The PM has to consider what to do with the draft Bill in the light of reactions to it and the Parliamentary arithmetic I set out yesterday.
There is no point in amending the bill in the way One Nation and the Opposition want. A weaker bill would lead to more court challenges and delays. Far from Rwanda being a deterrent to migrants they would see such a weaker bill left them more time to get here as the courts generated more uncertainty. Nor are there likely to be enough One Nation rebels to stop the current bill.
He could try to talk those who think the bill is too weak into  allowing  it a 2 nd reading and to spend more time with them to see if amendments can be agreed to meet legitimate worries. He would need sign off from enough rebels to make amendment worthwhile to give him a small majority. It would increase the  chances of the bill working.
He could try to push an unamended bill through. This would be possible if Labour abstain but very difficult if they do not. If the  bill then leads to more delays and court challenges he is worse off than not trying to legislate. If the bill works he triumphs.
He could conclude that thanks to the Opposition parties, The Lords and some Conservative rebels he cannot legislate. He would need to develop more ideas to whittle  down the number of illegal migrants. These could include increased surveillance in France against illegal boats setting out, more police resource to follow the money, more mystery shopping for the boat trips, exposing the gangs, intercepting the boat purchases and breaking more into the sales and support systems of the travel organisers.
Whatever he does he would be well advised to turn more attention to the  easier but larger task of deflating legal  migration numbers which are so excessive. Many who want the small boats stopped  also want much lower overall migrant numbers. Meeting their  wishes on that would help a lot. To do this he and his Chancellor have to win a battle with the OBR and Treasury officials. They need to correct their wrong numbers, and understand just how much all the extra public sector and housing costs fpr migrants adds to spending and the deficit.
December 10, 2023
The Conservatives were the most successful political party in history. Their time has now come to an end because they have Balkanised the country in the same way the Ottomans did. Our children will be living with conflicts for generations.
December 10, 2023
Javelin
I always admired the Conservatives for ‘seeing the big picture’ and getting things right….Since Blair, to date, successive governments seem to have deliberately destroyed a great nation.
December 10, 2023
Matthew Goodwin stated on TV over 50% of social housing in London is occupied by non-British people! Says it all about this trecherous party.
December 10, 2023
Hope
I’m told that 50% of those living in London were not born in the UK.
December 10, 2023
Because in Cameronâs words the Tories became the âheir to Blairâ and swallowed whole the corporatist socialist ideology.
December 10, 2023
The Conservatives were successful because they accepted the world and people for what they are, and encouraged the best in us all.
But now they are Socialists and recreating the world in their own self image. Good, Kind, Generous.
Hunt today proved they canât hold a thought or a line. Months ago he was shouting that Putin and Russia are all but destroyed. Today he says they will triumph and the west should shake in its boots. He is angry because âhis truthâ has been compromised by reality!
These are really stupid people.
December 10, 2023
Might be because hundreds of thousands Ukrainian men missing to avoid being called up!
December 10, 2023
They probably don’t want to die for the profit of Neocons…
December 11, 2023
Holland Merkel admit the Misk agreement was to give Ukraine time to arm not a sincere offer to Russia. Lord Greensil wants to March to the Urals- what a stupid provocative policy for him to make when he does not have the means to back it up! Still he is now foreign secretary!
December 11, 2023
Apologies, it was not Hunt who has still not woken up, it was Daniel Hannon. Sorry Lord Hannon đđ€Ł. If he goes any faster he might catch up with ten average Tory Housewife!
December 10, 2023
Not successful in running the country remotely how it should be run for the benefit of the people alas. Just “successful” in gaining power then largely mis-using and abusing it. Helped by the fact that Labour are even more of a disaster and by FPTP voting that often prevents people’s voting how they wish to without wasting their votes.
December 11, 2023
The Ottoman Empire did not Balkanize the Balkans;Balkanization was the result of the disintegration of that empire due to both internal and external pressures.Same as happened to the western Roman Empire.
