In response to Europe’s growing migrant and refugee crisis, Bob Geldof has announced he will immediately make his family home in Kent and London flat available to any migrant family that needs them.
Should the Queen of England follow suit and do the same with Buckingham Palace and other royal estates?
Formerly known as the man who nearly saved Africa with a rock concert and a single in the mid 1980s, Bob Geldof has expressed disgust at Britain’s reaction to Europe’s migrant crisis.
Geldof called the haunting image of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach after dying alongside his brother and mother trying to reach the Greek island of Kos, as a source of shame to the U.K.
“I look at it with profound shame and a monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be. We are in a moment currently now that will be discussed and impacted on in 300 years time.”
Geldof, who describes himself as a migrant, told Ireland’s RTE Radio that he cannot stand the shocking scenes on beaches, borders and railway stations and what “it does to us.”
Condemning the limited response of the U.K. government, Geldof urged listeners that we are “better than this.”
“If there’s a new economy then there needs to be a new politics and it’s a failure of that new politics that’s led to this disgrace, this absolute sickening disgrace
“I’ve known, you’ve known, and everyone listening has known that the b******* we talk about, our values, are complete nonsense. Once it comes home to roost we deny those values, we betray ourselves, but those values are correct, and it happens time and time again. So we are better than this, we genuinely are.”
Willing to walk the walk as well as talk the talk, Geldof, who according to The Richest has a net worth of $150 million, decided it’s high time he put his money where his mouth is and did something real to help the situation.
“All of this is happening now. We must have the politics and the humanity to deal with it. It makes me sick and a concert won’t do it.
“I’m prepared – I’m lucky, I’ve a place in Kent and a flat in London – me and (partner) Jeanne would be prepared to take three families immediately in our place in Kent and a family in our flat in London, immediately, and put them up until such time as they can get going and get a purchase on their future.”
Obviously with rampant wealth inequality, poor housing, homelessness, and good old fashioned poverty being alive and well in the U.K, not everyone is so fortunate to have the sort of property portfolio that multi-millionaire Bob can boast.
Yet the Queen of England does, and then some.
The Guardian reports that Queen Elizabeth’s commercial property empire alone is worth a cool £11.5bn. And no doubt the sprawling residences of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sandringham, and Balmoral, to name but a few, have a few spare rooms which could easily house a few hundred families in need.
The Queen will soon be celebrating the milestone of becoming Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, so what better example to set her people than follow in the footsteps of Bob Geldof’s royal magnanimity?
After all, it’s undoubtably what Princess Diana would have wanted.
(Image Credit: Adam Barry/Getty Images)
