Gone Native

Prominent right-wingers have denounced EU member states for providing sanctuary to British nationals, especially those who have been rescued from those war zones which are among Britain's precious few remaining growth export industries. The Rothermere Daily Stürmer is all of a tizzy about sickening acts of betrayal, the strutting ex-Caudillo of the Farage Falange has been blathering that Europe is committing suicide, and some prominent cheats in the EU referendum have had a bit of a foam about filthy, despicable snakes, implying that Islamist and British are separate and incompatible categories, presumably in the same way as British and Muslim. The pretext for all this righteous fury is that Salman Abedi, who was British and born in Manchester, was evacuated from Libya by the Royal Navy, shortly after the late Head Boy turned that unfortunate country into a pig's breakfast and then toddled off to better things, much as he was soon to do with the United Kingdom. Three years after his rescue Abedi killed himself and twenty-two other people in the Manchester Arena bombing; and in doing so, of course, he magically transformed himself into an immigrant and a refugee, which was a jolly irresponsible and ungrateful thing to do.