HOLYROOD was united during an emotional First Minister’s questions on the need for action to help the refugees looking to Europe for safety.

SNP and Labour leaders and MSPs, and later the Tory leader, were as clear as possible that the UK should be doing more and should be accepting many more refugees.

David Cameron has stated that taking in more people is not the answer.

When people are so desperate and afraid for their safety there are prepared to risk their lives in dangerous waters, crowded into boats that you wouldn’t cross the Clyde in, what other answer is there?

It cannot be to build bigger fences to keep them out, nor can it be to let them drown.

Glasgow has a history of welcoming refugees. It was the first Scottish local authority to take in people in the asylum seeker dispersal programme and house families across the city.

It has not been without its problems and not everyone had a positive experience but it was the right thing to do and it gave people safety and hope they were in desperate need of.

Many of those people have now settled here and their children are growing up as Glaswegians.

The First Minister said she was in tears viewing images of the lifeless body of a little boy washed up on a beach in Turkey.

Her tears were not far away when appealing for the UK to show leadership and compassion and she was not the only MSP struggling to keep emotions in check.

The humanitarian crisis has reminded me of another little boy.

Midway through the school year a new boy started at Saracen Primary School sometime in the late 1970s.

His family came from Cambodia and were referred to as ‘boat people’ along with many fleeing his homeland and Vietnam.

Serena became a friend for a short while and with his older brother was quickly assimilated into the school making many new friends until one day they left, disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

I have no idea where they went but I hope that their brief stay in Glasgow provided safety and the opportunity for the family to rebuild their lives somewhere.

Today we can offer safety, shelter and hope to another generation of people in dire need.

There are similarities between now and with the Vietnamese and Cambodian people.

Margaret Thatcher didn’t want to accept them into Britain stating they shouldn’t be taking up council housing and David Cameron has shown himself to be cold hearted and lacking compassion.

One of Europe’s greatest moments was the knocking down of the Berlin Wall. It is heart-breaking to see fences and razor wire being erected along our borders.