Saving lives in the Channel

The government wants to stop people trafficking and smuggling from France. Its Border Force has been unable to carry out the Home Secretary’s wishes and deter or turn back the small boats. The government is now legislating  to strengthen its powers to  send people back who do not qualify as asylum seekers.

I sponsored Bill Cash’s  amendment to the Bill. We were worried that U.K. courts might refuse to implement  the law, claiming that European Human Rights or the UN  migrant Convention prevented them from doing so. We proposed a simple amendment to clarify that the  U.K. law means what it says notwithstanding any ECHR or UN interpretations.

The government refused to accept the amendment and Opposition parties were against it. The government promised to bring forward proposals to amend the Human Rights laws urgently , implying they agreed with our fears concerning this Bill.

It is a pity they did not just accept the amendment. The danger now is the courts will seek to undermine government borders policy yet again.

 

181 Comments

  1. Helen Gray
    December 8, 2021

    I am delighted to see the government refusing Cash’s ludicrous amendment, which amounts to nothing less than telling the world that the UK is not prepared to abide by its international commitments

    1. turboterrier
      December 8, 2021

      Helen Gray
      International commitments.
      Think about the thousands of our people that have over recent decades gave there all to commitments made years ago that were maybe alright at the time they were written. The world as moved on and changed. We as a country cannot keep doing it. GB First, get all that’s wrong here now right and sorted then and only then try and sort out others problems. Never hear from the politicians or leaders of the countries from where these people come from. Its better for them to let them go and come here take low paid jobs and send the money home. Those countries will never improve and will always be a drain on industrial countries resources.

      1. Nig l
        December 8, 2021

        Indeed and as with shed loads of international aid zero incentive to become self sufficient.

        In my area when a now established international community first started to settle, local banks were worried about money laundering rules being broken because of the vast amounts of cash being paid in and instantly remitted abroad.

        1. Nig l
          December 8, 2021

          Ps and as these vast amounts were sent abroad local government was pouring in vast amounts to provide social security, housing etc and still the charities complained it wasnt enough.

          We were therefore almost directly subsidising the villages they came from.

      2. X-Tory
        December 8, 2021

        It’s no good arguing with these anti-British extremists. They have no sense of patriotism or national loyalty. They do not represent the views of the majority of Britons (which is why they lost the Brexit referendum) and can safely be ignored.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 10, 2021

          The people who voted Leave were not “a majority of Britons” even if they were of those who voted.

          Fifty million did not vote Leave.

          To claim that there would be a mandate for the Crimes Against Humanity that you appear to want is as disgusting as it is preposterous.

          1. Peter2
            December 10, 2021

            Back with you ridiculous referendum vote claims again I see NHL
            We have some simple rules.
            You have to be 18 or over
            A UK citizen
            And voting is not compulsory.
            PS
            For all you know those that didn’t bother to vote might have all been leave voters.

      3. Hope
        December 8, 2021

        JR, your party and govt have no intention of changing anything, it is tokenism. We heard it all before over 11.5 years and three tortuous elections. We do not believe you.

        NB: ECHR central to Brexit sell out agreement where EU can walk away in 12 days if UK reneges on it! Your amendment cannot be accepted, get real. Cameron, May and Johnson all promised to get out of ECHR!! Legislation is absolutely pointless and a deceptive exercise on the public. Take back control, remember that phrase? Tack back control my arse.

    2. Stred
      December 8, 2021

      There you have it. The liberal lawyers think that they have it sewn up. May pushed through the UN Migration Pact which requires that economic migrants are treated as refugees from war and persecution and that the UK assists them. Add the human rights industry, originally with rights to prevent persecution but now to make it impossible to deport obvious criminals, over stayers and border evaders and as long as these lawyer’s laws are on the statute, the UK can guarantee that 300,000+ migrants from the Middle East and Africa will arrive and stay every year and the tower blocks, overcrowding, congestion and crime will continue.

      1. Hope
        December 8, 2021

        Come on JR, utterly pointless new restrictions without any evidence whatsoever that it leads to hospitalisation of people or increased death.

        Your party and govt throttling the economy again after making huge tax rises already.

        When is Valance and other members of sage going to be investigated from the released emails in the US?

        Finally, can you take any of the three, Johnson, Whitty and Valance, on TV seriously or cannot help but feel they have no credibility whatsoever. Apocalyptic scaremongering has had its day. Johnson did not chastise Stratton but felt sorry for her!!!

        Two years ago Johnson was going on a dodgy paid Caribbean holiday not giving a stuff about people waiting on trolleys in A and E.

    3. Sea_Warrior
      December 8, 2021

      Do you believe that countries shouldn’t be allowed to change their minds?

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 8, 2021

      It is logically laughable too.

      It takes two parties to agree to “sending them back”.

      That is, both sender and receiver.

      These people have no right to be in France, Belgium, or the Netherlands and they do not even WANT to be there either.

      These countries would therefore have a very strong case against the UK, perhaps in the Hague, if it simply dumped them unauthorised on their shores. It’s hard to see what else the intention might have been.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 8, 2021

        they didn’t arrive in those countries from UK, did they? The EU has always pushed them west to us, not back east from whence they came.

      2. Mike Wilson
        December 8, 2021

        These people have no right to be in France, Belgium, or the Netherlands and they do not even WANT to be there either.

        But they have a right to be in this country?

      3. Dave Andrews
        December 8, 2021

        No they don’t have any right to be in France, Belgium or the Netherlands, so why don’t the authorities round them up before they try to cross the Channel? If you or I turned up in these countries without going through the proper channels we’d be deported probably at our own expense and with a fine, and maybe a short prison sentence as well.
        The reason they don’t round them up is because the migrants might just decide to claim asylum there and then, and they don’t want that.

    5. Peter
      December 8, 2021

      These people are uninvited, unwanted, illegal invaders.

      I see no reason why they should not be repelled by use of force. That’s why we have armed forces

      Too much talk. No action.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 9, 2021

        No, you don’t see much at all, do you?

    6. Denis Cooper
      December 8, 2021

      Anybody who enters into an agreement with the UK government should be aware that the UK Parliament is the supreme legal authority for the UK and therefore the continued performance of that agreement by the UK government will always depend upon the continued approval of the UK Parliament.

      You can even see that stated on page 7 of the Wilson government’s pamphlet for the 1975 referendum on whether the UK should withdraw from the EEC or ‘Common Market’:

      https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:fug282yox/read/single#page/7/mode/1up

      “… our continued membership will depend on the continuing assent of Parliament.”

      At one time supporters of the EU even argued that although the treaties provided no way for a member state to leave the EU we could always do so just by a vote in the House of Commons. Of course it actually needed a full Act of Parliament rather than just a vote by MPs, but the principle was correct: it was necessary for Parliament to approve the EU treaties before the UK could ratify them, thereby expressing UK consent to be bound by their terms, and that consent could be withdrawn at any time if Parliament so enacted.

      If you know anybody who does not understand this you could point them to:

      https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/role/relations-with-other-institutions/parliament-government/

      and:

      https://treaties.un.org/pages/overview.aspx?path=overview/glossary/page1_en.xml#ratification

      and then especially:

      https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/parliamentary-sovereignty/

      “Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution.”

