I WAS sorry to see the letter from S. Ross (Bury Times, July 2), which attacked Bury Council's decision to contribute to the national effort to assist the Kosovar refugees.

Mr Ross concludes: "Let us get England right before trying to solve the rest of the world's problems".

He is wrong on two counts.

Firstly, we are not trying to solve the rest of the world's problems. We are only doing our bit, a comparatively small one, in response to our own Government's call to help them respond to a huge refugee crisis right on the borders of the European Union, of which we are a part. Something like a million people have been driven from their homes. To offer temporary shelter and respite to 82 of them is hardly profligate.

Secondly, if we wait until "we get England right" before trying to help people outside England, we might wait forever. Mr Ross would do well to remember that England's Patron Saint, Saint George, is reputed to have cast his cloak in twain so as to offer half to a man who had no cloak. Would Mr Ross have waited until he had two cloaks?

COUNCILLOR DEREK BODEN,

leader, Bury Metro Council.

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