Daniel Boffey’s account of those desperate souls attempting to cross the Channel – where five people drowned this week – was one of the most powerful pieces of journalism I’ve read for a long time (‘England is hope’: some say they will try again – despite Channel deaths, 23 April). That it was published on the same day as Rafael Behr’s equally incisive take on the matter (Starmer must drain the poison from the immigration debate – it’s what the public wants, 24 April), as viewed through the prism of domestic politics and attitudes towards immigration here in the UK, seemed all too fitting.
These two articles are two sides of the same coin yet worlds apart, reflecting a toxic duality that seems to be the defining characteristic of this issue – both for those who seek to come here and for those in their prospective new home. Hope and horror coexist – intertwined yet strangers to each other. Ditto pragmatism and principle, feelings and facts, hate and humanity.
