The UK Government, like all Governments is a bureaucratic leviathan. Actions ares driven by political will and delivered by a rigid and conservative civil service.  As far as the children stuck in the Calais refugee jungle and their rescue to join relatives already in Britain are concerned, one has to ask if the political will really exists at all.

Amber Rudd has much on her plate, as do all the members of Mrs May’s government however, on the 50^th anniversary of the UK’s greatest children tragedy of Aberfan you might think that compassion for lost children who’ve already been through hell, would be at the top of the agenda.  It seems not.

Rudd says she wants names and details of connections.  Well get a civil service person to get over to Calais and get cracking.  It should be well with our Governments’ ability to act with rapidity.  All these children are existing in dreadful conditions and all are vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation.  Let’s get a grip!

Yes of course there are many other just and deserving causes at home in UK.  These needs are not mutually exclusive.  The Calais issue is well defined and relatively easy to manage and these facts alone should be enough of an incentive.

Britain has always been an open and charitable community, what we seek here is simply that families are reunited and that children who are lost can be found again. Why wouldn’t we act and act quickly?