Help Ukraine's Refugees.

As I sit down to write this, Putin's attempted rape of Ukraine continues unabated. Attempted because the plucky victim is fighting back. This is very much Putin's war and following a bungled military operation to gain a quick victory, we will see him reverting to type. Expect more indiscriminate shelling and bombing of civilians as Putin attempts to terrorise Ukraine very much as he terrorises his own population using his internal security apparatus. Neither is working. In Russia itself, despite Putin's propaganda machine working overtime, thousands are being arrested on a daily basis for anti-war protests. At the same time, many Russians are voting with their feet and leaving the motherland. Meanwhile along the European borders of Ukraine we face the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. In both cases we see a common cause: escape from dictatorship. Too often we hear government ministers congratulating themselves on what they are doing for refugees, but they fall far below the standard of our fellow Europeans. As we have seen, ceasefires for humanitarian corridors are not being honoured by Putin. Why? This is just another attempt to coerce Ukrainians to give up. The latest brilliant idea by Putin is that you can now evacuate but it has to be through Belarus or Russia, where the aggression originated. It is just a propaganda wheeze to show that refugees are fleeing to so-called safe havens to justify further aggression. There will be more refugees mainly women and children as men are staying to fight. How can we help? The government needs to be more generous and remove the bureaucratic nonsense so beloved of Priti Patel and the Home Office. Patel whose family were refugees from Idi Amin's brutal regime in Uganda should know better. We should match the Europeans and provide refugees with 3 year visas without question. We also need to continue being generous and in the coming weeks the emphasis will be on money. Whilst the stinginess of the government is a national disgrace, the generosity of the British public knows few bounds. Humanity and our British values demand that we keep it up.