Dundee City Council is right to demand clarity over the possibility of the A-listed Tay Works building on Brown Street being used to house asylum seekers.

The issue of accommodating asylum seekers is an increasingly vexed one.

And I sense a hardening of attitudes among many folk who feel threatened and disconcerted by the dramatic changes they see in their communities.

With roughly 40% of asylum claims from small boat arrivals, the image now indelibly stamped on the public consciousness is of young adult men, who account for 72% of those arrivals.

The Mears Group PLC – which provides military housing, accommodation for asylum seekers and temporary residential facilities for prison leavers – has changed its stance that the building wouldn’t be used to house asylum seekers and has now refused to rule it out.

This puts the council in an invidious position because while they won’t want to be seen as xenophobic or prejudiced, they must sense that the mood music on the issue of immigration has changed in Dundee and elsewhere.

Accusations of racism levelled at anyone questioning an increasing influx of new arrivals are no longer deterring those who feel their views have been........

© The Courier