December 10, 2023
Rwanda policy is deeply flawed; itâs a legal minefield resulting in delay, frustration and ever increasing numbers of illegals entering UK plus the costs. We need to have an immediate returns policy back to the last European place of departure. I have no confidence in the police or border force having sufficient operational capacity to do this work. This is a task for our military combined services. But no interceptions. The Channel is far too dangerous. UK Government must be clear to our European neighbours that anyone arriving illegally will be returned immediately. We also need to stop ALL immigration into the UK apart from students studying here and no dependants. And then stop immigration for at least five years to allow those who are here to assimilate and settle. The biggest issue facing us is housing and associated local services, schools, roads, public transport, hospitals and GPâs. This is now well beyond a crisis Sir John itâs a national Emergency and must be dealt with accordingly.
December 10, 2023
@ Michael Saxton
Agree!!
December 10, 2023
Stopping legal immigration for more than say 2 years would be a remarkable achievement, and unlikely to happen with many forces being opposed wanting open borders. Turning the tap off for student dependents coming, and banning Chinese would set out our hitherto weakness into a forceful statement.
I would not agree to paying the French for even more ineffective intervention.
When will we ever grasp the nettle?
December 10, 2023
Well said Mickey. We must defend our borders as we have so many jealous enemies
December 10, 2023
MS – Agreed. So far this week I have heard commentary from at least three barristers & human rights lawyers & the general opinion seems to be clear that it will not work. Clause (4) appears to be just one problem. ‘ Decisions based on particular individual circumstances’ Those migrants rejecting Rwanda deportation can and no doubt will, claim it is not right for them as individuals. Then comes the start of another very costly merry-go-round.
December 10, 2023
Indeed and not just extra costs for the public sector but low skilled immigration depresses the pay and conditions of others, increases housing costs, taxes and many other costs for them hugely. Hotel and property rental costs have risen very considerably. More and more are driven into higher rates taxes by fiscal drag which Hunt and Sunak quite wrongly claim they are cutting taxes.
December 10, 2023
The OBR and other “research” organisations do need to factor in the inflationary aspect of immigration on housing and other living costs and the deflationary effect on wages which convinces the economically inactive to stay that way. Especially when the benefits system is permitted to insure recipients against inflation.
Welfare reform is a huge part of reducing immigration.
December 10, 2023
That’s right LL. Do the simple things first and sort out the OBR and Treasury to show the real costs of legal and illegal immigration. Most people will be horrified as the results are revealed. It should be simple enough with all the data the government holds on us.
December 10, 2023
Unite or die seems to be Rishiâs message in the Sunday Times, but why would anyone sensible unite behind the wrong headed net zero, rip off unreliable energy, vast tax borrow and waste and open door immigration policies of one Rishi Sunak? Unite and march in totally the wrong direction over the cliff is not a good rallying cry or policy.
When the foolish Tory MPs backed the foolish John Major – when he did his âback me or sackâ me fake âresignationâ he buried the party for 4 terms before they finally won a small overall majority again. Looks even worse this time. Betting odds suggest. Sunak has less than a 50% chance of being PM at the time of the next election.
December 10, 2023
I wonder why the call to “unite or die” is heed-worthy now when it was not during the Liz Truss premiership?
In Truss’s time there was the chance the call could have been true, now accuracy might demand “unite or not, die anyway”.
December 10, 2023
Indeed, and what is the point of a Conservative party marching in the Sunak direction 180 degree out on almost every issue.
December 10, 2023
Well said. Why on earth would any genuine conservative want to “unite” with Sunak’s destructive cabal?
December 10, 2023
Indeed who wants to unite behind net zero, open door immigration at 1million + PA, ever higher taxes, ever more government and government waste, ever more red tape, expensive & intermittent energy, misguided climate alarmism, a command economy on heat pumps, EV cars, energy, healthcare, net harm âvaccinesâ, lockdownsâŠ
December 10, 2023
have the pseudo Tory MPs got any bottle left for yet another ‘when the music stops’ find another leader?
