Crocodile tears and mealy mouthed words

Yesterday, four people drowned in the English Channel off the coast of France when their dingy capzised. Two of the dead were children.

Later, both the Prime Minister and Home Secretary released statements on how sad and sorry they were.

And yet both are at least partly responsible.

There is no legal way for a refugeee to claim aslyum before they arrive in the UK, the Government have closed down all legal ways, even for children whose parents are here. This is being nasty for being nasty's sake.

Last month, the UK appointed a zsar to stop such crossings, and a floating wall or wave machine were suggested in order to disrupt crossings, and put people's lives in danger.

The PM chose to blame people smugglers, and vowed to close that route down into the country. It is the only way at the moment. Nothing about how their actions had contributed to the deaths. Rather like the events in Greece a few years back, all talk of using gunships to stop crossings until the corpse of a toddler was photographed having been washed up on a beach.

This is the reality of the "hostile environment", actually killing people. Killing their hope before that.

This period has seen some shameful acts by our elected officals, but blaming everyone else other than themselves for the consequences of their policy decisions is perhaps the worse.