AS we prepare to welcome the Syrian refugees we can be certain that all of them would prefer to be living their pre-civil war lives in Syria – in the towns and homes they loved before they were destroyed – than hauling children over barbed wire, trudging along railway lines, and having to live off charity.

The other certainty is that our sending more armaments and military personnel into the battlefield that was their country can only result in more destruction and killing and add to the flood of refugees.

Our armed intervention in Iraq and Libya show that our politicians do not have the slightest understanding of the sectarian issues that drive these civil wars.

They complain about the involvement of Russia on one side and Saudi Arabia on the other, ignoring the fact that those two countries are two of the largest customers of our arms industry.

This country has in the past shown great diplomatic skill in obtaining international co-operation to set up organisations bringing and building peace by – as Winston Churchill put it – jaw jaw rather than war war.

We must urge our government to get down to the real hand work of persistent diplomacy, not take the easy and ineffective option of passing the buck to our armed forces.

Maurice Vassie, Cartmans Cottage, Deighton, York

 

IT has taken the prospect of being inundated by refugees that brought the dire state of our housing crisis to the fore again.

It has taken the wisdom of Matthew Laverack (Letters, September 22) to illuminate the disastrous state of our house-building industry.

One has only to note the alternative weekly Property Press of a 60-page secondhand sales edition and an eight-page new sales edition, with lettings and adverts, to understand the current position.

Until we get rid of the conjoined and meaningless words “affordable housing” from the English language, the building industry will never be able return to the previous level of activity it enjoyed to produce the millions of new homes we desperately need.

Len Spray, Trent Avenue, Huntington, York

 

WITH all the hysteria about refugees, we must start facing reality before we take any action.

First, we must listen to the chief of MI5 when he warns of the dangers from young Muslims who have been easily radicalised by extreme Muslim preachers.

Secondly, we must remember the persecution that Christians and other non-Muslims have suffered over centuries in Islamic countries.

Thirdly, we must remember that some Christian refugees were thrown off the boats into the sea by some Muslim refugees.

We must decide, if we are to accept refugees, where our priorities lie. We have a serious housing crisis – why make it worse?

At the start of the year Spain had 400,000 empty properties owned by the state and a further 400,000 empty properties in private hands.

Perhaps with some financial help from the EU, and Germany’s open doors, there can be a solution that will satisfy all the moderate people.

Derek Martin, Maple Grove, York