    7. Barbara
      December 8, 2021

      Helen Gray

      These ‘commitments’ are being used to facilitate people-trafficking. So you support slavery and people-trafficking. Glad we cleared that one up.

    8. Original Richard
      December 8, 2021

      The irony is that the liberal lemmings who follow the communist fifth columnists in thinking that we should have open borders to a world of 8 billion people will be the first to suffer the consequences as a result of the inevitable change of culture, government and laws which will take place when sufficient numbers populate the country.

    9. APL
      December 8, 2021

      Helen Grey: “nothing less than telling the world that the UK is not prepared to abide by its international commitments”

      According to the Times, the UK would only be following in the EU’s footsteps.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/belarus-border-crisis-eu-suspends-asylum-rules-to-speed-up-deportations-gql257jkd?fbclid=IwAR0IRau775Gsx4RBa3g5y0n3KGAto0cb0r5eAUE64ss1TtKJO_BcoAjGaOY

    10. Dennis
      December 12, 2021

      America tells the world it does not abide by intl. agreements/treatise it doesn’t want to and there is no condemnation there. It doesn’t even abode by its own domestic laws particularly if criminals are rich or well connected.

  2. Len Peel
    December 8, 2021

    If you and Cash had got your way, Britain could never again complain when Russia and China ignores international human rights law. Glad the government does not share your level of irresponsibility

    1. formula57
      December 8, 2021

      @ Len Peel – it is the opposite of irresponsible to recognize that international human rights law is being twisted and abused in harmful ways and that new international law can be made by adapting the U.K.’s posture to a more responsible and humane one.

    2. SM
      December 8, 2021

      What do you suggest is the way to stop the kind of people-trafficking that is going on all over the world? Why don’t you look at yesterday’s story on the BBC World News about the Bangladeshi youth, an economic migrant, who was taken to Libya by a slavery gang, abused horrendously, and is now in an Italian refugee camp? The S African police have just arrested gangsters who have been found to have bought some 90 Ethiopians to trade as cheap and dispensable labour – who knows where the victims will end up?

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        December 8, 2021

        SM. Why don’t we just invite tge whole world here? Would that be ok by you? It is not our responsibility to care for the world’s population. We give enough in foreign aid as it is. I suppose you don’t mind the criminals either? Frankly there are enough serious offenders in jail now without having more. My husband doesn’t bust his backside working hard and long hours to put up the rest of the world especially when many are not refugees.

        1. SM
          December 9, 2021

          I’m sorry that you have completely misunderstood my comment – I certainly do not think the whole world should end up in the UK, and I am not a supporter of foreign aid other than for one-off calamities.

          My point was that all those who clamour for the rights of endless migrants ignore what is a) causing such migration and b) the gangsters who profit from people-trafficking.

      2. alan jutson
        December 9, 2021

        SM
        The simple way to stop them is to remove the pull factor.
        No benefits for anyone at all until they have paid into the system for 5 years, immediate deportation on discovery to a country/place of our choice if they refuse to co-operate or show any form of identification.

        We presently fund to the tune of ÂŁ1 billion refugee camps abroad, where there is a legal means to apply for asylum in the UK, that should be the default location where all illegals should be sent, and where they can get into line and make their case, legally.

    3. DOM
      December 8, 2021

      ‘international human rights law’? What are those? Meaningless verbosity.

      Maybe you should up sticks and seek a new life in Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, China etc etc…..

      1. Johnny
        December 8, 2021

        Same people telling us to respect International human rights law are demanding vaccine passports. Get rid of Johnson please.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 8, 2021

        ECHR administers that very thing, as does the UN.

      3. Everhopeful
        December 8, 2021

        +many
        Hear! Hear!
        Spot on as ever!

      4. Fedupsoutherner
        December 8, 2021

        Dom. Correct. Notice how middle east countries don’t help.

    4. Shirley M
      December 8, 2021

      Len – since when have Russia and China ever abided by human rights laws? I cannot see the logic in your comment.

  3. Andy
    December 8, 2021

    We are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights. Indeed, Churchill’s lawyers basically wrote it. It seems rather odd that people who consider themselves Conservatives would want to undo perhaps the greatest achievement of perhaps the greatest ever Conservative. But then they had no qualms in getting rid of Margaret Thatcher’s single market. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the second greatest Conservative.

    If someone is in trouble in the Channel we have a legal duty to help them. And, even if we didn’t, we have a moral duty to help them. On what planet do you have to live to think it is okay to let people drown? Whoever they are and however they got there.

    It is absolutely appalling listening to Conservatives bang on about this in such an appallingly hateful way. We have a process to consider asylum claims. Of course this process could be better – it’s run by Tories after all. But the appalling way in which Tories now dehumanise these poor people is beyond shameful.

    Reply We are trying to stop the vile trade in people and the deaths in small boats. The EU seeks to enforce its sea border in the Med with naval vessels.

    1. formula57
      December 8, 2021

      @ Andy “If someone is in trouble in the Channel we have a legal duty to help them.” – but why should such duty extend to permitting such someone to reside in the U.K. or even enter it?

      We (ought to) have the absolute right to determine which foreigners enter the U.K. – at present the Home Secretary is operating an all comers welcome policy.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      December 8, 2021

      It’s a Channel taxi service (as I predicted would happen on this forum some years ago.)

      The French/EU treat refugees like shit and so they take to boats to get here.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 9, 2021

        A common position is that these folk will not reveal to the French from where they are originally so they cannot be sent anywhere by them.

        They want to be here, and try to get here, but do not – for understandable reasons – qualify for much help from the French authorities, with whom they are not interested in co-operating.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 8, 2021

      “We Don’t Believe You”, John.

      I think that this is rather about dog-whistling your new-found voters at the bottom of the moral heap, nothing more.

    4. Micky Taking
      December 8, 2021

      BUT you miss the point, they are NOT valid asylum claims. Are they fleeing from oppression in wartorn France, in fear of their lives from military reprisals?
      No! they are economic migrants encouraged into crime by gangs in France.
      Get over yourself St. Andy.

      1. Andy
        December 8, 2021

        Except that Home Office figures show that the vast majority whose claims have been processed have been accepted as asylum seekers. So your point – if there is one – is based on a false premise.

        And, in any case, they can claim asylum where they like.

    5. Richard1
      December 8, 2021

      The European convention on human rights was not intended to facilitate the activities of people smugglers.

      1. Andy
        December 8, 2021

        It doesn’t.

        It is the policies of this Conservative government- which you vote for and I do not – which facilitates the activities of people smugglers.

        The vast majority of those coming in dinghies would come by safe and conventional routes if such routes existed. But the party which you vote for closed these routes – opening a market for the people smugglers and causing people to risk their lives in dinghies.

        Perhaps you should vote more carefully?

        1. Peter2
          December 8, 2021

          What 300,000 a year?
          Hilarious nosense young Andy.

    6. graham1946
      December 8, 2021

      ‘Hateful’ – a word you understand better than anyone with your vile views and you have no moral right to accuse others of it. You are full of hate.

    7. Everhopeful
      December 8, 2021

      And when the immigrants become pensioners Andy?

    8. Fedupsoutherner
      December 8, 2021

      Churchill wrote it when there were genuine refugees and not those that pay to get here for a life provided by the UK taxpayer. A subtle difference.

