To think we are in danger of losing our compassion

[LarrytheCucumber]

Some of the newspapers this morning have stories condemning the BBC for filming part of Songs of Praise from a migrants' church in Calais.
I can't see the problem with migrants talking about how their faith keeps them going. There is apparently a makeshift mosque and a makeshift Christian church.
Surely we should see them as human beings, rather than as a threat.

I'm still very curious about who qualifies as 'rich' if we don't.

All of them are threats or is it the few that are causing trouble?

OP post.

We are 9th richest in the world by GDP and 11th richest in the world by GDP per capita.

gotta lol at the people who don't get it. if you have thousands(and it will be) of homeless/jobless people coming into the country, it will stretch the already stretched services like ss, the government won't magic up extra money, just the funds will be stretched further....so the knock on affect will be less money for the vulnerable people who are all ready being hit by the cuts to things like ss.
or is there a magic answer that i have missed, are the people who use the "bigot" argument going to house people in their homes?

Sorry my mistake only 27th richest by GDP per capita. Therefore as I said previously, some people in the UK are struggling due to ideology not lack of money in the country.

The UK is not a poor country but neither is it one of the richest (depending on what your measure of rich is and where you put the cutoff point for "richest").

As an example:
uk.businessinsider.com/the-23-richest-countries-in-the-world-2015-7?r=US&IR=T

Yes 27th and we hand out loads of cash to countries with much bigger gaps between rich and poor like Nigeria and India and China which we really do need to stop.

Britain's colonial past is largely responsible for it being an attractive destination for many migrants from developing countries.

We're 19th for nominal GDP based on 2014 figures - both IMF and the World Bank. Smack bang between Germany and France.

The only source I can find for a 27th figure is IMF projections for PPP GDP (the World Bank actuals put us higher, between Finland and France - and PPP calculations are notoriously wobbly so need to be used with some caution).

It's bollocks, I've said it before but you're angry at the wrong people, i don't understand why it's easier to throw vitriol at people trying desperately to make life better for themselves than the people who run this country making decisions about where the money goes.
"I can't get hold of my social worker it must be because of those pesky immigrants coming over from Calais!" Are you kidding me?! You're mad, lobby your MP, write to those in charge, you're not going to get anywhere bitching and moaning about those even less unfortunate than you, and they're not going away until the problems in those countries (some of which have been contributed to by the UK itself!) go away,so until that miraculous day comes have some fucking humanity.

The sombre and sobering worry about ordinary people, your common or garden MNer for example, and the views expressed on threads like this...time and again, ad nauseum, is that they don't even realise how similar their "our (sic) money being taken away to pay for houses for dem dere foreigners" vitriol is to the bigotry expressed, say, in the 1930s against certain demographics in certain countries not so far from here.

That's what we've become. A soulless society where people don't give a fuck about anyone else as long as they are OK. Especially if that "anybody else" through accident of birth wasn't born on the same 6 inches of map we were.

"Your" money isn't being diverted to the immigrants. Trotting out that old chestnut makes you sound thick, uneducated and bigoted. And if you can't see it, well, you're more to be pitied for falling for the redtop shit you clearly gorge on.

And while you carry on spouting this (factually wrong, in any case) rubbish, DC and Gideon are rubbing their hands because you think the bad guys are in Calais.

Do a bit of research FFS and at least get your facts straight.

All of them are threats or is it the few that are causing trouble?

OP post.
I am the OP and am a bit confused by the above.
I don't believe all of them are a threat. I think I said that in a previous post. Of course those who are being violent pose a threat, to lorry drivers, to tourists and of course to other migrants.
Thank you to the person who posted the link to Christianity magazine.. I agree with Steve Chalke, that Jesus would probably make it his business to mix with the poor and dispossessed at Calais.
The Bible, in Matthew 26 verse 45 says 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' which to Christians among us (and I know not everyone shares these views) is a sobering thought.

certainly agree that many people in the UK have a shit time of it but that is due to ideology not a lack of resources

Isn't that the same the world over?

not sure I understand though how when resources are stretched for the very poorest here - already - how that makes their situation better by allowing in, more people who are also desperate.

As far as I read Kent social services has had unsustainable increase in dc needing help from migrants, there is no budget and no resources.

whatever - is causing that poverty, that need, is - well, there...and needs addressing.

Whilst I am sure many of the male migrants are honourable and supporting families, there was one story of a pregnant wife abandoned by her DH in already in the UK who told her he couldnt get her in.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/kent-social-services-overwhelmed-by-unprecedented-number-of-child-migrants-trying-to-flee-calais-10429231.html

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/30/kent-social-services-struggling-to-cope-with-children-seeking-asylum

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11779325/Kent-Council-pays-150-taxis-to-get-young-asylum-seekers-out-of-county-amid-foster-care-crisis.html

Isn't that the same the world over?

Not entirely, in my view - look at the impact of European agricultural and trade policy on farmers and economies elsewhere, for one example. They are paying for another country's (or group of countries') ideologies, not their own.

And then there are examples like Eritrea, where the UK systematically and intentionally dismantled all their economic infrastructure in the 1940s to help achieve their geopolitical goals. That's a country that continues to pay the price for UK ideology.