15 Sep 2025
It’s almost crippling to be relentlessly battered by the ugly, simplistic nonsense we have to put up with from the likes of Trump, Vance, Musk, Farage, and Jenrick. And then to walk into an oasis of wisdom, compassion and erudition from eight Syrian men and women at an event organised by Action Syria, many of whom only just survived the Assad regime, which was propped up by Trump and Farage’s hero Putin. People like to talk endlessly about ‘disastrous Britain’, and yet tonight’s meeting highlighted to me once again how extraordinarily lucky we are to live in the UK, particularly when you compare it to what people are dealing with around the world, including countries like Syria, which are facing the monumental task of climbing out of the abyss created by the Assad family. There was more insight and acuity in tonight’s meeting than anything Musk could say in a thousand years. Including from Waad Al-Kateab, who made the incredible film FOR SAMA. Waad is now thankfully safe in Britain with her family, having arrived here as a refugee. How lucky are we to have this amazing woman and her brilliant colleagues amongst us. And it’s so debilitating to know that none of the 100,000 people led by Robinson into London this weekend will ever understand it.