    9. MWB
      December 8, 2021

      I don’t care what happens to these so called asylum seekers. England is full up and they are not our problem.
      Send them back to their home countries, keeping them in prison until the authorities find out which countries they are from.

    10. Original Richard
      December 8, 2021

      Andy :
      “On what planet do you have to live to think it is okay to let people drown?”

      Of course we do not think it is okay to let people drown in the Channel and that we should collect them as they come across.

      However, only an innumerate person or a fifth columnist would say it is okay to have open borders to the world’s population of nearly 8 billion people.

      Furthermore, as demonstrated by recent terrorist events, that just because immigrants (legal or illegal) are coming to the UK “for a better life” and safety from tribal and religious/cultural intolerances back home, or indeed fleeing from the law, does NOT mean they, or even their British born offspring, wish to integrate into our society and are happy to accept our laws and culture.

      So to stop this madness it is necessary to halt this illegal immigration by deporting these people back to their home countries so they realise that they are wasting their money employing traffickers to get them into the UK.

    11. Bill brown
      December 8, 2021

      Sir John
      This is about human rights and what the EU does has nothing to do with it on what we do in the Channel.
      In the Atlantic the Spanish pick up the boats from Africa in the Canaries and from Algeria in the Midterranian.
      So the so-called EU policy you are talking about don’t always apply

  4. Ian Wragg
    December 8, 2021

    The government has no intention of stopping the channel taxi service.
    It’s going to cost you the next election and rightly so.
    No amount of legislation will stop it just firm action.
    I see you’ve already caved in on fishing.
    Northern Ireland Protocol next.
    When are we going to get a government that puts Britain first.
    We’re still running open cycle gas turbines to keep the lights on. How does that save the planet.

    1. Mark B
      December 8, 2021

      Ian

      It’s called the, Peter Principle. ie They are in over their heads.

    2. lifelogic
      December 8, 2021

      Indeed.

      Except they will probably win the next election as Labour/SNP are even worse. But Boris, Sunak and Carrie do seem to be doing their best to bury the party with insane policies on net zero, borders, Northern Ireland, expensive job destroying energy costs, Covid restrictions & vaccine passports and the general tax to death, borrow and piss down the drain agenda.

      This combined with clear total contempts for voters.

      1. Everhopeful
        December 8, 2021

        + a few million.

      2. lifelogic
        December 8, 2021

        James Dyson today is spot on today in the Telegraph. Fewer, simpler and better regulations are a win, win for the economy and Brexit should enable this. In effect they have the same effect as tax cuts for but with an increased tax take by growing the productive sector.

        “Why I fought the EU’s innovation-crushing rules
        It would be a terrible waste now if Brexit Britain were to throw away its chance to make its own regulations”
        James Dyson.

        1. alan jutson
          December 9, 2021

          +1

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 9, 2021

          Dyson’s products are, in my opinion, a triumph of marketing over design.

    3. Everhopeful
      December 8, 2021

      +1
      And parties don’t really help do they?
      Not political ones
the boozy, whoozy, thumb your nose at the imprisoned voters sort of party!
      That vid!! Whooo.
      @no respect whatsoever.
      Q. When does a vote winner become a liability?
      A. When he turns out to be a hypocrite
to put it mildly.

  5. Mick
    December 8, 2021

    The danger now is the courts will seek to undermine government borders policy yet again.
    The danger is that your government are useless at stopping the illegals from coming across the channel, good job Hitler didn’t know that all he needed was a few rubber dinghies to invade our shores or it only took 50000 Romans to take over our country, just do something about the uncontrolled entering our country or face being wiped out at the next General Election

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      December 8, 2021

      I think wipe out at the next general election is now a certainty.

      On this and many issues.

      People are furious about the party held during a lockdown – this on top of all previous breaches by those close to policy making.

      Boris the comedian is now a joke that’s worn very thin indeed.

      1. Everhopeful
        December 8, 2021

        +many
        And every time they flout the lockdown rules it just proves HOW LITTLE FEAR THEY HAVE OF THE GREAT VIRUS!!
        Why would that be then?
        Henry 8th used to scarper off to Greenwich at the slightest hint of plague/fever in London.

      2. lifelogic
        December 8, 2021

        To be replaced by whom though? VAT on school fees Gove, Tax to death Sunak, Javid, dire health Sec. Hunt, Truss, hot air Patel
 The old pre Carrie Boris is the best bet if he can wake up, get real and ditch net zero. Given the make up of the fake “Tory” MPs that is surely the best option. They will not elect a sensible, sound, climate realist, Brexit Tory like JR that is for sure nor allow members to choose one. Truss perhaps but then May has rather trashed the cause of women PMs.

      3. a-tracy
        December 8, 2021

        NLA – that party was a set up. Stratton is an embarrassment. Boris needs to empty that viper’s den today.

        Tory MPs that have experience of helping no.10 need to step up and take the places of the suspended employees.

      4. Mike Wilson
        December 8, 2021

        People are furious about the party held during a lockdown

        Really? ‘People’ are furious? Ask 100 people on your local high street what they think about the party in Downing Street last Christmas. Half of them won’t know what you are talking about and the other half will shrug and say ‘what do expect from politicians, they are all hypocrites’.

        What we really need, to actually make people furious, is the power to go off for a couple of weeks. No internet, no banking, no cash machines, no fuel, shops cleared of goods 
 that would put the fat on the fire.

      5. graham1946
        December 8, 2021

        Not necessarily. The skids are now in place under Johnson with the Afghan debacle and the partying and laughter over how they fooled the people. It just remains to see how long he can avoid sliding down and whether his MPs have the backbone to get him to resign. There is still time to find a better PM and redress some of the nonsense of recent months, but the question is, do the Tories have the bottle or will they go down with the ship and the mad captain?

      6. lifelogic
        December 8, 2021

        With the daft useless remainer Starmer, Lammy & Tory Scum’s Labour Party in an SNP coalition – no thanks – even this dire Boris/Carrie Gov. is better than that. Certainly to most people anyway & esp. those living in England.

      7. Fedupsoutherner
        December 8, 2021

        NLA. Indeed. His behaviour and that of some of the party has been unacceptable and downright shameful. He has screwed up the biggest opportunity to turn this country around. What a total plonker.

      8. Grennell
        December 8, 2021

        Of course the film clip with A Stratton was put out there by a person or persons close to No. 10 such is the rank nature of politics in Britain today.

      9. Cheshire Girl
        December 8, 2021

        ‘People are furious about the party held during lockdown’.

        What people? Ive never heard anyone even mention it. The only people who are ‘furious’ are the Media, and the Labour Party, who are stirring up dissent at every opportunity. Perhaps we should look into their party arrangements, as they always make out they are ‘whiter than white’.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          December 9, 2021

          CG

          Boris told press he shares the people’s anger.

          So – um – wot planet you on ?

      10. Micky Taking
        December 8, 2021

        So Ms A.Stratton has had to fall on her sword. Johnson needs to sort out No 10 staffing, have some stern words with Ministers and prune ‘advisors’ to stand any chance of the electorate forgiving him for the continual jokes and foot-in-mouth shambles that now typifies his leadership.

        1. Micky Taking
          December 8, 2021

          but to soften the blow, she is reported to have been paid between ÂŁ125k and ÂŁ130k.
          Will she share the financial pain felt by hundreds of thousands losing their job prior to Christmas?

