Rhodes on pidgin news, finger-wagging from France and why Ukrainian refugees should stay as long as they wish

France has criticised the UK for failing to take more Ukrainian refugees. But then it's easy to seize the moral high ground. The French know perfectly well that for many refugees who arrive in France, the noblest prospect they ever see, as Dr Johnson almost put it, is the next Eurostar to England.

And we had better start cranking up our reception process. If not we could face a horrible human rights embarrassment in the year 2025.

Originally, the length of visas for Ukrainians fleeing their homeland to join relatives in Britain was 12 months. Home Secretary Priti Patel has extended this to three years. Not good enough.

Supposing the war goes badly and the peace is worse, and these Ukrainians, many with young children, want to stay here. Three years from now their toddlers will be English-speaking kids and the older children will be well into the National Curriculum. If their visas expire and they have no wish to go back to Ukraine, what will our Government do? Put them in detention? Carry them on to the next plane back to Kyiv? Of course not.

It must be made clear, right here and right now, that Ukrainians fleeing the war zone can stay as long as they like, just like the Poles in 1939, the Hungarians in 1956 and the Czechs in 1968 who all made England their new homeland after Russian tanks rolled into their old one.

When pundits tell us the whole world is following events in Ukraine, believe them. The news is spread in every language you can think of, and some you can't. I was fascinated to find out how the BBC Pidgin Service spread the news to listeners in West Africa: “Ukraine President Volodymr Zelensky don condemn di West for dia refusal to enforce no-fly zone over im kontri. Im tok say "all di pipo wey go die go die because of you.”

Some people denounce pidgin as nursery talk or even racist. But the Beeb's bold motto is “Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation” and if you're not speaking it in a language that millions of people understand, you're not doing the job properly.

Shortly after BBC Pidgin was launched in 2017 the New York Times reported approvingly: “People like it well-well.”