World War Two,
when my family, like many at that time, struggled with food rationing and the gradual
rebuilding of our country. Many of my father's friends were ‘damaged’ young men
with either physical or mental 'left-overs', sustained from active service
defending our country from the horrors of Nazi Germany. And there were
horrors! Hundreds of thousands of British and commonwealth young men and women
were slaughtered during the long struggle against the tyrants. I have seen
the horrors of Auschwitz in Poland and other concentration camps and also
visited Oradour sur Glane in France where nearly seven hundred
villages were massacred on 10 June 1944; the men machine gunned and the women
and children burnt alive in the church. But my father's friends are those
who I remember with fondness as they gradually passed away in an early exit
from this life, from injuries sustained in the battle to save us. And
that's my dilemma!
Most of those I see on the news are young men fleeing
their homeland; did our own young men enjoy the luxury of escapement? No I fear
most of them stood to fight to give us a better life.
But it’s the families that tug at our
heart strings. Of course they do. The children who are innocent of anything
except life itself. Only the hardened amongst us in England would forbid them a
new life amongst us. But we have our own problems and they are not
generally of life or death. But they rest within us. The already crumbling NHS,
schools where almost no child speaks English. Families and the
elderly still waiting for a home after ten years on a list. Old people deprived
of civilized care and attention, Couples working long hours and still not
earning enough to live a life without handouts and many amongst us living on
the streets with food banks their only friend. No it’s not life or death, but
providing a reasonable life for us is what our own men died for all those
years ago. Are we giving it all away?
I read that councils
within our country are offering homes to refugees drawn from various refugee
camps which we are already helping to finance. It is worrying that these
needy people will be fast-tracked in to houses, jobs, local doctors,
schools and benefits. Local people will have to stand and watch idly as
their local services are further diluted as 'strangers' move in. There are
millions of endangered people throughout the war torn regions and we can't
save them all. There are some of us that say "but we can help a few"
and I think that's right. But the best way forward is to help the people where
they are, to use even more of the overseas budget to provide an infrastructure
where these families can live and prosper, however large their community
reaches. Our green and pleasant land is too precious for us to lose our
Christian majority. How can we possibly know the characters of the people we
are inviting in to our country; will they integrate within us or start planning
for change?
David Cameron said recently that
twenty thousand people will be allowed in to our country over the next five
years. I hope they can be settled without any major disruption to already
overworked services and I hope that all of them will be finger printed and DNA
tested and recorded so that their advancement can be managed in an orderly
fashion. Vigorous Health checks too are essensual to keep our country fit,
safe and well. We owe it to those who went before us - to those who carved out
our special land - to those who struggled to keep our English way of life. I
for one want it to stay, for me and my children and theirs to come.
Yes I feel I am an ordinary bloke. I am not a politician, nor have I any
particular experience in anything except living my life. I may not have
explained everything correctly here in my writings, and please forgive me if I
have got some things wrong or made mistakes. But as I have said many times I am
just an ordinary bloke. And I am worried.