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| David Cameron plays the numbers game | David Cameron plays the numbers game |
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| Even for a prime minister accustomed to labile policymaking – “It’s Monday and now for something completely different” – the past few weeks have proved somewhat challenging for David Cameron. Less than a month ago he was happily referring to refugees from the Middle East as a swarm; since the devastating front-page picture of a drowned child washed up on a Turkish beach, the prime minister has been backtracking so fast he was also in danger of drowning. In his own milk of human kindness. “Heads and hearts,” he improvised. The worse the media reports, the greater the number of refugees he promised the UK would take. | Even for a prime minister accustomed to labile policymaking – “It’s Monday and now for something completely different” – the past few weeks have proved somewhat challenging for David Cameron. Less than a month ago he was happily referring to refugees from the Middle East as a swarm; since the devastating front-page picture of a drowned child washed up on a Turkish beach, the prime minister has been backtracking so fast he was also in danger of drowning. In his own milk of human kindness. “Heads and hearts,” he improvised. The worse the media reports, the greater the number of refugees he promised the UK would take. |
| By Monday morning Cameron had said Britain would take between 10,000 and 15,000 refugees, so there was eager anticipation in the chamber when he came to make his statement on the refugee crisis and the security situation in Syria to see if Dave would go any higher. | By Monday morning Cameron had said Britain would take between 10,000 and 15,000 refugees, so there was eager anticipation in the chamber when he came to make his statement on the refugee crisis and the security situation in Syria to see if Dave would go any higher. |
| “We are proposing that Britain will take 20,000 refugees,” he announced to loud cheers from his own benches; cheers that died somewhat when he added the caveat ‘over the course of this parliament’. As Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour party for the next few days, pointed out, that could just mean Britain took 4,000 refugees a year – roughly 12 a day – for the next five years. Not exactly crisis management. | “We are proposing that Britain will take 20,000 refugees,” he announced to loud cheers from his own benches; cheers that died somewhat when he added the caveat ‘over the course of this parliament’. As Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour party for the next few days, pointed out, that could just mean Britain took 4,000 refugees a year – roughly 12 a day – for the next five years. Not exactly crisis management. |
| This kind of detail seldom bothers the prime minister and it didn’t now. “No other European country has come close to this level of support,” he declared, remaining completely unfazed when the father of the house, Gerald Kaufman, observed that Germany had already agreed to take 10,000 refugees in a single day. I guess it depends on how you do the maths. What’s more, Dave was proud of not being bullied into taking fixed quotas “because we are not part of the EU’s borderless Schengen agreement or its relocation initiative”. | |
| Though we might as well be. Every time Labour’s Yvette Cooper has suggested a number of refugees the country might take, Dave has always gone out of his way to make sure the Tories’ tally is at least one higher. Call it competitive humanitarianism. All Angela Merkel has to do to make sure Britain takes the number of refugees the rest of the EU would like is to whisper a number in Yvette’s ear. | Though we might as well be. Every time Labour’s Yvette Cooper has suggested a number of refugees the country might take, Dave has always gone out of his way to make sure the Tories’ tally is at least one higher. Call it competitive humanitarianism. All Angela Merkel has to do to make sure Britain takes the number of refugees the rest of the EU would like is to whisper a number in Yvette’s ear. |
| Related: Without a paddle: Camerons go surfing in water polluted with diluted sewage | Related: Without a paddle: Camerons go surfing in water polluted with diluted sewage |
| Dave may be hazy on most details, but on one area of the refugee crisis he was determined to bring personal experience. During the summer Dave has been swimming in a variety of European waters during his hols and he knows just how tricky the sea can be. Even with a wetsuit and a surfboard, a chap can get buffeted all over the place. So Dave was adamant on one thing. He wanted all the refugees the UK took to come from Syrian refugee camps. Taking those who had survived a Mediterranean crossing would be just giving any future refugees who were tempted to make the journey the wrong idea. Pour ne pas encourager les autres. The idea that migrants have no idea of the dangers they are facing and come over in boatloads on a whim was left to settle uneasily on the government benches. | Dave may be hazy on most details, but on one area of the refugee crisis he was determined to bring personal experience. During the summer Dave has been swimming in a variety of European waters during his hols and he knows just how tricky the sea can be. Even with a wetsuit and a surfboard, a chap can get buffeted all over the place. So Dave was adamant on one thing. He wanted all the refugees the UK took to come from Syrian refugee camps. Taking those who had survived a Mediterranean crossing would be just giving any future refugees who were tempted to make the journey the wrong idea. Pour ne pas encourager les autres. The idea that migrants have no idea of the dangers they are facing and come over in boatloads on a whim was left to settle uneasily on the government benches. |
| Nor did Iain Duncan Smith have much to add – not even to suggest that all the extra bedrooms he’s uncovered in his bedroom tax initiative might be used to temporarily house refugees – and the only real Tory cheers came when Jeremy Corbyn stood up to offer his thoughts from the farthest recess of the Labour benches that has been his home for years. To Labour’s general relief, Corbyn restricted himself to talking about the refugee crisis rather than any possibility of increasing military action in the Middle East. This relief may just be a grief deferred. This time next week it is likely to be Corbyn facing Cameron on the opposition front bench. | Nor did Iain Duncan Smith have much to add – not even to suggest that all the extra bedrooms he’s uncovered in his bedroom tax initiative might be used to temporarily house refugees – and the only real Tory cheers came when Jeremy Corbyn stood up to offer his thoughts from the farthest recess of the Labour benches that has been his home for years. To Labour’s general relief, Corbyn restricted himself to talking about the refugee crisis rather than any possibility of increasing military action in the Middle East. This relief may just be a grief deferred. This time next week it is likely to be Corbyn facing Cameron on the opposition front bench. |
| • This article was amended on 9 September 2015. Gerald Kaufman is the father of the house, not the leader. |