Remember this the next time the Brits throw out how much more civilized they are

People don't 'attempt the dangerous sea crossing' for some sort of adventure holiday FFS!!! These are DESPERATE people.

The British government has never been great on such issues, but right now they are utterly craven in the face of UKIP.

I fail to see why we should continue to spend our taxpayers money and risk our servicemen & women's lives
for the sake of assisting suicidal wannabe-illegal immigrants in crossing from one "not our country" to
another "not our country".

...as the UK only has a very small footprint in Gibraltar.

Why not get mad at the US or Japan or Canada for not helping out also?

Seems to be more a matter for France, Italy, Greece, etc..

and we have agreed to work together in foreign policy and immigration. Because "our servicemen & women's lives" aren't part of this anyway. And because it would save lives. "No man is an island".

that don't have much to do with UKIP and their policies.

If UKIP has its way eventually, the British navy would no longer help patrol the Mediterranean, though UKIP would probably have it patrolling the English Channel to prevent any of the refugees who are legally admitted to the rest of Europe from getting into the UK.

I might suggest that there is no unified EU military or foreign policy, nor do British citizens apparently want such policies or institutions, and the British navy fist and foremost serves the interests of British citizens at the direction of her elected representative, who apparently believed they have already offered sufficient search and rescue assistance.

Moreover, countries other than Britain and France might consider investing more money into their navies in order to deal with problems such as the migrants in the Mediterranean, rather than make costly demands of Britain, and then take such assistance entirely for granted. This point might be all the more pertinent now that the EU has just demanded billions of Euros more in payments from Britain and migrant labor is a political hot potato in Britain due to claims it depresses wages in the country.

http://eeas.europa.eu/cfsp/index_en.htm

Catherine Ashton has done a fairly decent job, being prominent in various peace talks.

British citizens do have the ability to be shameful. Too many of them can contemplate supporting UKIP. That doesn't mean governments should pander to them.

"countries other than Britain and France might consider investing more money into their navies in order to deal with problems such as the migrants in the Mediterranean"

They do. It's just that Britain is washing its hands of it all, rather than pulling its weight, either financially or with personnel.

Illegal immigration and foreign workers are politically very unpopular in Britain, the current government is fighting growing opposition from UKIP on the right, and the operations are very expensive and not in British territorial waters. The EU is also unpopular in Britain and they just recently demanded an additional couple of billion in payments from the British taxpayers, while seeking to refund monies to France and Germany. Since Britain possesses one of the only major navies in the EU, they might be sending a message to Brussels about the importance of Britain and British concerns in the EU.

Don't be surprised if Britain later agrees to further assistance in the Mediterranean in consideration for political support for British domestic concerns from southern European countries and something akin to a "reimbursement" for British expenses in support of rescue operation to offset the billions of new revenue demanded by the EU.