We can’t just base our refugee policy on what makes us feel better

People across Britain wept when we saw the picture of little Aylan Kurdi’s body on a Turkish beach. We later heard of his brother and mother dying  – and his family’s story of fleeing from Islamic State, and of their year in Turkey before boarding a smugglers’ deflating dingy. Many scream out in empathy that something must be done, that we must assimilate more refugees to help the desperate and stop the dying.

I completely agree with the need for real action to help them – but l also think the Prime Minister completely right when he says that receiving ever more people is not the answer. In fact, I believe EU countries are completely crazy if they give ever-growing numbers of refugees and migrants, picked up in the Mediterranean or in EU countries, the right to live within Europe.

There are hundreds of millions of people in the borderlands of the European Union and on the other side of the Mediterranean suffering oppression or wanting a better life for their families.