Just as they did with Covid, the Government has made the Ukraine refugee crisis more about us than them.
With that mythical visa centre in northern France appearing more like a mirage in a desert, the Government have also adopted their tried and trusted technique of misdirection.
Open your hearts and take in a refugee, said Minister for Levelling Up Michael Gove.
Sponsors who provide accommodation rent-free for a minimum of six months will receive £350-a-month, however many refugees they take.
The thing is, members of the public were reaching out to evacuees even before the UK Government were shamed into doing so by the Irish and so many of the other countries that had waived the visa requirements for Ukrainians.
Just like Jas Athwal, Leader of Redbridge Council in East London, who has driven two tons of donations to the Ukraine border.
Likewise Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts who has made a two-day dash across Europe for
similar reasons.
And the woman on LBC Radio who last week revealed she’d handed over the keys to her property in Portugal to three families whose men were back home fighting the Russians.
Brits don’t need telling to open their hearts.
In relation to their doors, however, there are safeguarding issues, checks and balances, structures that need to be in place to protect the vulnerable before ordinary people can simply do so.
Just because a rich celebrity can, doesn’t mean a supportive, ordinary member of the public could or should, particularly with a cost of living crisis.
Nor does it diminish them if that is the case.
There is no league table of compassion. There are no extra points.
The Black people forced out of this very country by the Government’s hostile environment could easily have predicted the kindness of strangers coming to their aid compared to the metaphorical obstacle course the Government conjures up if you want to stay here.
The parallels with the shambolic Windrush Compensation Scheme – that has compensated just a fraction of the 15,000 people eligible – don’t even require that much of a leap.
It came to mind as Ukrainians grabbing their kids, a coat and not much else with air raid sirens going off were told that they’d need all sorts of documentation to get into this country.
Just as Black people who had been here for up to 40 years had to over the last few years – and were refused the right to stay if, understandably, they couldn’t.
They know that while the Government says we should throw our doors open, in reality, they’re doing whatever it takes to keep the front gate locked.
