THE question is perhaps not whether it’s right to accept 10 refugee families in Warrington – but why so few?

Before the more cynical among you think I’ve gone all Corbyn about this, just take a moment to reflect on some startling numbers.

Ten families is what little Ribble Valley Council in Lancashire is proffering – five houses each in leafy Clitheroe and Longridge.

Let’s put this into context – Orford is bigger than Longridge.

Nearby Pendle, sticking with the red rose county, has offered to bring 20 families to Nelson, Colne and West Craven.

I’m conscious that I might be using a road roller to crack a nut here but both boroughs are less than half Warrington’s size, and carry only a fraction of our financial clout.

Our northern MP Helen Jones was right to put the onus on WBC to pull its weight when it comes to easing the humanitarian crisis emerging in southern Turkey, the Greek islands and elsewhere – she should have been more demanding though.

Our southern representative, David Mowat, felt the need to weigh in with remarks on social housing and the refugee situation, only proving that there might one day be work for tired old hacks like me in the spin doctoring game after all.

Mr M may well have been better advised, and this could be a general rule of thumb for all Conservatives on issues outside money, Europe and defence, to keep schtum on social housing.

His party trotted out the wizard wheeze, before the election, to give housing association tenants the right to buy their properties, which is a little bit like me coming round to your house, selling the prized motor parked in your driveway, then wondering why you’re a bit miffed.

Once again though, I seriously digress, as it should be time to confess to my own little guilt trip on this issue.

Last month I sat sunning myself in Gumbet in Turkey, a little resort just to the west of Bodrum, all but oblivious to the chaos around me.

While there was an inkling that all was not well, when I ventured into the main town now and again, especially with the dispossessed hordes around the bus terminus, it didn’t specifically register there was a crisis in progress.

The trite phrase to come out with now would be something along the lines of: “Well I never would have guessed that would be the same beach that little Syrian boy’s body was found.”

But let’s be honest, there had been plenty of other refugee ship drownings before tragic Aylan Kurdi, his brother Galip and mum Rehan. We mostly didn’t care or changed the channel though.

The power of a single image. Like the picture of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the little girl with severe burns fleeing a napalm attack, which had such an impact on the debate over the Vietnam War in the US.

Far greater (and better paid) minds than mine can determine what effect our disastrous foreign policies have had on creating the refugee crisis, in Syria and Afghanistan, and not forgetting Libya, another tortured battlefield for the West’s real-life game of RISK.

If it’s exercised and exhausted the thinking of some of the most diligent diplomatic and political figures of our age, Podium isn’t going to do the matter justice, I’m afraid, even if I had 6,000 words at my disposal.

But could we, in relatively wealthy Warrington, raise the stakes higher than accommodating the 10 families apparently pledged by our local authority?

If we aspire to to be the large town/small city we think we deserve to be, you’d like to think so.

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  • Toddler picture inspired grandmother to organise refugee aid - read more here