ACCORDING to last week’s Courier, a meeting in Crediton gave “full support” to a group wanting to provide accommodation for refugees in the town and the designation of Crediton as a Town of Welcome for Refugees.

This was in fact misleading as the report, in detail, revealed town councillors were wary of adopting a motion put forward by this lobby group of only 120 people.

It is terrible to be a refugee. In a lesser way, of course, it is also distressing to be a local family on a housing waiting list.

We must help the victims of war or natural disaster, but the answer does not necessarily involve bringing them here.

I know I am not alone in thinking this way. It is, after all, the official view of the UK and the EU. But it takes some courage to say it, in today’s climate.

Far from speaking for the whole town, this group speaks for only a few. There is a silent majority who are fed up of those who presume they can speak for us all.

We cannot house the whole world. We cannot even house our own people. In the same issue of the newspaper we hear developers justifying the building of 330 new homes in a pristine Devon valley. These things are not unrelated.

Let’s be compassionate, let’s unite against injustice, oppose unhelpful foreign interventions and help refugees to rebuild their own countries.

Richard Wright

High Street

Crediton