Britain's muddled line in recent days on what to do about the Kosovan refugees languishing on the border of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Balkans has caused some observers to question the government's handling of the Balkan war.
On the evidence of the Prime Minister's comments since Sunday, the government has swung from warning against the dispersal of Kosovan refugees throughout Europe, to accepting it should play a role in airlifting refugees to safety in Britain, and right back again.
Mobilising NATO efforts to aid the refugees on the Macedonian border on Monday, the International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, dismissed as irrelevant the question of airlifting refugees to Britain being discussed by the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, back in London.
While Mr Straw has been busy this week meeting aid agencies and identifying derelict buildings and prisons which would be used to house the refugees if they are brought to Britain, Ms Short was observing the plight of the refugees on the ground, grimly warning that airlifts could play into the hands of President Milosevic's policy of ethnic cleansing.
But while the government and several local authorities in the south-east and north of England are gradually co-ordinating plans to house an unspecified number of refugees, the public response is, for the moment, harder to read. Anecdotal evidence in port towns in the south of England, where refugees could be housed, suggests public opinion there is apprehensive about an influx.
On the other hand organisers from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) announcing yesterday's co-ordinated appeal to aid Kosovan refugees on behalf of 12 aid agencies such as the British Red Cross, Shelter and Help the Aged, believe the public will respond generously.
Meanwhile, recent opinion polls suggest the British public does not want any ground troops sent to the Balkans, and in a BBC radio interview yesterday that thorny issue was raised again, this time by the former prime minister, Mr John Major.
While it might not now be logistically possible to use ground troops, it was a mistake, he said, to have entered the conflict without that commitment and for not planning for the exodus of Kosovan refugees in the wake of NATO bombing. Editorials are calling on Mr Blair and NATO to quickly recognise their huge responsibilities and implement them speedily.