December 11, 2023
Well the Party Grandees/Sunak recently confirmed that, in their opinion, the Tory Benches don’t hold anyone sufficiently experienced and qualified to become Foreign Sec, let alone Prime Minister.
So they’re not going to find a Leader there.
December 10, 2023
Or you could try tackling our catastrophic lack of economic growth, addressing the cost of living crisis, cleaning up our hospitals and re-building our crumbling schools, instead of trying to deflect attention from 13 years of Conservative failure
December 10, 2023
https://www.cityam.com/seven-years-on-we-need-to-finally-stop-blaming-brexit-just-look-at-the-numbers/
“The estimates of GDP published by the OECD in Paris tell a revealing story. Between the second quarter of 2016 and the most recent figure for the third quarter of this year, the British economy only grew by 9.1 per cent.
The figure, amounting to not much more than one per cent a year, is disappointing. This is why both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have placed the aim of raising the growth of both output and productivity centre stage in their policy objectives.
In Spain, however, growth over the same period was a bit less, at 8.3 per cent. In both France and Italy it was even lower, at 5.5 and 5.3 per cent respectively. Perhaps Germany, the poster country for many Remainers, can alter the story? But no. GDP there rose by just 6.2 per cent.”
December 10, 2023
GDP is a misleading measure for several reason it include loads of government activities that actially do net harm. Road blocking, net zero, motorist muggings, ULEZ⊠No real growth in GDP in PPP per Capita at all declining real living standards for about 15 years.
December 10, 2023
I assume that GDP is the measure Lemming would prefer.
December 10, 2023
Quite so, it’s a figure often used by politicians, including our host, to claim ‘economic growth’, when it is so easily manipulated by government money creation and spending. Another PCP lie.
We conservative voters are fed up with your Party Sir J, better move on.
December 11, 2023
NHS spending “The Department’s spending in 2022/23 was ÂŁ181.7 billion. The vast majority of this spending (94.6 per cent, or ÂŁ171.8 billion) was on day-to-day items such as staff salaries and medicines. The remainder was largely capital expenditure on long-term fixed assets such as new buildings or equipment.20 Sept 2023” Source The Kings Fund.
2016/17 “We had a funding allocation of ÂŁ107 billion in 2016/17, which was used to commission health care services both directly by NHS England and by 209 local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on behalf of the patients, citizens and taxpayers of England.17 Jul 2017” Source England NHS.uk.
“What is the biggest expense to the NHS?
answer – staff costs
In 2021/22, DHSC’s gross expenditure was ÂŁ193.8bn for day-to-day costs, and ÂŁ9.7bn was the capital expenditure (the combined total is higher than the budget, because the DHSC raises some revenue itself). The largest area of expenditure, which constitutes over a third of the overall day-to-day budget, is staff costs.10 Aug 2023”
Source the BMA.org.uk
December 11, 2023
Statista.com
“Healthcare spending in the United Kingdom (UK) as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) has increased since 1990, when it was 5.1 percent. By 2022, healthcare expenditure in the UK amounted to 11.3 percent of the GDP.
Health expenditure in the UK compared to Europe
⯠In comparison to other European countries in 2021, the UK ranked fourth highest in terms of healthcare spending as a share of the GDP. Top of the list was Germany, which spent 12.8 percent of its GDP on healthcare in this year. Followed by France and Austria, which spent 12.4 percent and 12.2 percent on health, respectively.
Performance of the NHS in the UK
⯠Individuals in the UK still regard the NHS as a world class health service and remain happy with the high level of care provided by the organization. Although waiting times have been getting worse in the A&E department over the years. The NHS has been falling behind the target that 95 percent of patients should be seen within four hours of arrival. As a result, the primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the NHS among the public are the length of time required to get a GP or hospital appointment and the lack of staff.âŻâŻâŻ”
https://www.statista.com/statistics/317708/healthcare-expenditure-as-a-share-of-gdp-in-the-united-kingdom/
December 10, 2023
Deflate legal immigration numbers, no chance. He has his orders and he’s sticking to them. If you don’t rid this country of this chancer you are rightly toast at the next election
Even his pushback on net zero is smoke and mirrors, you don’t deserve another chance even if liebour would be worse. Retrea, regroup and come back when conservative means conservative.
