Refugees: 'There are too many, so we won't help any'

•  Some have strongly objected to the front page photo published today by The Independent of a dead Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach, whose family was trying to escape war and terror. This photo is too upsetting, said many.  However, similar objections were made when photos were released of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp after the Second World War, but only then did the world start to fully understand the true horrors of the Holocaust. Now, the world needs to understand this worldwide refugee crisis. Maybe this photo will at last open eyes - especially those of the British government, which has stated that it doesn't want to offer asylum to refugees.

The poor, the unemployed, the homeless, the disadvantaged - many of them in Britain think it’s them or us. Refugees fleeing terror, war and torture? We’re full. People here need looking after first. Charity begins at home. We don’t want them. We can’t afford them.

Those were the typical comments by some British people on what the country's response should be to the world's worst refugee crisis.  The new Conservative government seems to be taking them on board  - and ignoring urgent pleas by other Britons calling for a more humane response.*