Refugees families refused - Although the Isle of Bute coped admirably.

BBC Ellan Vannin - a page I don’t often visit because I forget it's there - reports on Chief Minister Howard Quayles rejection of Daphne Caine MHKs plea for the Manx government to reject accommodating refugee families from Syria.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-45559879

It's quite interesting in that one of the various links it cites is about the 15 families from Syria resettled on the Isle of Bute in 2016 speaking in glowing terms about their new home and neighbours. The families seem to have taken to their new home and the local community to them. Bute has a population of just over 7000 - in other words about the size of Ramsey.

Of course there was some misapprehensions when they first arrived but as this article in The Guardian newspaper shows integration went smoothly.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/24/bute-scotland-syrian-ref...

Sparsely populated it has I would imagine the type of infrastructure problems that the IOM government cited as the reason for rejecting the refugee families option.

Strangely no other MHKs spoke out in support of the Daphne Caine initiative although obviously most are in favour of overseas aid as the IDC budget is regularly approved.

Anyway as I recorded yesterday in a post Mrs Caine seems to have taken any disappointment in her stride and was happily ensconced at the KPMG eGaming summit together with Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK any contreptemps it seems parked for the while.

I marvelled gazing on the assembled multitude at gambling fest some of whom had flown in for the event that we welcome refugees from the world of gambling a ‘hobby’ or addiction I personally find pernicious - but then I suppose that they will leave us again when ‘wassername’ takes the curtain call. At least I hope so!

Images: Rothesay Isle of Bute and the Helmi family on Bute (latter picture from the Guardian)

Bernard Moffatt