Random Thoughts of John Reid

Things are beginning to kick off again for some of the women and children I love.

Secrets are being kept from the children. Parents disappearing off to be cross-examined without a solicitor present. Benefits about to be withdrawn; education disrupted, friends lost, belongings thrown into black bin bags.

What did these (mainly women) do wrong? They fled war-torn nations for their lives, having witnessed the disappearance and murder of many of their male family members. If they could have stayed, they would - much loved mothers and sisters left behind. Their own siblings scattered - to the Netherlands, to Canada, to Belgium, to the USA......

A group of us who met with our local MP a year ago were disappointed and hurt by the response to our concerns. By his dismissal of Christians as being naive, short sighted and gullible. If only he knew the bigger picture that we see in all the instructions given to us to look after the widow, the alien, the orphan, the strangers in our midst.

Last year I visited four children (all under 10) and their parents who were locked up in Yarl's Wood (Bedford) for 30 days and treated like criminals - I had to be searched/X rayed and go through twelve locked doors myself to see them. I would have treated a dog better!

The tide is rising again: the forced removals have returned after a summer of quiet. I pray that mercy and justice will prevail; for correct decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis rather than the cycle of:
NAS repossess house -----> benefits cut ------> destitution brought about intentionally ------> so that resistance is low -------> family accedes to all demands made of them.

If you have access to it, please read Bob Holman's article in Tuesday's Society section of the Herald. It's late now, tomorrow I will post some of it here.

Lord, have mercy.