  6. DOM
    December 8, 2021

    The Judicial system has been nobbled by social justice warriors and activists. Once it becomes a political weapon of a political class we are all exposed to harm. There are then no safeguards.

    We see feminists (in criminal trials) and ‘human rights’ activists (lawyers seeking fees) achieving stunning success in this very process. Without Jury trials and presumption of innocence innocent people will go to prison as a result of those within politics and without politics seeking revenge.

    I do not now know what the Tory party now stands for except to continually seek to limit negative headlines in the press.

    The entire area of taxpayer funded organisations must be depoliticised before it destroys their civil status.

    1. lifelogic
      December 8, 2021

      Much truth in this alas.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      December 8, 2021

      +1

  7. Cheshire Girl
    December 8, 2021

    I watched some of that Debate, and was angry to hear the remarks of Tim Farron – saying that we have plenty of spare room for more migrants. What planet is he living on!
    It was no surprise to me that the Labour Party didn’t vote for the Amendment. They can see the Government is unpopular with the public on this, and think that it will benefit them.
    Sadly, this Government is afraid to take any decisive action about this matter. I have no hope that things will ever get any better.

    1. Mark B
      December 8, 2021

      But, alas, Tim Farron is right. We do have plenty of space. But we do not have is that which carefully did not mention – Resources !!!

      We do not have the schools, the hospitals, police and infrastructure to cope with MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION.

      People like, Tim Farron and others go unaffected by high levels of immigration as they live and work in areas where they will never have to experience its negative effects. Therefore, they see no problem.

      1. Everhopeful
        December 8, 2021

        +1
        If this continues they will see the effects though.
        Every green space will be swallowed up by housing.
        It is a very bleak outlook.

      2. Timaction
        December 8, 2021

        He is a special kind of stupid. He should be made to live with a few to see how different they are in behaviours, outlooks and beliefs. Then his views may start to reflect those who are forced to pay for his rank stupidity.

      3. lifelogic
        December 8, 2021

        nor houses, social services, courts, funds for benefits, road space, GPs
 nor for all their relatives who quite likely follow them.

      4. Fedupsoutherner
        December 8, 2021

        Exactly Mark

      5. Barbara
        December 8, 2021

        We do not have ‘plenty of space’. Overcrowding is not an asset. If it were, Pakistani cities would be the healthiest and happiest places on the planet.

    2. Dave Andrews
      December 8, 2021

      Would that be just the number of migrants trying to come in at the moment? Or would that include all the people from the same failed regimes who would also like to come in, but don’t have the money to pay people-traffickers?

    3. a-tracy
      December 8, 2021

      CG – so what if all the other parties abstained this government has a massive majority, they would have got it through but Conservatives in power want it to continue they talk out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.

    4. majorfrustration
      December 8, 2021

      What we lack is political brain power – Boris did his job now its time for him to write a book
      before the Tory party loses the next election – which they will

  8. Mark B
    December 8, 2021

    Good morning

    The danger now is the courts will seek to undermine government borders policy yet again.

    The Courts can only work with that which has been placed before them by Parliament. If the law is badly written, or Parliament has agreed to adopt external and international agreements, then the fault lay with Parliament and not the Courts.

    The government has finally realised that this issue may well cost them seats and possibly and election. Only this threat has stung them into some sort of action.

    The Immigration Act 1971 is very clear – Section 3 (1a)

    “he shall not enter the United Kingdom unless given leave to do so . . .

    This is the LAW ! The LAW states that anyone entering the UK is breaking the LAW and must therefore be arrested, charged, tried and sent to prison and / or deported. Why is the LAW not being applied. Why are these people, who enter British Territorial Waters, not being handed over to police ?

    It reminds me of those Insulate Britain protestors who laid down on a motorway and all the police did was ask if any of them needed anything ? They should have been removed and arrested under the LAW.

    The fact that the LAW is not being enforced is the responsibility of the Police and the Home Secretary – No one else !!!

    1. Mark B
      December 8, 2021

      Should say – “The LAW states that anyone entering the UK without permission to do so is breaking the LAW”

    2. lifelogic
      December 8, 2021

      “The Courts can only work with that which has been placed before them by Parliament.”. No many judges just invent or “reinterpret” the laws as & when they feel like it.

  9. turboterrier
    December 8, 2021

    For crying out loud when are the politicians going to stop playing politics with all of this. The whole immigration process as currently in force at the moment is nothing short of a joke. All this foreplay of skipping around the problem is going to come back and bite us firmly in the a### in the twenty five years or so if not sooner, when this country will be feeling the full force of the decisions not being made today. Very noble and moral to want to be the Rescue Centre to all the world’s population but the country ain’t big enough, rich enough and more importantly the politicians cannot sort out the problems we have got now but still insist on adding to them with throwing billions at projects that in the fullness of time will prove to be neither use or ornament.

    1. SM
      December 8, 2021

      +10

  10. Mark B
    December 8, 2021

    Sorry, slightly off topic.

    I am given to understand from, Blackbelt Barrister (YouTube) that the government is seeking to bring in legislation that would in effect allow the government to overturn the courts decisions. Whilst I am not a fan of our Liberal Minded Courts I do believe that this nation is best governed when its various powers are separated. Such a power that the government would grant itself would very seriously undermine democracy (stop laughing at the back) and could lead to an effective dictatorship. I urge others who value our freedoms, including our kind host, to seek more information for themselves and to oppose this serious and deeply damaging idea.

    1. Excalibur
      December 8, 2021

      What freedoms, Mark ?. Try saying what you really think and see how free we are.

      1. Mark B
        December 8, 2021

        That’s my point. Our freedoms have been slowly taken from us, bit by bit.

  11. formula57
    December 8, 2021

    I am glad there is no conflict between “The government refused to accept the amendment…” and “The government wants to stop people trafficking and smuggling from France.”. We shall see though!

  12. Sea_Warrior
    December 8, 2021

    Perhaps we should pull out of the UN Migrant Convention. And I would have no problem with the cross-Channel dinghyists – house-breakers, to my mind – losing all access to legal process. Useless though she is, Priti Patel, or another Home Secretary, would probably make faster and better decisions than any judge. The Home Secretary can already bar someone from coming through Immigration if that person’s arrival is deemed contrary to the public good. Your party has had ample time to sort this problem out!

    1. beresford
      December 8, 2021

      Both good ideas. They seem able to turn away ‘right wing’ activists with ease. But give the migrants a hearing in front of a single judge, who will be able to dismiss most claims out of hand. And stop blaming lawyers, under our adversarial system their job is to use any loophole in the law in the interest of their client.

    2. Timaction
      December 8, 2021

      11.5 years to sort it out. Kind of gives us a clue how serious they think this problem is. Oh, but hang on, let’s stop and ban gas boilers and the ice’s. Let us pray.

  13. Dave Andrews
    December 8, 2021

    Quite obviously the UK government is not able to process the modest numbers coming in right now, so should stop the pretence and announce a suspension of the asylum system until it gets a grip.
    Issue a statement that all asylum applications will be refused (apart from exceptional cases) and anyone attempting to enter the UK without permission will be returned to their home country. Anyone bringing an appeal for deportation must post bail for the individual, sponsor their presence in the UK and pay all the bills.

