SIR,
I am reluctant to respond to some recent
inflammatory comments in your and other
local papers, but I think it would be wrong to
ignore the offensive tone and sheer inaccuracy
of some of the responses ('In defense of Davies',
10th February) to the letter from Hamish Sandison
about remarks made by our MP.
I acknowledge that David Davies can be
helpful and responsive on various issues.
However, I also strongly believe that our elected
representatives have a responsibility to
reflect reality as it is, and not to inflame dislike
and even hatred of people from some cultures
and religions.
It seems unlikely, for example, that many of
your correspondents – or, indeed, David
Davies – would leap to condemn the whole
Baptist Church and Americans in general following
the appalling act of mass child abduction
committed recently in Haiti in the name
of so-called 'rescue'. The lasting damage
caused to those children by such an intemperate
and unthinking act could have ruined
their lives.
All religions and races have crazy extremists,
but we cannot condemn all members of
that race or religion on the basis of the
extreme actions perpetrated by a few; so why
do some people do this when people of different
races and particularly different skin
colour are involved?
As for immigration generally, I and many
others have very good reason to be grateful to
people of other races and religions who have
contributed much to the service of this country
in education, commerce, defence and industry
as well as to our culture. David Davies and
others conveniently fail to acknowledge that
such people are entitled to be here, and have
brought us the benefit of much needed skills.
I am pleased to hear that the Conservative
Party has made clear that Mr Davies does not
express the views of his party; I have to say,
however, that if that really is the case, why
has the party not spoken out more clearly to
actively disassociate itself from some of his
inflammatory views and to take some form of
disciplinary action?
I also wonder if Mr Garner, who claims that
our MP stands up for the rights of women
from ethnic minorities, knows that Mr Davies
resigned from Amnesty International in
response to their policy of allowing abortion in
the case of pregnancy resulting from rape in
armed conflict. A stance which is hardly supportive
of the rights of women who have been
abused and assaulted!
I think we all know that, as the director of
the Swansea University centre for migration
policy research said, there are "plenty of barbaric
and backward attitudes amongst men in
all sorts of communities, including white
British". I believe that our MP should take a
much more balanced approach, and not feed
the worst fantasies of some (but not all I am
sure) of his supporters.
Christine Walby
(Crucorney)