is it me, or is dear Nigle being suspiciously quiet when there are people in real, obvious need?

[Fatmomma99]

Or do I just not read right papers?

[ScarletRuby]

I was just thinking the exact same thing.

[ratspeaker]

Not sure I understand who or what Nigle is or the context.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I expect he's busy in the refugee camps handing out food parcels.
Or not.

[InTheBox]

ratspeaker reference to Nigel Farage who's constantly on air or in newspapers berating the government and other ministers over anything and everything. Now with this ongoing crisis in the Med, he's being suspiciously silent.
Yesterday a UKIP candidate tweeted about the small boy who drowned saying the only reason he died was because his parents were selfish and this is the price they paid for 'queue jumping'

[Lookingforwardtoholiday]

He was on LBC this morning

[Binkybix]

I would not normally defend NF at all but I do seem to remember him in the election debates saying that the UK should offer to take more of the Syrian refugees. Not heard anything from him since.

[ChwatFeechers]

That tweet took my breath away, InTheBox.

People actually are that callous.

[FyreFly]

I'll just leave this here...

[Fantasyland]

Katie Hopkins is also very quiet considering her tweets awhile back 'show me the dead bodies floating in the water I don't care'

Lots of people asking her to respond on Twitter but she not responding

[EddieStobbart]

This is the first time I've actually thought pulling out of the EU Might have to happen. The whole concept of "people from outside the UK coming here" has already been turned into one big toxic ball and politicians have been afraid to help those who really really need it because of this. Nige might have made the right call on this but he's played a big part in contributing to why politicians have been so slow to act before now.

[hypnoticrabbit]

Maybe he just has a differing opinion? Why does he have to say anything, presumably it is his right to keep quiet if he so wishes?

[OTheHugeManatee]

Unless I'm much mistaken Farage's stance was always that we should get rid of the EU principle of free movement, not that we should lock the doors in a refugee crisis. IIRC Farage said we had a moral duty to take more Syrian refugees and that it was people's resentment at high levels of intra-EU immigration that was making this politically more difficult than it should be.

[multivac]

He stated on R4 the other day, after being asked five or six times for a number, that we should take in "a couple of thousand" refugees...

[SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad]

He's probably too busy counting his expenses money...

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nigel-farage-expenses-storm-ukip-6377358

[InimitableJeeves]

No, KH is bound to take the line that the deaths of the Kurdi children are all their father's fault.

[FyreFly]

I'll post the Guardian link too: www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/29/nigel-farage-syrian-refugees-uk

Nigel Farage was calling for the government to take Syrian refugees way back in 2013. Perhaps he simply feels he doesn't need to reiterate it and the situation is speaking for itself.

[zippyswife]

Farage has repeatedly said over the past couple of years that we should take Syrian refugees. His issue is with immigration not refugees coming here. The two issues are separate and he seems to be in the minority of politicians that are able to separate the issues.

[SoThisIsSummer]

As far as I remember he said we should be taking in more people feeling from Syria.
He also mentioned ISIS wanting to flood Europe with refugees and also ISIS members.

Let refugees in, but also be cautious about who they are. Sounds fair enough to me.

Happy OP?

[SoThisIsSummer]

"I think refugees are a very different thing to economic migration and I think that this country should honour the spirit of the 1951 declaration on refugee status that was agreed," he told BBC News

I think actually there is a responsibility on all of us in the free west to try and help some of those people in Syria fleeing literally in fear of their lives


^ interesting - this is Farage from the article posted.

Your thoughts op?

[SoThisIsSummer]

Unless I'm much mistaken Farage's stance was always that we should get rid of the EU principle of free movement, not that we should lock the doors in a refugee crisis

Of course one of the reasons the UK public is reticent about allowing refugees in - is because of Tony Blairs out of control Migration program in the 2000's.

[multivac]

"A couple of thousand" refugees. He thinks we should take in "a couple of thousand".

[Fatmomma99]

The word "some" keeps popping out at me.

I also don't have a problem with economic migrants either. Why shouldn't someone move to get a better life for themselves or their family? It's not different to people living in the sticks but commuting into a city for a better paid job.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

That article was written nearly 2 years ago. Where has he been over the past couple of weeks or months? If he genuinely believes that he should have been all over the media putting pressure on Cameron to stop being a dick and actually do something.

The fact that he hasn't been speaks volumes. Either he's a spectacularly useless leader or more likely a lot of people have fallen victim to a very, very good pre-election PR campaign to paint UKIP as the sensible voice on immigration rather than a bunch of racist bigots. It's unlikely he ever meant it, he was just trying to change people's view of the party. It didn't matter what he said when there wasn't a huge humanitarian issue.

[Andrewofgg]

Then there is Austin Mitchell who has tweeted that we should deport one East European for every Syrian refugee we admit. What a charmer.