A new play revisits the story of Ireland’s 18th-century German refugees, whose experience of prejudice and exclusion resonates with today’s debates over immigration

In the early 18th century, a few thousand Germans fled religious persecution and near starvation in their homeland and ended up in remote rural Irish villages. The Irish Palatines, as they were known, were poor, conservative homesteaders who couldn’t speak the language and were the object of suspicion and violence – precursors to the displaced Syrians or Afghans of the past decade.

Their story is told in Refuge, a co-production between Staatstheater Mainz and the Irish company Fishamble. Part love story, part social commentary, it is performed by a mixed cast, mainly in English but with some German interludes.

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© Photograph: Andreas Etter

© Photograph: Andreas Etter

© Photograph: Andreas Etter

Where heating is available, many cannot afford to adequately heat their homes. Only 32% of households reported being able to do so during the last heating season, a figure that dropped to just 1% in frontline regions.

The prime minister tells MPs the next summit with the EU will be held on 20 November

Burnham to urge MPs to embrace closer ties with EU

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, is speaking now. He started his speech with an account of a 73-year-old woman dying in North Wales after having to wait 23 hours for an ambulance, and he sought to link this to immigration.

He said:

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that 15,000 people across Britain died last year due to excess wait times for emergency treatment. That’s 300 people a week, 300 lives destroyed, 300 families devastated.

And that number has increased tenfold over the last decade. This is a moral outrage, and it is a direct result of decisions made by Tory and Labour governments.

I don’t think that’s because he wants to have a fight over the European Union. I think that’s because he knows what we’re talking about today impacts hard in what is known as the red wall.

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© Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

Shabana Mahmood is to announce a fast-track new legal route for "vulnerable" refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere that will grant them permanent settlement in the UK.

The post Mahmood to Open New Fast-Track Legal Route for Refugees appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Refugee Action is busy lobbying the Government to scrap its "cruel" new asylum bill. Which is curious, says Charlotte Gill, because this 'charity' received over £16 million in government funding in 2021-25.

The post Refugee Action: The Government-Funded Charity That’s Busy Lobbying the Government appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.