Bishops rebuke David Cameron for failing to take up refugee offer

Last Updated: October 17, 2015By

This is typical Cameron foreign policy behaviour.

Remember the floods of nearly two years ago, when Cameron said “money is no object” and then didn’t do very much? Before that crisis was over, we had discovered that he could have accessed a huge European Union fund to help pay for flood relief – but had allowed the deadline to pass, apparently because he didn’t want to upset Euro-sceptics in his party.

Now we see that Cameron, who was reluctant to offer space for 20,000 foreign refugees, could easily accommodate two-and-a-half times as many, with help from the Church of England.

Why has he failed to take up the offer? Could it be because Tory immigration policy has been a disaster and he thinks his own backbenchers will attack him if he deliberately allows anybody else in?

An extraordinary row between the Church of England and the prime minister has burst into the open as 84 bishops have accused David Cameron of ignoring their offers to help to provide housing, foster care and other support for up to 50,000 refugees.

In a remarkable move that shows their frustration at Downing Street’s foot-dragging, the bishops have released to the Observer a private letter they sent to the prime minister in early September.

In it they called on him to increase the number of refugees that the UK is prepared to take over the next five years from 20,000 to 50,000, and to consider involving the church in a national effort to “mobilise the nation as in times past”.

Describing the mass movement of refugees as a “moral crisis”, the bishops offered to rally “churches, congregations and individuals” across the country behind efforts to make rental properties and spare housing available to those who had fled their homelands.

Source: Bishops in stinging rebuke to David Cameron over refugee crisis | World news | The Guardian

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9 Comments

  1. Michael Broadhurst October 17, 2015 at 10:37 pm - Reply

    although the sentiments are right,but shouldn’t our own homeless have first consideration,and shouldn’t the bishops be condenming the govt for making them so
    due to sky high rents and benefit cuts.

    • mrmarcpc October 20, 2015 at 1:21 pm - Reply

      Yes they did Mike, yes they did, proof if proof were needed that right wingers are morons!

  2. hugosmum70 October 17, 2015 at 10:53 pm - Reply

    of course he doesn’t want the church involved. hes the devil incarnate himself. with IDS,Grayling and others as his underlings…………

  3. Nick October 17, 2015 at 10:57 pm - Reply

    i have never known a conservative mp live anywhere near a foreigner and never as a neighbor unheard of so whats that telling you ?

    these types of conservatives that we have in government are a disgrace to mankind and hopefully the rest of the EU will show the UK up as disastrous place to live in the first place

    living under a Tory government is no laughing matter either but if your that desperate and no other country will have you then be it on your own head and come here and when things get dire as they will don’t blame the likes of myself

  4. Ram K Padmanaban October 18, 2015 at 5:30 am - Reply

    It wa very clear from the beginning. that he didn´t want his targets getting affected. The refugee crisis came just after the UKBA released the numbers (which were highly out of context as JC pointed in a recent meeting).

    Behind the scenes I´m sure he pushes Theresa May to be the bad guy spewing racial hate, as he knows that he is already taking heat for austerity and many other issues. David Cameron is a vile and dspicable human being, He has a bit charisma and persuation to his character and speech, but so did Blair, so did Hitler.

    Gandhi once said persuation is a form of violence, Cameron is exploiting the fear and slight levels of discomfort that he sees in people by kindling them into racial hate with his subversively hate mongering speeches. He commits crime against humanity in every way possible not just in terms of propogating racial hate but also in terms of war crimes in Syria and Libya. Hope one day in the far future, when technology is grown beyong our imagination, scientists and experts would be able to discern his speeches and show to the world how evil he is. Nigel Farage is lesser evil than him, as he doesn´t have the same populos or convinction as this guy and does not spread the extremism as well as he does.

  5. Gary Aronsson October 18, 2015 at 12:08 pm - Reply

    Why are you constantly beating the drum for mass immigration,do you get a buzz out of importing ever more poverty into Britain,does the idea of making our existing poor ever poorer give you a thrill?
    Not ONE of these so called REFUGEES is genuine for the simple reason they have just left TURKEY,a SAFE country.They are ALREADY SAFE,they may not be RICH but they are SAFE,we have no obligation to accept ECONOMIC migrants and ALL of them are that because they are driven by GREED and not DANGER!!!
    The people who end up PAYING for YOUR trendy middle class conscience are the EXISTING BRITISH POOR,those least able to withstand more poverty are the very ones who end up being MADE poorer by the bleeding heart liberals who foist the economic consequences of your Guardian reading view of humanity down the throats of those you pretend to care about but constantly impoverish!
    If the Bishops are so keen to help then they can do what Jesus suggested and sell ALL they have and give the proceeds to the poor.The C of E has land,property and art holdings worth BILLIONS of pounds,they can sell this and spend the proceeds on helping these people,the ECONOMIC migrants who are SAFELY living in TURKEY. But these extremely WEALTHY fake Christians have no right to demand that the government spend OUR money on these people when they have been VERY careful to avoid spending their own.

    • Mike Sivier October 20, 2015 at 12:58 pm - Reply

      Are you saying Turkey must take every single refugee? One would imagine Turkey would object to that.
      Still, I’m approving your comment because it demonstrates the bizarre beliefs of a small element of UK society.

  6. mrmarcpc October 19, 2015 at 3:34 pm - Reply

    And the flood victims occurred in tory heartlands and he still didn’t help, proves what an out of touch, ignorant, arrogant moron he is, that was his own backyard and still he did nothing and if he won’t do anything for them, the refugees have no chance!

    • Mike Sivier October 19, 2015 at 5:18 pm - Reply

      And yet they still voted for his party.

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