Changing nature of politics: Trust your head not your heart

WE are approaching a number of crossroads and whichever route we, or others, choose the consequences will be profound. 

That those routes will be, as often as not, chosen through a highly emotional process, rather than rational consideration, must be a concern for anyone who values, honest, calm reflection informed by decency, humanity and the kind of morality that stands between us and our darkest instincts.

Just yesterday the UN recorded that at the end of last year a record 65.3m people had been forced from their home because of conflict, poverty or climate-change-driven drought — or all three. The UNHCR warned that this situation will escalate but that if we don’t do much more than we are doing the potential for tragedy is enormous. We can do a Donald Trump or a UKIP and talk about building walls or imposing immigration quotas — both a kind of cold-hearted looking away — or we can do the humane, decent thing and work out a way of offering refuge in a way that does not undermine our way of life. We can do that which we must hope would be done for us were we in such desperate need.