Last Thursday, 164 people were slaughtered in Syria by terrorists who call themselves IS. I just call them terrorists. The next day, the same terrorist group allegedly carried out three further attacks, massacring 38 people on a beach in Tunisia, 27 people praying at a Mosque in Kuwait as well as carrying out an execution in Lyon.
All of these innocent lives are of equal worth and their loss will not be diminished for being borne by brown or white skin. Grief does not discriminate on grounds of nationality, nor should the media.
Despite the Syrian attack having the highest death toll (by far) and being carried out, allegedly, by the same terrorist group, it was not deemed as newsworthy as the other three atrocities. This is no doubt partly attributable to the media’s predilection for focusing on the “British dead” but it’s also more than that. I suspect the sidelining of the Syrian massacre is also about making sure we don’t start joining up embarrassing dots.
The international community’s failure in the region has led to an escalation in civilian attacks, which in turn is creating a humanitarian crisis with refugees fleeing in droves, many of whom end up in Calais, prepared to risk life and limb to give their families some hope of a future. Who wouldn’t do the same in their position?
According to the UN, the world is facing the largest number of displaced persons in modern times, with nearly 4 million fleeing the crisis in Syria alone. Whilst the EU could reportedly comfortably absorb 1 million of these refugees, its’ leaders will only agree to provide safe havens for a mere 60,000 beleaguered souls. Britain’s expressed priority is the destruction of human smugglers’ boats rather than rescuing their discarded victims.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, child poverty is thriving under the Tories. Plans to cut tax credits, which go to the poorest children in society to buy food, shoes and pay for bus fares, will plunge 300,000 more children into poverty.
But the Tories are not ashamed. Two in three children in poverty have at least one parent in work. Rather than tackle the scourge of child poverty by providing a living wage so that families (even those with work) don’t have to resort to food banks, this government’s solution is to repeal the 2010 Child Poverty Act, so that children’s welfare can be legislated away. Forget about eradicating child poverty by 2020. Eradicate the embarrassing target instead.
This week, four UK children's commissioners have joined forces to urge the Government to halt its savage benefit cuts to prevent more young people being pushed into poverty.
The commissioners for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland sent a joint report to the United Nations, expressing concerns at the impact on children of the Government's plans to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British bill of rights.
"The HRA has been vital in promoting and protecting the rights of children in the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights has had an important role in developing the protection offered to children by the ECHR," it said.
The report criticises ministers for ignoring the UK supreme court when it found the “benefit cap” – the £25,000 limit on welfare that disproportionately affects families with children, to be in breach of Article 3 of the convention. There are now 4.1m children living in absolute poverty – 500,000 more than there were when David Cameron came to power.
The commissioners said the Government's "austerity" policies had resulted in "a failure to protect the most disadvantaged children and those in especially vulnerable groups from child poverty".
The commissioners also highlighted concerns over failures to tackle child abuse, the treatment of young people in the criminal justice system and the provision of mental health services for children and young people which they said were "vastly under funded".
With a further £12bn in welfare cuts due to be announced next week, the future for our most vulnerable children does not look bright.
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