The departure of Susan Aitken as Glasgow council leader brings to an end the most progressive man-made disaster in the city’s history.
asserted
departure → bring → history
After nine years of Aitken, Glasgow doesn’t need a replacement, it needs a recovery operation.
But a replacement is the best locals can hope for, and he comes in the shape of Ricky Bell, a man who tolls ill for residents of surrounding councils.
Bell has made it known that Glasgow can no longer cope with the influx of refugees and said: ‘I don’t think we need to stop altogether but I think we need a pause to get us into a better situation to be able to cope with.
asserted
we → need → situation
There is a lot going on in that sentence, which might be why Bell neglected to include any grammar, but the gist of it is a call for a moratorium on new arrivals.
uncertain
gist → be → arrivals
Before you go rejoicing at an outbreak of common sense, Bell doesn’t really want a pause in refugees arriving in Glasgow; he just wants them sent elsewhere.
asserted
them → go → Glasgow
Glasgow can no longer cope with the influx of refugees, its new city council leader Ricky Bell has said
He says: ‘There are neighbouring authorities round about Glasgow who’ve got empty homes just now, and we’ve got a queue of people looking for homes.
asserted
we → cope → homes
We could move some of those people and that would help the situation immediately.’
uncertain
that → move → situation
This sentence is a little easier to parse.
asserted
sentence → parse → ?
Glasgow has refugees who need homes; other councils have the homes; so the refugees should be sent there.
asserted
refugees → have → homes
I have questions.
asserted
I → have → questions
What happened to ‘refugees are welcome here’?
asserted
refugees → happen → ?
Will they still be ‘refuweegees’ after Glasgow buses them to Renfrewshire or Lanarkshire?
asserted
Glasgow → bus → Renfrewshire
The only question that matters, though, is this: why?
asserted
that → matter → ?
Why should taxpayers in other council areas have to shoulder the burden of Glasgow’s poor decision-making?
asserted
taxpayers → have → making
The reason the Home Office has settled so many refugees in Glasgow is because that is what Glasgow asked for.
asserted
Glasgow → settle → what
When New Labour passed the Immigration and Asylum Act in 1999, it created a National Asylum Support Service (NASS) to provide housing and monetary support to asylum claimants.
asserted
it → pass → claimants
Susan Aitken stepped down from being Glasgow City Council leader earlier this month, leaving the job she has held for nine years
The new arrangements allowed local authorities to apply to be dispersal cities, places where freshly arrived refugees could be diverted to by the UK Government while their claims were being processed.
uncertain
claims → step → Government
Just one local authority in Scotland signed up to be part of the scheme.
asserted
authority → sign → scheme
Now, it’s fair to point out that, in 1999, Glasgow City Council was run by the Labour Party, a quaint notion in these days of SNP omni-dominance.
asserted
Council → ’ → dominance
Yet in the near decade since the Nationalists began calling the shots at the city chambers they have not withdrawn from the scheme.
asserted
they → begin → scheme
On the contrary, the party at municipal and national level has sought to outdo Labour in its support for welcoming more refugees to Scotland.
asserted
party → seek → Scotland
There is nothing ignoble about wishing to assist those who have fled here from unspeakable cruelty and danger.
asserted
who → be → cruelty
I would contend that advanced countries, even crisis-beset ones like ours, have a moral duty to help desperate people.
asserted
countries → contend → people
That a duty is moral, however, does not make its practical application limitless.
asserted
application → make → ?
Meeting our ethical responsibilities compels us to set boundaries and budgets, rules and requirements.
asserted
Meeting → meet → boundaries
Failing to do so threatens our ability to help at all.
asserted
Failing → fail → ability
Glasgow City Council disagrees.
asserted
Council → disagree → ?
It disagreed under Labour.
asserted
It → disagree → Labour
It disagrees under the SNP.
asserted
It → disagree → SNP
One day it might disagree under the Greens, too.
uncertain
it → disagree → Greens
Politics is about good versus bad ideas, but progressives believe it is about good versus bad people.
asserted
it → believe → people
Welcoming a growing number of refugees to Glasgow might be a good idea or a bad idea, but we cannot assess the costs and benefits if the mere acknowledgement of costs is drowned in a hail of insult and accusation.
uncertain
acknowledgement → welcome → insult
Scrutinising the wisdom of inviting increased refugee settlement to a city with significant social maladies and limited social housing stock is scandalous to the progressive.
asserted
Scrutinising → scrutinise → progressive
Expressing concern about the introduction to Glasgow’s streets of young, unvetted, and unaccompanied males sounds like racism to progressive ears.
Enquire how the state intends to acclimate these males to the laws, social conventions and behavioural norms of Western liberalism and you might as well be handing out invitations to a rally in Nuremberg.
uncertain
you → express → Nuremberg
They believe debate itself is a surrender to fascism.
asserted
debate → believe → fascism
Debate might also reveal that, for at least some progressives, ‘refugees welcome’ isn’t about refugees, but moral branding to identify themselves as part of the righteous elect, the in-group of graduate urban professionals who think public policy is just a matter of being a heckin’ good person.
uncertain
policy → reveal → professionals
Refugees do not benefit from the status-seeking or virtue vanity of the progressive.
asserted
Refugees → benefit → progressive
In this scenario, refugees are not being welcomed or defended or treated with dignity.
asserted
refugees → welcome → dignity
They are being reified — commodified and exploited by privileged Westerners who treat them as a human currency with which ideological victories can be bought.
asserted
victories → reify → which
And once refugees have served their purpose, or the costs grow too onerous, their self-appointed guardians will begin lecturing anyone who will listen on the virtues of sharing burdens.
asserted
who → serve → burdens
This is what Glasgow City Council is now trying to do, in the name of ‘fairness’, of course.
asserted
Council → try → course
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
