Theatre

A last minute decision to go to the theatre tonight; my youngest’s suggestion to see ‘The Glasgow Girls’, which was absolutely brilliant.

I remembered the story, a bunch of girls in a pretty disadvantaged Glasgow school launched a hugely effective campaign when one of their friends, an asylum seeker who had been in the country for several years, was picked up by the immigration authorities for deportation because her country had been re-categorised as ‘safe’. It was Kosovo, and her family are Roma - a group not popular with any of the sides in the conflict - so they would be anything but ‘safe’.

An inspiring story of acceptance, coupled with determination and defiance - and a handy reminder that the current callous attitude (not limited to the government) towards human beings in need who had the misfortune to be born elsewhere is nothing new.

I swear I will struggle not to hit the next person who uses phrases like ‘legitimate concerns’ and ‘the country is full’ as a smokescreen for mean spirited indifference.