Cameron is isolated at home and within Europe, he must relent and welcome refugees

David Cameron is, ultimately, a thoroughly decent man. When he muses on the human tragedy that lies behind the ‘migrant crisis,’ it is clear to see that he genuinely means every word and is not playing the part of a politician faking sympathy and sadness to please a public increasingly horrified by the images plastered on its screens and all over the newspapers. But, this good man has a punishing tendency to make life extremely difficult for himself, running scared of the right, Eurosceptic elements of his party, and the kind of Tory voter that would be readily persuaded to switch their support to UKIP, especially in European elections.
This tendency sees Cameron setting himself up for rather spectacular falls, maintaining positions that become increasingly untenable and continuing to stick to them long after it’s become evident to everyone else that this is the case.

No clearer illustration of Cameron’s peculiarly paralysed leadership exists than his political handling of the issue of immigration and migration, where it’s all gone horribly wrong for the Prime Minister. First, there was the ridiculous pledge to cut net migration to the tens of thousands – a pledge that is meaningless whilst free movement exists across the EU and that, in any case, has proved absolutely impossible to deliver and will continue to do so until a large number of those entering Britain are removed from migration statistics. This reckless promise has, I’m sure, been a major contributory factor in Britain’s decision to opt out of any EU quota systems or attempts to create a common asylum approach, and, up to last night, its decision to turn a blind eye to the refugee crisis that is spiralling out of control. Yes, Theresa May was right to caution would-be migrants that it’ll be no picnic in Britain, but let’s face it, it’s going to be much better than what these people have risked life and limb to flee. She and Mr Cameron are also quite right that we need to confront the problem at source, tackling problems in the countries from which the migrants come and pursuing the ruthless gangs smuggling them away with scant disregard for their lives, but that doesn’t help the scores of refugees and migrants already here in Europe and in need right now. In fact, Cameron and May have offered no concrete solutions to this crisis, whilst demonstrating the very worst excesses of decades-old British pick and mix attitudes to Europe. It’s all very nice having open borders when it comes to Eastern Europeans taking on the jobs that Brits don’t want to do, or when they enable British couples to retire with ease to the Spanish coast, but when people come looking for help who can’t give anything back straight away, our doors are slammed closed and it’s everyone else’s problem – a common approach for Europe that’s not good enough for special Britain. All the while, David Cameron trots round the continent in pursuit of another of his crazy, untenable promises, trying to re-negotiate an even more favourable basis of membership for Britain, having appointed himself as the man to make us say yes to the EU. But as the Austrian chancellor rightly points out, why would anyone give an inch to a country whose idea of European solidarity is entirely one-way?

Even now, Britain is failing to help our European neighbours. I do believe that David Cameron has astutely realised that the tide of public opinion is turning increasingly against him on the hard-line, tough-talking approach to the current refugee crisis. Some, such as the columnist Richard Littlejohn,claim that we can be saddened by the picture of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi, but continue to shrug our shoulders because it wasn’t our fault, but even for many right-wingers, this and the many other pitiful images are just too much and they realise, as they did with the Ugandan Asians, that a civilised society has to do more. But Mr Cameron, who has not provided a figure to accompany this slight climb-down, does not plan to take a single Syrian refugee from among those who have already made the perilous journey to Europe, but from the UN refugee camps close to Syria’s borders. So even now, Britain refuses to support Europe. David Cameron has made a concession sufficient to ease his conscience, and I don’t criticise him for it – he’s a man of principle and decency, but he’s only done as much as he can possibly do without appearing to have conceded any political ground. In reality, though, it’s not just a humanitarian obligation that Britain isn’t fulfilling, it’s a basic duty of fairness to a union that brings us huge economic benefits and which has tolerated our whinging and special sense of entitlement for much too long. It is, of course, sensible for European nations to do that. Public scepticism in Britain is sufficiently strong that it’s been a necessary evil for other countries who want to benefit from British membership of the EU, to make concessions. But when the EU faces the biggest crisis in its history, and when, more than ever, its many nations have needed to stand as one, it’s finally snapped at Britain’s dismissive ‘your problem’ attitude.

In spite, therefore, of early indications of a climb-down, I believe that this is only the start and that, if Cameron is caving in to public pressure, that pressure must be kept up. That’s why I’ve today signed the petition on Parliament’s website which has been cited as a major driver of Britain’s rethink, and I invite you to do the same by clicking here. Britain is not full, and Britain has always done its part. We continue to spend billions in foreign aid and rank among the world’s biggest donors, so David Cameron is right to highlight that we do understand and acknowledge our moral obligations. But think about it: when you go to any major city and see a homeless person on the street, in an ideal world do they actually need your money, or do they need you to buy them a cup of tea and help them find a bed for the night? It’s the same thing here: refugees are crying out to us begging for our welcome and sanctuary, not for our cash. No, we can’t take as many people as Germany because Britain simply isn’t that big, but we can do better than nothing – and for all the platitudes, a few hundred Syrian refugees is a next-to-nothing contribution. Why are local councils showing the leadership that the government is lacking?
The public have spoken loud and clear, and I’ve never been more proud of Britain for it. On the right and left of British politics, people are urging the government to take action and abandon this terrible, heartless stance. They are not going to criticise Cameron over the daft net migration promise he made years ago, which is already in tatters anyway. They’re not, as Littlejohn claims, simply reacting emotionally to a terrible picture of an innocent child drowning on Europe’s shores. This picture of just the latest in a series of tragedies has simply triggered the response that has been growing for weeks. That response isn’t overwhelming sadness or anger, but a clear, rational belief that enough is enough and a recognition that, if Greece, Italy and Hungary have to cope with hundreds of thousands of migrants about whom they have few humane choices to work with because of Europe’s lack of unity, Britain can shoulder a greater burden than it does.

David Cameron, we’re tired of Theresa May’s tough-talking and overblown rhetoric, and your platitudes. We know that you’re right – difficult problems must be confronted at source, but what does that solve in the here and now? Relent on this. I urge you to do so not in spite of being a Tory party member, but precisely because I am a proud Tory. Britain doesn’t run an empire anymore, and I want us to stop arrogantly leaving the rest of Europe to sort everything out, and trying to solve things our own way, in splendid isolation. David Cameron, you’re getting this wrong, both in terms of providing the best humanitarian response, and securing our political future within Europe. You want us to vote to remain within the EU, so start behaving like a European.