ChatterBank1 min ago
A Breath Of Fresh Air - For The Moment.
22 Answers
I just watched Starmer being interviewed on the telly, and he was asked straight questions and gave straight answers - no huffing and puffing and trotting out insults and cliches. I hope it continues like that.
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It could be solved more or less overnight. Other nations are making progress. The first thing to do is extract oneself from supporting legal definitions that have proved inadequate. Or alternatively ignore them. Ship all illegals back to where they came from. Round up those who are already here and put them somewhere secure while they wait their return. Agree with foreign nations to take illegals either permanently (oh some idiot government trashed such a scheme didn't they) or until their case has been officially processed and rejected. None of this is occurring, in fact it has gone backwards under this new government, who, like the last lot, have zero interest in sorting it and zero interest in what the prevailing public opinion is.
Fair enough, but then why go backwards publicly, and claim that trying to sort out international criminal gangs in nations he has no jurisdiction in is the way forward ? Exactly what hidden talks is this nonsense likely to be concealing ? The issue is border control. No one seems interested in that. On the contrary we hear of handovers and escorts to aid breaking the law instead.
"Like I said its a difficult problem,..."
It [the question of small boats] isn't a difficult problem. It's only made difficult by the knots successive governments have tied themselves in by complying with international agreements that were devised seventy years ago and which are hopelessly inappropriate now.
Those agreements need to be ditched forthwith and measures taken to simply prevent illegal arrivals. No nation outside Europe would tolerate, let alone assist, people arriving illegally by sea in vast numbers.
But it's not going to happen under this or any other government so the people of this country are stuck with it. All this rhetoric about "smashing the gangs" is simply wind and puff. The UK PM has no jurisdiction elsewhere in Europe and even if he had, or the other nations were prepared to act against them, they would be peeing in the wind. The business is far too lucrative to be disrupted by pesky governments getting in the way. In any case, the authorities cannot be trying too hard to disrupt the smugglers. The BBC discovered, without too much effort, the origin of a lot of the equipment used to facilitate the crossings:
https:/
The only way to end the operation is to simply show that it will not work. This means preventing the arrival of illegal migrants and removing immediately any that do happen to make it through. That is the only strategy that will put a stop to it.
But back to original point:
"..and pressing all the right buttons,"
The PM has not actually pressed any buttons thusfar (apart from ending the Rwanda scheme and capitulating unconditionally to to a few trade union demands). All he's done is said what buttons he's going to press.
Obviously whether you believe they are the right ones or not is a matter of opinion. But I don't think planning a budget that will stifle growth, increase taxes, almost certainly stoke inflation and see continued (what some people laughingly term) "high" interest rates is a particularly wise button to press. But that's what's going to happen next week.
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