How many of the people that were either supportive of or engaged in attempts to set fire to hotels

containing refugees this summer will also be people who are sick to death of hearing about the

situation in Syria? It's weird, isn't it? I don't have a particularly sparkling insight into that

cross-section of society, But the idea that you cannot care

about the situations and scenarios that create exodus of humanity while being passionately

opposed to the consequences of those exodus of humanity is yet another illustration of how

dangerous it is for disgusting people in public life to offer up simplistic solutions to incredibly complicated problems.

But none of us are perfect. None of us know everything, despite sometimes perhaps giving the impression that we think we do.

Did you just hear Angela Eagle in the news then?

Did you hear that bit about what happens in Germany if you are involved in public, in people

smuggling? The idea that if you were helping somebody make their way, or rather if you were

smuggling somebody towards a country that was not in the European Union, you would not actually

be a criminal in Germany.

I'm just going to say that again. Remember, in 2016, everybody knew exactly what they were voting for.

So huge amounts of the infrastructure of international people smuggling rings are based in Germany,

up to and including the actual vessels, as I understand it,

the particular types of vessels best suited to those sorts of hazarded cross-crossings

are largely concentrated for reasons in Germany.

And if you voted for Brexit in 2016, you voted to decriminalise involvement in people smuggling in Germany if the people had the United Kingdom as their final destination, as opposed to, for example, France or Spain or Italy or any other country that remains in the European Union.

How many times has Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg or Nigel Farage acknowledge their role in decriminalising

involvement in people smuggling in Germany? A massive contributory factor to the explosion in small boat crossings

that we have witnessed since. I find these moments almost unbelievable in their crassness and their consequence.

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