  14. Donna
    December 8, 2021

    “The government wants to stop people trafficking and smuggling from France.”

    Really? There doesn’t seem to be much actual evidence of that …. and a great deal of evidence that they’re not that bothered considering the lack of action over the past 20+ months.

    We all know that it’s the Human Rights Act and our subservience to the ECHR which is the problem. We have signed up to protocols which applied in 1950 to deal with European problems of the 1930s-45 and have since been extended and re-interpreted by activist left-wing judges in the UK. They are not applicable in that form for the 21st century. But there are so many vested interests (not least Blair, who they seem to have a very unhealthy obsession with) who are determined to stop any change happening.

    Sir John, the clattering train of this Government is coming off the rails.

    1. Mark J
      December 8, 2021

      Donna, I 100% agree with your post.

      The protocols regarding asylum and refugees are no longer fir for purpose. Too many are now abusing these outdated protocols for their own ends.

      Covid has not been an excuse for not dealing with this issue. If anything it was actually more of a reason to deal with it. In times of a pandemic, you don’t allow people to freely walk into your country, brining in whatever illness they may have. That is, unless you are a useless Conservative Government that doesn’t seem to care.

      We were told during the transition period that nothing could be done about illegal migration due to ‘EU rules’. I said on numerous forums and news article comments, that I bet nothing would have changed by the end of 2020 – when we were free of ‘EU rules’.

      How right I was.

      A whole year later and still nothing has changed.

      I state here and now that I bet by this time next year, we will still be seeing large numbers to continue crossing the channel. If not seeing the problem being worse than it currently is.

      That is how little faith I have in Government to sort this.

    2. Micky Taking
      December 8, 2021

      more like a deafening silence of total disbelief and embarrassment that they elected this buffoon into the top job. Sitting on hands, mouth clamped shut wondering how to pass the remaining years and months of this worst possible Tory government.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 8, 2021

        what test didn’t it pass? Truth hurts, doesn’t it!

    3. Timaction
      December 8, 2021

      No. It’s already off. This is an unruly, confused and rabble of a Government reflecting its leader.

  15. Micky Taking
    December 8, 2021

    main topic of the day. BBC WEBSITE:-
    Calls for a better operation in No 10 have been getting louder since the Owen Paterson shambles. A long-term aide to Mr Johnson went back into No 10 not long ago to help. But there’ve been private demands from a former minister to sack chief of staff Dan Rosenfeld, speculation that anyone seen in the video will have to quit, suggestions that the PM will have to make a grovelling apology and send some staff out the door, or try to get ahead of the story and launch some kind of inquiry.
    The question being asked, even by one of his allies, is about Boris Johnson himself – “Is he going to be big enough to understand the reason we’re getting into difficulties, is because he is trying to run government with chaos, like he has run his life?” they ask. The former minister points the finger at the prime minister’s chosen manner of running No 10, with “cliques running round” and wanting to hear from “people who will tell him he is wonderful, not to tell him that he is not”.
    Boris Johnson still has many backers, many MPs who believe they owe their seats to him. His presence looms so large over his party, that a different kind of party altogether is not suddenly going to sink him or his team.

  16. Wokinghamite
    December 8, 2021

    Many of those seeking to arrive here seem not to be genuine asylum seekers. If they were, why not remain in France, where they would have achieved safety, instead of insisting on getting to the UK?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 9, 2021

      If you were seeking asylum, and managed to get to Indonesia say, then do you not think that you might try to get to e.g. Australia?

  17. Mary M.
    December 8, 2021

    Heartening to see your colleague Iain Duncan Smith writing in the Telegraph this morning, flagging up the continued perpetration of ‘modern slavery’ in the UK. Still only a fraction of offenders are actually convicted of this crime.

  18. Nottingham Lad Himself
    December 8, 2021

    There is nothing whatsoever under existing HRA, ECHR, or UN law as it stands to prevent the sending back of people who do not qualify for asylum.

    There may be other temporary reasons such as covid travel restrictions, but that self-evidently does not in any way relate to those laws and is therefore not any reason to change or to derogate from them.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 8, 2021

      *The sending back to their home countries, that is.

      1. beresford
        December 8, 2021

        Apart from the fact that part of the scam is to either refuse to reveal your country of origin or lie about it. Which is why we need an alternative destination in the Third World to send them to. Where we DO know where they come from or can make a good guess from accents or DNA, we could offer a bribe to the recipient country to take them back, in the long term (or even the short term) it would be cheaper.

        1. Christine
          December 9, 2021

          Just deduct their annual cost (x 10) from the foreign aid we give them. They will soon accept them back.

          It’s really not that difficult. I can only assume our politicians actually want these people to stay here.

      2. Mike Wilson
        December 8, 2021

        The sending back to their home countries, that is.

        You are charmingly naive. You do realise these people arrive with no documents and refuse to say who they are and where they are from. Could I turn up in a boat and land on the shore of any other country in the world, refuse to say who I am and where I am from, and be given asylum?

      3. Peter2
        December 8, 2021

        How do you do that NHL when they are coached to throw away all their ID documents before arrival and refuse to tell UK authorities where they are from?

        1. Christine
          December 9, 2021

          It’s very easy to tell where people are from by their language and accent. If I spoke to a group of British people, not only would I be able to identify them as British, in most cases I would be able to pinpoint which area of Britain they came from.

          For example, we have enough Afgan interpreters to confirm whether people are genuinely from Afghanistan.

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 9, 2021

          You can’t just claim asylum.

          It has to be asylum FROM somewhere.

          If they lied as Christine suggests, then they would need to be quite good and detailed about it – not that easy.

          1. Peter2
            December 9, 2021

            They come from one country but say they come from another which is a little more dangerous.
            Gosh NHL you are so naive.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            December 10, 2021

            Many of them only say that they are claiming asylum as plan B, if they are apprehended.

            Their actual intention was originally to melt into the crowds of their ethnic kin and to work in the cash economy.

            They otherwise seldom announce their presence to the authorities on arrival, do they?

            You are so naĂŻve.

          3. Peter2
            December 10, 2021

            I see you now have switched the argument to one about clandestines who arrive undetected NHL and then claim asylum once apprehended by immigration authorities.
            Saves you thinking about the question posed.
            Hilarious as usual.

  19. Richard1
    December 8, 2021

    It’s difficult to disagree with the PM of France who says it is the UK’s interpretation of the law and the U.K. benefits system which attracts migrants. (Of course the French authorities shouldn’t be in effect encouraging the people smugglers). Forget the humbug from leftists above, the EU – and indeed many other countries – do exactly what Mr Cash’s amendment proposed.

    Off topic, good news about the Downing Street party and the officials laughing and joking about how they would explain it. It means there can’t possibly be another lockdown, the policy (loudly promoted by some ‘experts’ and leftists) which has done so much harm in the U.K. and elsewhere, and down little or nothing to arrest the progress of covid.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      December 8, 2021

      Indeed.”Her Majesty sat alone when she was saying goodbye to the man she had been married to for 73 years – that is the sacrifice which gives the moral authority to lead.”

      It is not as though this is the first member of Government to disrespect the rules they made – including Boris who has been caught not wearing a mask where he ought in the past few weeks.

      Christmas is already looking lost for many businesses.

