Yes well they are all a severe threat to the ethnic British way of life aren't they -
Gospel according to mair
Good Morning Monday 27th April 2026
In recent years, the world has witnessed a refugee crisis that has forced more than a million men, women and children to flee the brutal violence in their own countries. Yet despite the life-threatening situations they face, these refugees (including children) have often been met with a degree of suspicion and fear in the nations they have escaped to.
Author Barbara Fox, whose own mother was evacuated from inner-city Newcastle as a child, wonders what the difference between Britain's long-ago children and today's refugees is?
Are today's refugees really any different?
When I read a headline recently about the outrage of a 'picturesque' village to which 70 'child migrants' were to be sent, I was reminded of another time in our history when places in the countryside were obliged to welcome strangers into their midst.
Back in 1940 when she was six years old, my mother, Gwenda, and her older brother, Doug, were among the hundreds of thousands of children who left their inner-city homes and were evacuated to the countryside to escape the German bombs.
Gwenda's main memory of her journey from Newcastle to the Lake District centres round the banana she was given to eat by her mother – the last she was to see for several years. A teacher ordered the children to sit on their bags, and consequently, when Gwenda came to unpack later, she found squashed banana over all her belongings.
On arrival in the pretty village of Bampton they were lined up in the church hall while the villagers came to choose who they wanted. Yes, it does seem unbelievable that that was how the evacuees were billeted to their families! You might imagine that Gwenda and Doug – clean, nicely dressed children - would have been snapped up first (they would surely be the refugees that no one would protest about today!). But actually, that was not the case. Gwenda was the youngest child there as she was tagging along with Doug and his class of nine-year-olds - their mother had insisted that the pair should not be separated. Consequently, the locals were expecting older children, and someone of Gwenda's size probably didn't look very useful in this farming community.
Were these home-grown children that our rural communities welcomed back then really so different from the oft-maligned refugee children today?
Gwenda and Doug were the only children left when the wife of the village headmaster arrived. As the mother of two sons, she had to be persuaded to take a girl. However, she relented, and so the children went home with her. They would spend three happy years living in the schoolhouse and Gwenda would keep in touch with the couple she called 'Aunty' and 'Uncle' for the rest of their lives.
The following year, in more desperate circumstances, Bampton opened its doors to another influx of children, this time from the shipbuilding town of Barrow-in-Furness.
Undoubtedly thousands of lives were saved by this evacuation of the nation's children, and indeed, Gwenda and Doug's own street in Newcastle was bombed.
Britain also welcomed refugees from Europe, including thousands of Jewish children who might otherwise have perished.
Were these home-grown children that our rural communities welcomed back then really so different from the oft-maligned refugee children today? I would go so far as to say that the inner-city children who turned up in Bampton were often just as alien to their rural hosts as the foreign newcomers seem to be to the 'picturesque' village dwellers. But equally, both could teach something to the other.
Those harking back to 'when Britain was great' perhaps forget that it was also characterised by our opening our doors to those in need.
When the War Is Over by Barbara Fox, the story of Gwenda’s wartime evacuation, is published by Sphere and is available from Amazon.
By Barbara Fox
Twitter: @Gransnet
Yes well they are all a severe threat to the ethnic British way of life aren't they -
Gospel according to mair
Thanks, Mair. The figures were for asylum seekers in 2015. It says so. Jess is right
I had already made it clear they were for 2015.
Jess's post was superfluous unless she was implying this period was prior to the Syrian crisis, which it wasn't.
This timeline is very interesting.
By July 2014 there were 3 million Syrian refugees accepted by Syria's neighbours.
Only 100,000 Syrian refugees were in the EU.
syrianrefugees.eu/timeline/
To put it in perspective, in 2015 the number of displaced people in the world was nearly as many as the whole population of England and Wales.
It's no wonder they need to come to Europe.
To put it in perspective, in 2015 the number of displaced people in the world was nearly as many as the whole population of England and Wales
Underlining why we cannot let thm in>
It's no wonder they need to come to Europe.
Why Europe not the wealthy Muslim oil states?
However have you considered that some do not "need" to come but choose to come? The Syrians followed on the BBC2 series EXodus were not forced to leave, their lives were uncomfortable and they decided to go 'to seek a better life', but they were not in great danger. If the choice of Europe hadnt been available and it was refugee camp or stay put, I suspect they'd have chosen the latter.
Britons did not leave Britain during the blitz and parts of London were just as damaged as Alleppo. Much of rural Syria is relatively 'safe'.
@mair while what you say MAY (quoted below) be true of some, for far more this is the reality.
And no, before you start banging on about propaganda and fakes, these pictures are not photoshopped or done by me with my Letraset 
their lives were uncomfortable and they decided to go 'to seek a better life', but they were not in great danger.
You obviously have not looked at the timeline. 50% of Syria was controlled by Isis in 2014.