December 10, 2023
Indeed. Smoke and mirrors yes, the forcing of car companies to sell x % of EV cars is idiotic. They do not even save CO2 and we have no free low carbon CO2 anyway. Though a bit more CO2 is a net good anyway.
Using heat pumps, EV etc. powered off electricity generated by gas is totally moronic. Rather like using H2 rather than methane for house heating is.
December 12, 2023
I’ve never thought about gas storage; we used to have those awful big cylinder tanks, didn’t we? I can’t say I’m sorry to see those go from the front of town.
I looked up gas storage, Statista said Apr ’23 the UK had 6.39 TWh 65.07% capacity full. To compare in Jan ’13 the UK had 1.4 TWh at 102.65% capacity.
What are the figures you’ve seen for Dec 2023?
December 10, 2023
Good morning.
Who the hell are ‘One Nation’ ? Sounds like a 80’s boy band.
Here’s what I think the Little Usurper should do. Get in his car and go and see the King. Dissolve Parliament and put and end to this charade of a government and party. The boy band calling it self, ‘One Nation’ can then stand on a pro-MASS IMMIGRATION ticket.
Simple.
But to do the simple things one must have large political testicles, which I doubt he has.
December 10, 2023
@ Mark B
Haha! One Nation Tories! I’ve looked that up a couple of times. First I thought perhaps it was those who wanted, a UK, one nation, but that didn’t fit their actions…
Now, it seems, perhaps it’s the left wing side of the party? Rather a lot of them…
December 10, 2023
the boys appear to be spotty, juvenile and hide in the crowd.
December 10, 2023
@ Mark B & Sharon
One Nation is a misnomer, the guyâs that give themselves that title are anything and everything but. They donât believe in nationhood – they fight against it; they donât believe in democracy or parliament â they fight against it. They refuse democracy and fight to have it sidelined. They donât believe in a parliament as the democratic legislators for the nation, and they fight to have it removed from that position.
They do however practice the ideology that the UK Parliament has no place in Society, that democracy is dead and has no place in their World it is something they would never defend. They do believe that the self-appointed, unelectable and unaccountable that enjoy life in Foreign Lands should be the dictators of the Laws, Rules and Regulations for the UK and no one else.
December 10, 2023
Mark B : âWho the hell are âOne Nationâ ?â
These are the fifth column Lib Dems and communists who have infiltrated the governing party.
A good start to identifying the âOne Nationâ group would be to look at the 219 Conservative MPs who voted with 141 Labour, 4 Independent and 1 Green Party MP for the Draft Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order 2023 which will begin to fine from next year motor manufacturers ÂŁ15,000 per ice vehicle they sell beyond a quota which decreases each year :
https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/1689#ayes
Interestingly I notice that Sir William Cash, MP is listed in both the âAyesâ and âNoesâ lists!
Quantum mechanics on the human scale!
https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/1689#noes
December 10, 2023
PS : I think “One Nation” for these elitists means “One Government” – UN/WEF controlled.
They’re clearly out to destroy our sovereign nation – firstly with the Net Zero scam to destroy our economy and secondly with mass immigration (legal and illegal) to destroy our social cohesion and nationhood. They want us to become like the third world. The intended resut – poverty, chaos and instability – is seen as the way to implement the autoritarian rule they seek.
There simply is no other explanation for their crazy policies and a change of leader or majority party will make no difference. Virtually the whole of Parliament needs to change.
December 10, 2023
One Nation Tory’s = Liberals. There, fixed it.
December 10, 2023
succinct always works.
December 10, 2023
Sir John,
I think the PM is in a awful position over the small boats and the proposed bill.
