7 Sep, 2015 14:05

‘Cameron’s shift on rhetoric on migrants – result of public pressure, not morals’

There won’t be any political solution to the migrant crisis in the UK and the EU in general, until the European public pushes governments to act in a moral way and calls for more reforms, Raza Nadim, MPACUK member told RT.

RT: The UK Prime Minister David Cameron has pointed the finger at Syrian President Bashar Assad saying that “the people responsible for these terrible scenes we see... are President Assad in Syria and the butchers of ISIL and the criminal gangs that are running this terrible trade in people.” Is this surprising to you?

Raza Nadim: I’m not surprised by David Cameron’s statements. There is always an opportunity to take the blame away from our country and our role in destabilizing the Middle East leading to so many refugees wanting to flee for their lives. So I’m not surprised at all that David Cameron will try to point the finger at everyone except himself.

RT: We can see many supporters in the UK government and in media outlets who also claim that it’s the Assad regime’s fault? Why is that?

RN: Undoubtedly there will be some within the media establishment who will agree with David Cameron and try to push his side that Britain has no role to play, etc. But the reality is very clear – that our country is constantly meddling in the Middle East, denying people’s self-determination. Propping up dictators, by selling weapons to despots has played a massive role in creating this influx of refugees who are just trying to live a simple free life. Until our government takes some responsibility for their actions, we can’t move forward.

RT: Cameron who has recently described refugees as a 'swarm', now states that the UK is going to help orphaned children and thousands of refugees from Syria. Why has he suddenly changed his position?

RN: You’ve got to remember that David Cameron speaks about helping refugees etc. now, but a while back he was calling for air strikes on Syria. I mean the whole thing – it just smacks the hypocrisy, and it is important to always take David Cameron’s word with.. a pinch of salt, because he is known to flip flop on issues. But now there will be some people calling for further military action. But the reality is - we don’t need that, we don’t need more bloodshed, we don’t need more people fleeing their homes. What we need is a political solution to a political problem, a political problem created by our government’s constant meddling in the Middle East. Once we got a political solution we are in a better place to help people and make sure there are no refugees in the first place.

RT: Do you think there is any political solution here?

RN: I do not think we will reach a political solution because our country, our government is not willing to have a political solution; they do not have human interest at heart, they have their own interest at heart. If they did, they would not have to be swayed by an image of a dead Muslim child, they would have acted ages ago. When Cameron was calling refugees “swarms”, when Nicolas Sarkozy was calling them “like a pipe burst in our homes”- these people do not act based on human interest, they act based on their own often colonial interest. So I do not think we have a political solution. However, we are seeing the general public pushing for more reforms; they are pushing for the government to act in a moral way. I think if the people, the British public act and call for more action then we will see a political solution. But the reality is right now – we are run by a bunch of people who will choose war over peace any day.

RT: Cameron changed his rhetoric towards refugees after heartbreaking incident happened to a three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned in the Mediterranean. Do you think that was the case that changed his mind?

RN: Let’s be clear on something: if David Cameron was swayed by the image of a dead child he would have acted many years ago when Israel was bombing Palestine. It’s got nothing to do with dead children sadly – it is not a moral dilemma he had, one day he woke up and realized he is wrong. It is very simply to do with one thing - the only reason why David Cameron is acting a bit more than he has done before, the pathetic response that we’ve had as a country – is because there has been more pressure from the public. For us as members of the public – we have to put more pressure on our government, because the reality is – they do not have the moral courage, or the mindset that says: “We will try to stop prosecution or oppression.” The reality is – there shouldn’t be refugees in the first place. They only exist because of what our government has done. So it is up to us to A: force this government to act in a more moral way, but secondly, if the government doesn’t act in the way that we, the people want, than we need a more representative government.

Germany: Will Merkel raise taxes?

Government and business consultant Christoph Hoerstel is warning that increased spending could lead to a further rise in radical sentiment in Germany.

RT: The German government has agreed to unlock more than €6 billion to help refugees. It means Berlin will have to spend €10 billion on migrants in 2015, which is almost five times more than last year. What’s your take on it?

Christoph Hoerstel: This is somehow craziness of craziness - we are exporting on credit and we know that our debtors are unable to repay what they are getting from us. We are in fact exporting for nothing right now – that is the European crisis. If we have now the situation of little and higher tax income for the government that means it comes on these debts which will not be paid in the end. Mrs. [Angela] Merkel is spending money which she will never get - this is crazy. Certainly there is surplus of taxes right now of €5 billion, but we need 10 [billion], and 10 [billion] is not enough, because we have a lot of surplus costs.

RT: How do ordinary German citizens react to this issue?

CH: The ordinary Germans are simply very surprised that this happens. We are very slow in Germany to react to these things. They are watching as tens of thousands of people come, and this week alone it was 10,000 people coming to Germany…

RT: Berlin insists it is capable of handling the influx of asylum seekers. Chancellor Merkel claims that the country will be able to cope with the current situation without raising taxes. Do you think it’s possible?

CH: What we have here is also a liar’s blitz. If Mrs. Merkel says she won’t raise taxes – nobody has mentioned taxes so far – she is the first. That means she will raise taxes. If Mr. [Frank-Walter] Steinmeier says that 10,000 are coming and that will be it, of course it is wrong, because there are 800,000 coming and this is not the end. Nobody in the government has said that 800,000 for this year is the limit – they have put no limit on it. What is worse, they have put out of work the Dublin contract which enabled Germany to send back all kinds of migrants and refugees to those countries in the EU where they landed first. This was kind of German security so far. But the Merkel government has abolished the security, and this is gross negligence.

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