Sparing Themselves

Under different circumstances, the latest report from Oxfam might have come as a bit of a shock, especially to those who voted to leave the EU because they believed the Farage Falange's propaganda about hordes of darky types pushing us past the breaking point. The Oxfam report notes that the world's half-dozen biggest economies, which together account for more than half of global GDP, host slightly less than nine per cent of the world's refugees. Of that number, Germany has taken about a third, with the rest split between the US, China, Japan, France and our open, tolerant and oh-so-fragile selves. It appears that the UK has been driven to breaking point by a swarthy swarm of 168,937, or slightly more than the population of the vast and overcrowded conurbation that is Warrington. Meanwhile, another half-dozen countries - Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, South Africa and Palestine - are dealing with more than half the problem while accounting for less than two per cent of the global economy; which of course seems only fair. Nevertheless, it might have come as a shock for our sovereignty-mongers to learn that the number of refugees living in their street and taking all their jobs is something less than the world population of scroungers, and certainly less than might be expected given the frequency and enthusiasm of the wog-bombings with which Britain has helped to motivate the future wards of G4S upon their way. Fortunately, given the present frenzy of cool reason among the saviours of our Britishness, these distasteful tidings are likely to remain largely unheard.