      I expect the Government will attempt to bring in lockdown by any other name. They dare not square up with The People directly by calling it ‘lockdown’ now. All sorts of scare mongering and peer pressure no doubt.

      General election please.

      If the Tories won’t use their 80 seat majority then we should be given the opportunity to ditch some of their MPs.

    2. Mark B
      December 8, 2021

      What this party has done is to blow the lid off this SCAM. People have finally woken up. I can now GO ANYWHERE I WANT without wearing a muzzle and not be stopped or have people looking or moaning at me. They just don’t care ! They stopped believing the LIES !!

  20. Nig l
    December 8, 2021

    A leaked video confirms we have children running no 10 contemptuous of what ordinary people have to put up with and the Afghanistan proceedings demonstrate what an utter shambles our Civil Service is with your Foreign Secretary at the time refusing or unable to acknowledge what we can all see, privileged non accountable clock watchers with vast boiler plated pensions to look forward to.

    Instead saying that the whistle blower was ‘junior’. Disgraceful condescending rubbish. Junior enough that he was almost the only person reading e mails that could or in lots of cases couldn’t save lives.

    This from a man who deemed his holiday more important. Rash from start to finish has proved an utter disgrace. He has no place representing us in any capacity.

    And whilst we see the latest example of an unfit for service government Minister and Department why should we or you be surprised by the utter bollocks going on in the Channel.

  21. Everhopeful
    December 8, 2021

    Oh so is that why Johnson was mumbling into his gruel about some great scheme to review judicial decisions (after one year was it?).
    I thought that was a very odd thing to come up with since obviously the courts and he are singing from the same hymn sheet.
    Stupid man.

  22. The Prangwizard
    December 8, 2021

    Here we go yet again. His leadership and party swatting away Sir John’s views.

    Yet Sir John remains fully loyal and will be happy to stay with the Tory party whatever it does and whatever the leader allows. No matter how many holes there are in the unprincipled Tory ship he’s happy to go down with it.

    1. Nig l
      December 8, 2021

      The Tory Party is only interested in the general public for their votes. You can see cynical behaviour all over because it won’t matter at the ballot box.

      When that starts to come into question the captain will go overboard. Johnson has few/no political friends indeed there is much animus in private so the 1922 mutterings will quickly turn into a crescendo.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      December 8, 2021

      Indeed. Allegra Stratton has more influence in government than most Tory MPs.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 9, 2021

        most Tory MPs appear to not want influence, rather than maintain control over the leader, they are good at keeping head down.

  23. Pud
    December 8, 2021

    The government’s position on illegal Channel crossings should be that anyone attempting an illicit entry from a safe country like France will not be treated as a refugee as they are already in a safe country. The only exception would be if they had the right to live in France and were genuinely fleeing persecution by the French authorities which is highly unlikely and in any case it would be easier and safer to flee by land to Germany, Belgium etc. The best way to stop people drowning in the Channel is to stop rewarding them for attempting the crossing.
    This stance would not stop the UK accepting genuine refugees who had claimed asylum in a safe country, but would stop criminals attempting to bypass our immigration laws by paying other criminals to facilitate their entry.

  24. agricola
    December 8, 2021

    My conclusion is that government at the highest level has no wish to resolve the illegal immigrant challenge. Talking government suggests they do but the reality always indicates they have no intention of dealing with it.
    The other major problem, highlighted by Dominic Cummings and the lady who set up the vaccination programme is that the civil service is not fit for purpose. To which I would respond that we should create an administrative gendarmerie under a form of military discipline under the ultimate control of a minister capable of leading. I am frankly tired of the constant stream of failure that is rewarded with fat salaries, pensions, and knighthoods at the expense of the taxpayer. A post Brexit UK cannot afford the luxury of this sea anchor that limits success.

  25. Mark J
    December 8, 2021

    ‘The government refused to accept the amendment and Opposition parties were against it.’

    Says it all really.

    Neither the Conservative Government, nor the opposition have any intention of properly dealing with the illegal migrants crisis.

    The Government needs to stop worrying about a minority whom think this should continue. They should start acting in confidence, dealing with the majority viewpoint this cannot and should not continue.

    Anyone who is paying a people smuggler money to get into a specific country is NOT genuine in my book. Especially when many of those have paid that money to people smugglers in their home countries. They are nothing more than economic migrants. Surely this is a valid argument for turning people away and not allowing people to remain here.

    To those that think the UK should have open borders for ever more. GET REAL!

    The UK has an obligation to help genuine people in need. Not a load of economic migrants seeking a more cushy life elsewhere.

    There is an absolute limit as to how many can be helped and housed in the UK, before a knock on effect is felt elsewhere. Tell those on the housing lists that they will have to wait a few years more, because someone from elsewhere is more deserved of Council accommodation over them. I can bet those on the waiting lists are getting rather cheesed off with keep being pushed back.

    The fact is this country is now overcrowded. We will never get enough Doctors, Nurses, Care Workers, Teachers, Police Officers, etc, etc to cater for a larger population. By continually adding to the numbers, just seeks to make our public services fall even further.

    I also question why travelers coming into the UK have to Hotel Quarantine. Yet arrive into the UK on a Dinghy and you don’t have to – especially if undetected. It makes an utter mockery of the whole process.

  26. Nota#
    December 8, 2021

    European Human Rights and similar such proclamations are in practice despot un-democratic Governments hiding behind a screen of ‘look at me’ how good I am to the surfs. To grant someone a right you first have to have had the power to take it away from them.

    In a Democracy things/rights are only removed by the consensus of those elected as representatives. Everything else is permitted. Those same individuals get to amend and repeal any such acts at the behest of their constituents – they were lent that power by the people.

    The other failure of the Human Rights concept is the Courts get to award greater rights to those that infringe them at the expense of those that don’t.

    The Question is to live in a Democracy or a Dictatorship, now-days that line is blured.

  27. Nota#
    December 8, 2021

    With all the compassion we love to show all the actions to date has had the Government, the Law actually being complicit and the main driver of the criminal act of Human Trafficking. The Government is in fact creating and sustaining the criminal underworld.

    As individuals we would be never allowed to create so much wealth by criminal activity as this Government nurturing.

  28. X-Tory
    December 8, 2021

    Sir John, good for you and Bill Cash!! As you can see from some of the responses here (and as you clearly knew full well) your proposal was bound to provoke the far-left into an apoplectic fury, and I can only presume that this is the reason the government refused to accept your amendment. Boris does not govern for conservatives or for Britain, but for the internationalist, ‘liberal left’ establishment.

    It is clear that Boris does NOT intend to do anything to genuinely rectify the human rights laws and the government’s promises are just LIES. If they really wanted to solve the problem they would, as you say, simply have accepted your excellent amendment. But Boris is a liar, a coward and a traitor, and does not intend to do what is necessary to stop the invasion of illegal immigrants. And that, in a nutshell, is why I can no longer vote Conservative.

  29. majorfrustration
    December 8, 2021

    More and more Labour voters.

  30. Nota#
    December 8, 2021

    “The government is now legislating to strengthen its powers”

    Again they miss the point – ‘Democracy’ is were we the people through our representatives are the only ones that get to create, amend and repeal the laws rules and regulations that take place inside our own territorial limits. If that is not how things are working then the word ‘Democracy’ shouldn’t be used in any sense in Government quarters – it is simply a Dictatorship with some smarmy headline grabbing overtones.

