Refugee crisis

There have been plenty of bad decisions taken by European politicians in the last few years. But few will cause as much misery as Angela Merkel’s refugee policy. Her decision to rip up the Dublin Convention and announce that any Syrian can claim asylum in Germany will lead to more people putting their hands in the lives of unscrupulous human traffickers as they try desperately to make it to Germany. This will, tragically, lead to more deaths. In the magazine this week, I argue that Merkel’s policy is flawed on several levels. First, she has chosen to prioritise those Syrians who have already made it to Europe. These people are

I never knew my paternal grandfather, who was apparently a bitter, angry right-wing journalist who thought the world was going to hell; although as this was the 1930s, he was pretty much right. Almost the only thing I remember being told is that in 1938 he and my grandmother took in an Austrian boy as part of a scheme in which 20,000 Jewish children were taken away from Hitler. (I only heard this story from my mum, as my father was too English to talk about his parents, and felt rather less uncomfortable in war-torn Beirut or Biafra than actually talking about his own emotions.) I don’t know what happened to

Are there any immediate solutions for fixing the refugee crisis? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Paul Collier discusses this week’s Spectator cover feature on this topic with Douglas Murray. Are there any easy political solutions to this crisis? Where in the world should concerned politicians look to find solutions? What can the Jordanian authorities do to help? And what should the European Union be doing to fulfil its ‘duty of rescue’? Philip Delves Broughton and Freddy Gray also discuss how Hillary Clinton is winning the 2016 race — for the Republicans. Why is she failing to be an inspiring candidate? Has the Democratic party realised that Clinton is failing to deliver? Could