Ukrainian refugees, meet Britain’s ‘hostile environment’. We should be ashamed | Simon Jenkins

You could hardly imagine a frostier welcome for these desperate people. The comparison with Europe tells you everything

One and a half million desperate Ukrainian refugees. Fifty British visas. It beggars belief.

In time of war we should keep emotional responses in proportion, but sometimes the hypocrisy is intolerable. Boris Johnson is frantically - and blatantly - traipsing his Churchill act through the capitals of Europe. He hurls abuse at Vladimir Putin and promises Ukraine guns and missiles, aid and sanctions, persecution of oligarchs, anything short of soldiers. But when asked to do the one concrete thing that might directly relieve that country's agony, he reverts to type. For god's sake keep these Ukrainians away from our shores. Remember the ark of the Brexit covenant.