Cold winds a-blowing. How to deal with asylum seekers. The vagaries of language.

Gusty winds and thundery showers are apparently the order of the day. There were certainly gusty winds, and an extremely cold ones at that, when I went out firt thing this morning. 

Thinking of cold, we all criticise ICE in the USA for its treatment of supposedly illegal immigrants. How about the treatment of asylum seekers in the UK? The latest thing is that families whose asylum claim has been denied are being offered up to £40,000 to voluntarily “go back to where they came from”., £10,00 per family member. They have a week to decide whether or not to accept the offer. In the event that they turn it down, theybwill be forcibly repatriated: ‘If you do not go back, we will definitely deport you and your family, and if you or your child tries to get away, our officers will handcuff you, your child and your wife and put you all on a plane using physical force’. 

Okay, they’re not being swept up,off he street and put in a detention centre far away from family and friends, but it’s still a very threatening message being put out by the home office.

Image the situation: you’ve gone through whatever trauma caused you to flee your homeland in the first place. You’ve spent years applying for asylum here. In the meantime you’ve settled into a community, you”=e made friends,your children have gone to school, they may be about to take GCSE exams. And suddenly you have a week to decide what to do, a week to reconcile yourself to another change, a week to reorganise your life.

On a world-wide scale we need to find a better solution to the movement of people problem. 

On a less serious matter, someone asked on social media, “Why is it called lukewarm, like why isn’t it medium warm? Who is Luke?l”

Merriam-Webster dictionary responds:

“Luke” is an archaic word meaning ‘tepid, warm but not hot”.

Which means that ‘lukewarm’ is technically redundant …

“warmwarm:

Language is odd at times. For example, I read that ‘avon’ basically means ‘river’ in old Celtic. So the River Avon, of which there are apparently several in England including the one that flows through Stratford upon Avon, is really called River River. 

So it goes.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!