    Get a grip give the people back their Democratic Government whose powers have been lent to the powers that be.

  31. Christine
    December 8, 2021

    Of course, France could stop this fiasco overnight by agreeing to the return of any migrant making the crossing. They have blood on their hands but our media and other countries never condemn them.

    1. Will in Hampshire
      December 8, 2021

      So what would be their incentive to agree such a thing? I don’t see why they would do such a thing, unless compensated for doing so in other ways.

      1. Christine
        December 9, 2021

        Incentive? Surely saving the lives of migrants drowning in the channel is incentive enough. The crossings would stop overnight if migrants were sent straight back. Why aren’t the media and international communities pointing this out and putting pressure on the French to do this?

  32. Micky Taking
    December 8, 2021

    MPs are earning up to ÂŁ350 an hour to take surveys for polling companies, according to BBC research.
    Firms such as YouGov and Ipsos Mori regularly question MPs on behalf of businesses and charities to find out the opinions of policy makers. Since the 2019 election, 123 MPs have spent 695 hours carrying out 1,040 surveys – earning more than ÂŁ116,000. They are not breaking conduct rules if the earnings are declared, but it comes amid renewed scrutiny of outside work.
    MPs are expected to be banned next year from working as consultants or advisers to companies, after a former Tory MP was found to have broken lobbying rules by the standards watchdog.
    Noses in the trough…who would have thought it?

    1. Micky Taking
      December 8, 2021

      reported on the BBC website.

  33. ukretired123
    December 8, 2021

    Ironic that wokery slave trade guilt-trippers cannot see that it’s the Channel people-smugglers facilitate modern day slavery…

  34. Bryan Harris
    December 8, 2021

    More evidence that the government lacks the will to act with regard to our country being overrun by invaders, who then get such a beneficial welcome.

    Yet one more example of broken promises – one more example where the government fails to implement the will of the people already resident.

  35. Mike Wilson
    December 8, 2021

    With regard to ‘the party’ I think she says:

    Is this recorded?

    not

    This is recorded

  36. rose
    December 8, 2021

    “It is a pity they did not just accept the amendment. The danger now is the courts will seek to undermine government borders policy yet again.” Quite so.

    It is also a pity the MSM are trying to detach the backbenchers from the Front Bench by suddenly discovering the FO leak and the Stratton leak.

    It seems clear to me that by pushing the possible war with Russia, the severe power cuts in the North, and the missing children from school, out of the news, they are:

    1 Trying to manipulate the by elections as they always do
    2 Sabotaging the borders legislation and anything which Raab might follow up with.

    And it is a great pity that so many of the public allow themselves to be manipulated in this way.

    1. rose
      December 8, 2021

      I see the Scottish National Socialists disrupted the legislation physically today. And what a disgusting spectacle the House of Commons presented us with at PMQs – the Stasifolk out in force, spying, sneaking, snitching, baying for blood from they knew not whom for they knew not what. How can the country have sunk so low? We used to value privacy and freedom.

  37. Philip P.
    December 8, 2021

    In short, Sir John, you say: ‘The government wants to stop people trafficking and smuggling from France… I sponsored Bill Cash’s amendment to the Bill… to clarify that the U.K. law means what it says… The government refused to accept the amendment.’

    I think you and your fellow MPs have helped to show that your first sentence is the plain opposite of the truth. We knew that anyway, but it’s good to have it confirmed.

  38. Iain Moore
    December 8, 2021

    “send people back who do not qualify as asylum seekers”

    But that is the problem , due to the massively widened definition, the activist judiciary along with the pernicious Human Rights Act, means they all qualify for asylum.

    What has taken place on the Belarus / Poland border exposes the lie, where those trying to break into Poland , and would have been granted asylum if they had got here, are now happily taking flights laid on by their Governments , to go back home. Its the same con we see when people we have given asylum to , claiming a fear of persecution from their governments, then can be found holidaying or partially living back in Somalia, Iraq or where ever.

  39. agricola
    December 8, 2021

    Over last weekend I traveled by air Spain to England. All preconditions for travel have to be completed within a 48 hour window prior to take off. Initially I had signed up for a required Lateral Flow Test. Last minute UK government changes demanded I have a day 2 CPR test after arrival. This had to be pre booked so that it could be entered on the Passenger Location Form. First booking with a UK high street pharmacy contained an ID number that the PLF did not accept, so having committed to a fee of ÂŁ79.00, I had to find a second provider. The high street provider failed to answer any of its help numbers and its computer generated replies to emails proved irrelevant and could not accept responses.
    The second provider’s password was accepted by the PLF and I could then get a boarding pass. No problem at Alicante airport, having a TIE identity card avoids passport stamping and a cursory glance at the PLF by an airline employee avoids the airline being blamed for flying passengers into the UK who do not have one.
    On arrival at Birmingham airport, my passport is scanned and absolutely nobody is interested in scanning or even looking at the PLF. This is in direct contrast to entry into Spain where after passport control the Spanish PLF is scanned and the passenger is released to collect baggage and enter Spain. I would also add that if I wish to see my Spanish GP I make an appointment and get one same day or up to five days hence for a face to face ten minute, or more if necessary, consultation.
    I now await isolation release from the CPR testing company so that I can visit and sign on temporarily with a UK GP. Necessary so that my NHS consultant can send him a final sign off report. A further neurotic last minute twitch by HMG demands a CPR test in the country of departure. I am willing to bet that nobody checks it out in the UK. Additionally I want to lead a normal, under present circumstances, social life in the UK for the next three months. It hasn’t escaped my notice that I could have avoided all this bureaucratic nonsence had I come across the Channel in a rubber duck.

    1. Micky Taking
      December 9, 2021

      your choice to travel from Spain to UK. When was it made compulsory?

  40. glen cullen
    December 8, 2021

    Boris ‘’illegal-immigrants are good, illegal-immigrants are right, illegal-immigrantion works’’

  41. a-tracy
    December 8, 2021

    How much money do went spend annually on the department that deals with asylum claims? How many staff do they have working on these cases? How many cases per person employed do they handle each week? How much do we pay to legal aid and all the solicitors and barristers associated with these claims on both sides? This just seems like a money-spinning exercise kept constantly delayed to increase pay packets, this department can find out their homes abroad, their relatives, and full information on them when a minority complete atrocities. How many people’s claims are outstanding for over one year and if any why are they unresolved?

    What happens when they fail their claim but stay here seven years, do we give them permits to work? Are we still paying for their lodgings and food? People have been flying in for years and disappearing into the system and black market. Perhaps you should ask all the Conservative backbench lawyers to get their heads together and come up with a solution.

  42. Nig l
    December 8, 2021

    And in other news the DT highlights the absurdities around testing travellers. There is no evidence that it has reduced the incidence of anything, previous panic about Delta was misplaced, indeed the variant has been found in people with zero overseas contact albeit COP 26 has been identified as a cause.

    It a waste of time and money and has ruined thousands of peoples Christmas plans. Another big thank you to the entitled and privileged blob.

    How wonderful the ‘sans culottes’ must have felt as they cheered on the tumbrills.

  43. acorn
    December 8, 2021

    JR, you are sounding more like Alexander Lukashenko every day!