He presides over a party that is more divided than it’s ever been. I cannot see how he can please even a majority of his MPs, let alone a majority of the people.
It seems there are three different parties, with three different ideologies, within the so called Conservative Party. Rishi’s problem is that there are too few real Conservatives in the PCP compared to the party membership overall.
I don’t know what the answer is but if the problem isn’t resolved soon, the country could well become ungovernable. There is a surge of support for more right wing parties all across Europe and we could see the same here because outside of London, people have had enough and are losing patience with us.
December 10, 2023
I’m not sure what it would mean for the Ruanda plan to ‘work’. All illegals get sent to Ruanda? Some illegals get sent to Ruanda? A token number of illegals get sent to Ruanda (eventually)?
I do know what it would mean for a plan to stop the small boats to work. No illegals land on our coasts. Instead of lifeboats and the Navy being used as an escort service to bring them in, migrant boats are intercepted and towed back to the home waters of the safe country where they began their journey – France. That way, the lawyers don’t get clients and therefore can’t start legal action on their behalf against the government.
December 10, 2023
The One Nation Group will be the death of your party. They probably think that they are representing the best interests of the working-class. But that very working class is the segment of our society most hurt by the high levels of immigration boosted by ‘New Labour’ and accelerated to wharp-speed by this government. My house is nothing grand, but here, on the South Coast, it costs ten times the average wage. Do the Conservatives give a damn about that figure? No – especially the One Nation Group.
The boats will stop the second that those with their hands on the tillers start going to jail, and the passengers into indefinite, uncomfortable detention.
December 10, 2023
Too right. Far easier to remove the pull factors than conduct messy turnarounds at sea or fight a war with the French (who have been saying for years that life is too easy for illegals in Britain). Single sex detention camps where the invaders are held incommunicado with no access to judges or lawyers, and their very existence is neither confirmed nor denied, and their only way out is to agree to go home. Crackdown on the (illegal ed) economy, any illegals discovered to be removed to the camps.
We could also forbid Border Farce from going to mid-Channel to pick them up, unlike the RNLI their job is to protect our borders.
December 10, 2023
Indeed. It is hard to understand why the boat drivers are not charged with endangering human life at sea under the Offences Against The Person Act 1861. No drivers = No boats. If conditions in The Channel are so benign such a charge would not stick then the boat in question should be turned round and sent back to France from whence it came, using the legal cover of ECHR Art 5 and UNCLOS Art 33. There is nothing in the UN Convention to prevent the UK doing this.
December 10, 2023
+1
December 10, 2023
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Unfortunately for us, there is no will.
So he may go for the option that wastes the most time or draws the least criticism..
It is just displacement activity. His issue is more and more of the public can now see this.
December 10, 2023
Indeed. All a distraction to kick the can down the road. Same day returns is the ONLY solution. France would also benefit as they would leave Calais. This is really a secret quota deal.
December 10, 2023
This is a long term task and it’s now too late. Leave it to go down further with the next lot then await the blowback thereafter. It won’t be pretty. UKIP 2010 would have been a preferable option, with the added bonus that a D Cameron would still be a relatively unknown PR mouth.
December 10, 2023
I think the last point is the most important: reduce legal immigration. The forces that want illegal immigration to continue unabated are in parliament and are out of control. Those that want legal immigration to grow are in Whitehall. Try pushing Whitehall, Parliament is longwinded and a lost cause.
December 10, 2023
I agree as it is not only the people who come to the UK for whatever reason but also the fact that other cultures whole purpose in life is to create as many offspring as possible.Many ladies who don’t conceive time and time again from an early age are rejected by their families.This is ok in their native countries ,but alas, we cannot cope in this way.
December 10, 2023
The more that come legally or illegally the greater numbers of doctors, nurses, radiographers, teachers, homes and support infrastructure we need. Producing our own takes from 3 to 10 years so we poach more from overseas and watch the very culture, standards of behaviour and structure of the UK disintegrate. Integration is just wishful thinking.
