Cameron’s affront to human decency as he turns a blind eye to a desperate asylum crisis

People of a certain age will remember the hilarious Public Information cartoons featuring the English couple Joe and Petunia from the ’60s and ’70s.

The most popular had the couple sunning themselves on a clifftop as a man in his sailin’ dinjay (as Joe, sporting a knotted handkerchief on his head called it) gets into difficulty and starts screaming for them to phone the coastguard.

Joe asks plump Petunia, bursting out of her swimsuit, if she thinks the man is in trouble.

“Oh, no, Joe, he’s enjoying himself on ’oliday!” she replies.

These days Joe and Petunia have been replaced by our unsympathetic Captain Cameron and his priggish Rule Britannia Home Secretary, Theresa May.

You can imagine them on the poop deck of HMS Awful Foreigner, politely waving silk hankies back at those terrified Africans migrants who are waving from the Med waves below them.

This is no jovial cartoon, but a real life emergency and the public’s concern at the tragedy is being represented by a cold, unmerciful, Government who, at every turn, show a callous disregard for those in dire need of help, whether here in the UK or in the Mediterranean.

A government that drags its feet and does nothing until pressure forces them to fall into line. Then, and only at the very last minute, does the UK decide to act. A minute which thousands of starving refugees might not have. It’s an affront to human decency.

The infamous Sick Man Of Europe tag over the state of the nation’s health could also be attached here, given the lack of action to help those migrants who are prepared to drown rather than stay in their own country.

Our Government’s response has been absolutely pitiful.

The UK, which arguably has a lot to answer for by sowing the seeds of sorrow in those war-torn failed states, has left them to sink or swim. Italy, which is nearly bankrupt and sinking under the weight of refugees, has bravely held its head above the water to help those arriving, some 46,000 in the past four months. Germany, Sweden, France have all helped out. Germany took more than 200,000 in the last year alone.

The UK? About 150.

This year even more will risk their lives crossing those turbulent waters and the death toll is expected to rise well above the present number of over 6,000. The whole of Europe has decided something must be done to address the distribution of the refugees and to robustly deal with the traffickers.

The UK Government? Have they agreed with any of the solutions presented? Have they hell!

Fearing a backlash at the polls and rebellion from the far right within their own party, the Tories argued about the pathetically low numbers we have admitted.

Then grudgingly, when anger was turning to revulsion, they sent HMS Bulwark to help, though not before yet more valuable time was wasted while they argued over who should take the refugees once they had been plucked from the sea.

Far too little, and far too late.

Now when all of Europe has approved an emergency course of action, which has every member state agreeing to take a quota of refugees, depending on economic circumstances, the UK has said they don’t want anything to do with that agreement and our borders will remain firmly closed.

I doubt a referendum on our membership of Europe will be needed if that’s our attitude to a humanitarian crisis. I’m sure the rest will want the UK kicked out.

We certainly deserve to be.