  44. Everhopeful
    December 8, 2021

    The Grinch is threatening again!
    No Christmas.
    Poll Tax moment?

    1. Everhopeful
      December 8, 2021

      “Diversionary tactic”
      Wow!

  45. adrian t
    December 8, 2021

    Dear Sir John,
    I trust you will address the only really important issue of the moment – The stealing of our freedom by your/our Government by the introduction, with no justification, of the Covid Passport.

    1. matthu
      December 8, 2021

      + + +

  46. Denis Cooper
    December 8, 2021

    Off topic, Boris Johnson still refuses to recognise that his Irish protocol is fundamentally ill-conceived:

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/government-boris-johnson-northern-ireland-prime-minister-brandon-lewis-b970730.html

    “Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol can be worked in a different way, the Prime Minister has insisted.”

    But it has not been designed to be worked in such a way that the EU checks and controls are applied to the correct flow of goods, which is the trickle of goods being exported from Northern Ireland across the land border into the Irish Republic and so potentially the rest of the EU Single Market, not to the much larger volume of goods being imported into the province, plus the checks on all the goods being produced in the province to ensure that they also conform to EU Single Market requirements.

    Earlier today I saw an MP claiming that Boris Johnson had sacrificed Northern Ireland for the sake of Brexit, but I don’t that is true; rather the correct analysis in that he sacrificed Northern Ireland for the sake of his “fantastic” “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU, maybe worth a paltry 1% of UK GDP.

    I believe that it was in order to secure that pathetic deal from the EU that he was prepared to go along with this nonsense from the Irish government:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/15/levelling-up-7/#comment-1276472

    “It became our firm position that any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard border.”

  47. Bytheway
    December 8, 2021

    So there you have it – we are being led by a blaggard, a buffoon and with what’s going on I can see we are a long way from the topic ‘Saving Lives in the Channel’ – then as I write I now hear that Allegra Stratton has resigned – it doesn’t look good.

  48. glen cullen
    December 8, 2021

    Under this leadership; this government is a dead duck
    We shouldn’t have to wait 3 years for a new leader

    1. Micky Taking
      December 9, 2021

      +1

  49. Everhopeful
    December 8, 2021

    Dear Government,
    Ho!Ho!Ho!
    Bet you regret making parties ILLEGAL!!
    No pressies for you so don’t bother with the sherry and mince pies,
    Lots of love,
    Santa
    Xxx

  50. Mike Wilson
    December 8, 2021

    All good fun in Parliament today. Allegra Stratton has resigned. Surely every person who attended the party on December 18th 2020 and, according to Dominic Cummins, on November 13th in the flat above Downing Street, must be sacked and prosecuted by the police.

  51. Andy
    December 8, 2021

    So at his ‘press conference’ just now incompetent Brexitist PM Joris Bohnson –
    leader of the Let’s Have A Non-Party Party – has been asked about mandatory vaccinations.

    In his usual convoluted way Joris just said we need to have a ‘conversation’ about mandatory vaccines. Just last week you were all getting your knickers in a twist about President Von Der Leyen saying the EU should have a ‘discussion’ about mandatory vaccines. Are you all outraged that JoBo is suggesting the same?

    By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Lockdown.

    1. Peter2
      December 8, 2021

      Yes I am.

    2. Micky Taking
      December 8, 2021

      not discussion, enforcement or no medicare. Non-vaccinated take up weeks of a bed, and shiftworking nursing care – way too much resource for a disease brought on by themselves.

  52. glen cullen
    December 8, 2021

    I might have missed it but I didn’t hear at the covid brief the number of omicron hospitalisations or the number of omicron deaths
.can anyone enlighten me

    1. Micky Taking
      December 8, 2021

      zero.

  53. Fedupsoutherner
    December 8, 2021

    Well done Boris. Labour are now ahead in the polls. Thanks very much. Where is the vote of no confidence when we need it?

  54. Donna
    December 8, 2021

    I am inclined to think that Johnson’s denial that he knew about the No.10 Party on 18 December is about as believable as Clinton’s denial “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” And about as honest.

    He should resign. And if he won’t, he must be forced out.

    I will not be following any more restrictions he announces, when it’s blindingly obvious that neither he nor members of his Government nor his Aides are.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      December 9, 2021

      “I have been assured that a party did not happen. ” is obvious evasion.

      He could still *know* a party happened and have been assured that one didn’t happen.

      Fact is, we can’t trust that Plan B has not been deployed as a distraction. The man really is that big a liar.

  55. John
    December 8, 2021

    I believe the answer to the illegal crossings is a ship moored in the channel where those intercepted in the small boats can be processed. Those very few qualifying for asylum should be brought to the mainland and the rest should be shipped to Gibralter and sent back across the EU border.

    1. Mark B
      December 8, 2021

      +1

  56. beresford
    December 8, 2021

    So, supposedly spurred by a ‘variant’ whose symptoms are similar to the common cold, we have gone within ten days from re-imposition of face-rags in shops and public transport to headlong pursuit of the worst authoritarian countries with ‘vaccine passports’ and a ‘discussion’ about mandatory injections. The globalists are panicking as the virus recedes and more information about the effects of the mRNA inoculants becomes available. Does anyone doubt that Boris has received the giddy-up from his handlers? What could be more ludicrous than responding to a variant which evades the injections by insisting on proof that you have received three of the now-ineffective injections? There is a schedule to these mounting restrictions which is not related to the incidence or severity of any virus.

    1. Christine
      December 9, 2021

      + 100

  57. jerry
    December 9, 2021

    So you wanted the UK to ignore UN law, is that not what “rouge” nations do?…

    1. Peter2
      December 9, 2021

      What is UN law Jerry?

  58. XY
    December 9, 2021

    Call me a cynic, or cal me a conspiracy theorist, but when the government refuse to accept that amendment I wonder why on Earth they would do that.

    Could it be that they want it overturned in the courts? Or that they want to pick a fight with the courts and those who use them for politicking?

  59. Will in Hampshire
    December 9, 2021

    Interesting to see that the electorate is shifting in its views: The Times reports that the Tory vote-share has fallen to 33% in one of its polls, behind Labour which was four percentage points higher. I’m not a psephologist so I can’t predict the implications of this at the next election but it seems unlikely to be promising for Mr Johnson. If this trend continues over the coming three years it’s hard to believe that there’ll be a Tory majority at the next General Election.

  60. Lindsay McDougall
    December 10, 2021

    The Government will get nowhere until all the people who reach UK shores having thrown away their passports are interred on Stornaway or another Hebridean island. They must have no legal representation and they must rot there, in Spartan conditions and inclement weather, until they reveal their country of origin – not France, but their original country of origin.

  61. Pauline Baxter
    December 10, 2021

    Of course your government should have accepted the amendment.
    It is plain common sense, backed up by what we have seen happening already.
    As for Starmer’s lot – do they think they can catch some votes there somehow?
    Mind you, I think your party are losing votes left right and centre.
    Not just because of Xmas partying against their rules.
    No, because:-
    The Net Zero policy is DISASTROUS for the U.K. and based on a SCAM.
    The continuing Covid Restrictions indicate that the government prefer to rule by diktat rather than parliamentary discussion. The electorate is waking up.
    And yes we need the strongest measures possible, NOW, to stop the immigration.

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