One in four Lebanese citizens were Syrian refugees.
There are asylum seekers in the rich oil states. However, would you want to go from one state where you are likely to be killed to another where you are likely to be killed?
It would be good if you actually admitted how lucky we are to have been born in the UK and showed a bit of humanity towards those born elsewhere. Half of the Syrians displaced are children. Imagine if it were your children or grandchildren. Where weould you like them to go if your home and neighbourhood had been bombed?
"Imagine if it were your children or grandchildren. Where weould you like them to go if your home and neighbourhood had been bombed?"
Firstly another part of Britain, secondly to our neighbouring countries where the culture and people are our close relatives, Irelnad of course, France, the Netherlands, Germany.
I would not expect countries such as Finland, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Israel the USA or Syria to welcome them.
I apply the 'Silver Rule' DJ, 'Do unto others as they would do unto you'. The 'Golden Rule' turns you into a muggins.
And if your grandkids (If you have any) were stuck in a camp (in the Scottish Highlands maybe) with no schooling and no prospect of schooling. Where there was no prospect of going home or getting work?
If that Jess, do you think the Governments of Finland, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Israel the USA or Syria would be ready to welcome them and house them and teach them the language? Well maybe Finland and the US our ethnic kin, and maybe not even them.
If my children and grandchildren were refugees, I wouldn't want them anywhere near the loving arms of anyone with some of the attitudes expressed. "Ethnic kin" what does that mean ? Jewish friends who came here in the 1930's lived with white, British families,some were RC some CofE some communists etc. Does that make them non ethnic kin? Or just kind, compassionate individuals.
USA is full of just about everyone's "ethnic kin" these days. Not all white people like they used to show on the movies
LOL
I thought ethnicity related to culture, not skin colour.
I think you got the wrong point, Mair.
Imagine if those displaced Syrian children were your children or grandchildren.
Would you really be happy if they were in Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Iran, or even Turkey?
Iam 64
Oh dear another globalist tyrant trying to dictate what words we may use!
Yes Jess the USA is very multi ethnic, but was founded by Brits and the core culture, as part of the Anglosphere, is close to our own, language, religion and geographic ethnic origins for now remains mainly Anglo European.
Are you denying this reality, or was your post just more pointless sniping?
globalist tyrant!!
Pointless sniping 
Imagine if those displaced Syrian children were your children or grandchildren
Would you really be happy if they were in Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Iran, or even Turkey?
I do not know where I personally would prefer my family to live if we were an Arabic speaking Muslim family, but its clear most of them are targeting the rich and generous countries of northern Europe.
Its understandable that they would do what is best for their own kith and kin; we should do what is best for ours. Beggars cant be choosers as the saying goes, and they should not be allowed to cherry pick!
Would you just let all of them choose their country?
What next, choose their city, choose their house?
No white wave, not 'pointless sniping', responding to an aggressive rhetorical question directed at me.
You clearly choose not to understand the difference.
Latest figures from the UNHCR
I think we are all aware that Lebanon, Jordan Turkey and other middle eastern countries have taken in millions of Syrian refugees. Millions more are still in Syria but not able to be in their homes. Or their homes are rubble.
It does not seem unreasonable at all that other countries should doing their bit to help. I think those with Christian values, Muslim values and humanist values would probably agree.
www.unhcr.org/uk/syria-emergency.html
And to cheer us up in a world where some people believe you should do unto others...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38856041
Mair's not aware of that, Jess. I keep trying to tell her, but she still insists that "most of them are targeting the rich and generous countries of northern Europe".
How many Syrian refugees have we taken in?
How many more are we going to take in?
4000 a year over the next four years?
It's amazing how fake news takes hold.
Anyway, here's some good news to make us feel pleased to be British.
www.unhcr.org/uk/a-great-british-welcome.html
It does not seem unreasonable at all that other countries should doing their bit to help
Britain has given more than any other country but the US!
Berate those Governments that are doing nothing NOT ours.
No white wave, not 'pointless sniping', responding to an aggressive rhetorical question directed at me
I always thought the point of a rhetorical question was that it is not meant to elicit an answer.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10570726/Syria-crisis-how-does-Britains-aid-donation-compare.html
This is a little out of date but note how much stingier our EU cousins are and Saudi Arabia and the other oil states response is pathetic.
Israel has actually been BLOCKING aid through its territory! Truly shocking.
www.jpost.com/Middle-East/For-the-first-time-since-Syria-war-began-Israel-opens-up-border-to-humanitarian-aid-462521
Those who claim to 'care' protest in all the wrong places!
Its hate of Britons not care for Syrians seems to light their fire.
I never think of rhetorical questions being aggressive, either. An aggressive question usually expects an answer, therefore cannot be rhetorical, can it?
I always thought the point of a rhetorical question was that it is not meant to elicit an answer
Correct and when its aggressive its called 'sniping'.
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