Johnson twitters while migrants drown in the Channel

How did it come this? Tens of migrants drowning in the Channel. There is a sense of inhumanity about current events. A sense of unreality. A sense that the horrors of humanity at its worst is lapping up on the shores of the Channel. Alive. But often dead.

There is a sense of unreality about our government's response. And that of the French leadership.

This is people's lives. People escaping the horrors of conflict and political suppression. People who want their children to go to school. People who want to set up thriving businesses. People who want to pay their way.

Instead, some of them drown. Their dreams of a better life destroyed by exploitation of modern day smugglers. Not smuggling contraband but smuggling people. There are many echoes of this from our colonial past but this a current emergency, not something you can look up in the index of a history book.

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel want to push migrants back to France. Johnson has never understood diplomacy and he showed that yesterday in his engagement with Macron publishing on twitter his letter to Macron.

Macron was furious. Priti Patel is reported to have been banned from a meeting this coming weekend with French politicians on the crisis.

Priti Patel - what can you say? "English Channel Small Boats Incident" was the title of her debate in the House of Commons yesterday. "Incident" doesn't do justice to the tragic incident. But that is Priti Patel.

The strain on public services in some counties, especially in Kent, is at breaking point.

We are a big country and with a history of absorbing migrants fleeing from persecution. We have a history of tolerance and welcoming of people who are not from our small island and are culturally different. We also have a contrary history of intolerance and racism.

I sit on the tolerant side of life. If people are fleeing in desperation, we should provide them with shelter along with the ways and means to build new lives.

* Andy Boddington is a Lib Dem councillor in Shropshire. He blogs at andybodders.co.uk. He is Friday editor of Lib Dem Voice.

Johnson twitters while migrants drown in the Channel (libdemvoice.org)