The Long View

Jonathan Freedland compares Britain's response to refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s with our reaction to refugees from Syria today.

Thousands of Vietnamese refugees came to the UK from 1979, were placed in camps and then dispersed around the country.

Jonathan and his guests ask how well Britain met the needs of those Vietnamese refugees, how they and their children adapted to life in the UK and what their experience tells us about today's refugee crisis.

Producer Julia Johnson.

Jonathan Freedland and guests use a story from the past to throw light on and inform debate about an event currently in the news.

Jonathan Freedland examines current debates about the "living wage" in the light of a publication by woollen manufacturer, Sir Mark Oldroyd in 1894. As Liberal MP and the owner of a number of mills in Dewsbury in Yorkshire, he delivered a lecture to the Dewsbury Pioneers Industrial Society called "A Living Wage". It said: "A living wage must be sufficient to maintain the worker in the highest state of industrial efficiency, with decent surroundings and sufficient leisure".

Jonathan is joined by Dr Stephen Davies from the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr Sheila Blackburn from the University of Liverpool, Margaret Watson, former editor of Dewsbury Reporter, Father Simon Cuff, a leader with Citizens UK and actor Barrie Rutter.