Ministers have mobilised anti-east European sentiment before. Now they just look spiteful
Boris Johnson could end the inhumanity of Britain’s treatment of Ukrainian refugees today. He need only say that the UK will do what every European Union country has done and grant them temporary protection. No visa forms designed to catch you out. No insolent officials throwing up obstacles. Just come. You are welcome.
Hungary is virtually a Putin puppet state, but had taken 530,000 Ukrainian refugees by the end of March. Ireland’s neutrality periodically disgraces it, but nevertheless it expects to house 30,000 by Easter. Hungary’s population is a seventh of the UK’s. Ireland’s less than a tenth. Yet, as of last week, the UK has accepted just 12,000 refugees.