While Germany has agreed to accept up to 400,000 refugees and is offering scholarships to its universities so that Syrian refugees can finish their degree course, the UK “proudly defends its borders” with fences, and heavy doses of xenophobia. Germany has already accepted 40,000 refugees and the UK has accepted 90. The EU has a plan for the even distribution of refugees across al the members states, and the UK has refused to take part. The UK is now justifiably considered the “Nasty Country”. Teresa May once said that the Conservatives were being considered the “Nasty Party”, and there is a streak of nastiness which has permeated our culture in the last 60 years.

Then there was a determination to make the country a warm and welcoming society, to address social ills, to work against the unfairness of wealth distribution. Tax rates of over 90% on the richest and increasing welfare for the poorest, massive house building by local authorities so that everyone could rent a decent house , etc., were combined with rapid economic growth based largely on manufacturing.

Then Britain accepted 20,000 refugees, fleeing from the brutal Russian suppression of the Hungarian revolution. They were welcomed as heroes, people competed to entertain them for Christmas. The press was very positive towards the refugees and appreciated the contribution that they made to the UK,

The Lord Mayor of London launched an appeal to support the refugees which was combined with a vast amount of volunteering. I spent 6 months at the RAF Hednesford reception centre, organising transport and driving up to 1,000 miles a week, collecting refugees from Stafford station and taking theme to job interviews, to accommodation throughout the midlands, even to weddings. I had the same accommodation and the same food as the refugees plus ten shillings a week for pocket money. It was a great experience, and later, travelling to Austria to work on post occupation rebuilding as a volunteer, I was in the same train as Hungarians returning to Hungary, grateful for the refuge provided by the UK but keen to return home. We hope that, in time, Syrians will be able to return to a peaceful and democratic Syria,

Then the UK accepted many thousands of refugees from Uganda, escaping from the tyrant Idi Amin.

Then the UK welcomed a huge influx of “economic migrants” who drove our buses and staffed our hospitals

Then, when Enoch Powell tried to stir up fears of racial conflict he was sacked from the Cabinet post that he held.

Now we will not cooperate with the rest of the EU in supporting desperate refugees from the horrendous situation in Syria, in Somalia, in Libya and David Cameron is carrying out a bizarre mission to weaken the EU with the threat that we will leave if he does not get his way and Teresa May suggested that refugees would stop coming if we withdrew rescue services and let them drown.

A combination of Thatcherism, Blairism, the Daily Mail, the Murdoch press have combined to changed the country from a warm, welcoming, cooperative society to a really nasty country.

Lib Dems will work to reverse this and will find increasing support as people realise what we have lost and what we have to gain. Tim Farron’s call for the UK to accept 40,000 refugees is a start, we need to go on to produce a fairer society, which treats people as humans with a contribution to make, not a “swarm of illegal migrants” and work for economic growth based on industry, not on finance using borrowed money.

David Walker 3 August 2015

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