Sign In
0 Items (
Search
Comments (5)
Canadians are blessed. Not only can they stage a serious debate, at times a grimly humorous one, without the interruptions of a homegrown Tony Jones, they apparently lack a counterpart to Waleed Aly as well. The result is an hour of civilized, polite discussion and blunt sentiments, all presented without a partisan host or the common-room platitudes of a Muslim token.
Can the West absorb legions of undocumented arrivals from societies very different from our own?
Mark Steyn and UKIP’s Nigel Farrage talk of Cologne, female genital mutilation and alien, transplanted cultures that feel neither need nor pressure to embrace the values of their hosts. Indeed, not even to respect them.
By way of response, Schama recites John Donne while transnational bureaucrat Louise Arbour re-heats the boilerplate of the multi-culti gabfests that are her bread and butter.
Below the screen grab from yesterday’s global webcast, a live link to the video.Visitors will find it an hour well spent.
Interesting debate.
But I was hoping to see the results of the exit poll posted either on the site itself or in the comments section.
Before debate: 77% pro the motion, 23% con
Exit poll: 55% pro, 45% con.
https://www.munkdebates.com/debates/Global-Refugee-Crisis
That’s a little bit encouraging considering the make up of the audience. It means that an extra 22% of the audience were prepared to make a decision after thinking about it and being responsive to facts after hearing a smidgeon of reason rather than the usual leftist method of decision making being made solely on emotion.
Good debate, but like Q&A, the audience was stacked with Inner City elites and luvvies from the bureaucracy and academia. Mark Steyn partly nailed it in his closing statement when he said it is very easy to be compassionate and caring and moral from 30,000 feet in an aeroplane or when you live in the European/Canadian/American equivalents of Toorak or Darling Harbour. To my mind Steyn could have and should have nailed the coffin shut by asking how ‘refugees’ or homeless people even from their own home countries that Louise Arbour or Simon Schama had in their suburbs let alone in their own streets or own homes.
The hypocrisy of the left is breath taking but is never challenged. It is bloody easy to be compassionate and generous with somebody else’s money and efforts, but the left don’t/won’t ever risk their own money and efforts. I’d have a little bit of respect for even Sarah Hansen-Young [and her numerous ilk and acolytes in the MSM] if and when she ever publicised her address and opened her house to even the genuine homeless of her home state or city, let alone for any of the ‘refugees’ from other countries.
From memory, the EU’s official figures are that at least two thirds of the migrants into Europe are economic migrants.
Nigel Farage omitted to point out in defence of UK that it is far more densely populated than any other EU member state, and population density is not a factor in the EU’s mooted quota policy.
The reason Farage disputes the UK’s official immigration figures is that they are based on surveys of incoming passenger flights. The number of applications for National Insurance numbers – essential to register to receive benefits or to work as an employee (not self employed) – are 2 to 3 times higher.
Simon Shama also omitted to point out that for every migrant the EU returns to Turkey under this new deal it gets one additional Syrian from Turkey. Talk about a cynical trade in asylum seekers!
Nobody mentioned that the UN Convention on refugees requires the host country to grant the same movement rights to refugees as its own citizens after three or five years. So there is not much point in singling out particular countries in the EU or for thinking that the deal with Turkey is particularly relevant (apart from Erdogan’s blackmailing the EU to the tune of 6 billion euros). Within the next few months, if the EU goes ahead with its plan to give Turkey visa-free access to the EU, all refugees who have been in Turkey for the 3 (or five) years will be able to move en masse into the EU, including Britain.