If Labour oppose they place themselves in the unacceptable box to a majority of the electorate. The conservatives with a few exceptions are the dung beetles rolling the unworkable Rwanda uphill until it exhausts them. Unbelievable in the face of workable alternatives. We the electorate have to realise we are governed by the incompetent and irresolute, ably backed by the scribes who have their own undemocratic solution of returning us to EU dominence. If the electorate want this insane charade to end they must vote Reform and clear the swamp.
December 10, 2023
As most GP appointments seem to be over the telephone why does the GP need to live in this country? We could just ring them in India. Cheaper cost and quicker service = win, win. This will free up more time for face-to-face appointments for the doctors who are here which will reduce waiting times.
December 10, 2023
sounds dodgy, who will agree the conversation is always clear and understood? Just what we need, coming off the phone ‘didn’t understand much, I think it was stop taking the tablets, or maybe carry on for a week and call again if no better, might have been ‘if it was an accident or you have an emergency go to aye and ear’.
December 12, 2023
I predict this will be happening soon Christine especially on night shifts.
December 10, 2023
He could even send the RN to turn the boats back to France.
Such a novel idea would stop the trafficking gangs, stop the legal gravy train and stop more money being added t o the eight million pounds a day for accommdation etc.
For legal migrants, say they must have a job to come to, be paid at least ÂŁ60’000 pa and be responsible for their own housing and medical care.
December 10, 2023
These are flimsy vessels. Any attempt to turn them round comes with a high risk of damage and capsize. There will be bodies in the sea and drownings. Manslaughter and murder charges to British officials will be certain, so they will refuse to do it – quite rightly.
Permit the boats to land and take the occupants to prison camps where there is nowhere to go and nothing to do, until they decide the UK wasn’t such a good destination after all and they volunteer to go back to where they came from.
December 10, 2023
D A
The responsibility lies with France from whose shores they launch. Belgium manages to stop nearly all small boats from leaving their waters. There is no excuse.
December 10, 2023
So it will be a 2nd. reading with the promise of concessions on any amendments that would still see a Bill pass, will it not? That way the prime minister shows he is trying to honour his pledge: anything else risks revealing he is a man of straw on this topic.
Why though is limiting immigration so hard for this government? If legal immigrants require visas, would an instruction to the not fit for purpose Home Office not to issue any really be disobeyed, deliberately and openly?
December 10, 2023
There are issues 1) the boats and 2) legal migration. If the latter were solved the former would not matter so much. Legal immigration should be limited to 100k per annum for five years at least. These 100k places would be auctioned to the highest bidder. Penalties for housing or employing illegal migrants should be greatly increased.
December 10, 2023
Not to forget that as revealed on GB News large numbers are still coming in the backs of lorries. And of course the true number in unknown because the successful invaders are undetected.
December 10, 2023
But we see the results on our streets!
December 12, 2023
Heat cameras can detect stowaways, no-one wants to stop them, we should be able to fine the Countries that send vehicles with stowaways or task the Ferry companies and Tunnel with fines for each stowaway they allow illegal entry to.
December 10, 2023
A calm and measured post, as ever. But consider the perspective of disinterested observers who I know – work colleagues and friends who live abroad. They are incredulous that so many illegal migrants are allowed into our country across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Their take on it is âwhatâs wrong, why donât they just stop this now youâre out of the EU?â. Why indeed. Itâs one of the main reasons why those of us whoâve tried to suggest some practical solutions know we are wasting our time, and also why we will not vote conservative at the next election.
December 10, 2023
On GB News yesterday. Benedict Spence, as a guest of Nana Akua, was asked if there were too many immigrants to integrate.
Obviously, yes there are, but he said that he didn’t think the government had even considered integration. He thinks GB is seen as a market place by politicians, and the more bodies in, the better. He may be correct, but it certainly would appear that immigration, legal or illegal doesn’t appear to bother the politicians much. Except of course the darn electorate – making such a fuss – has forced them to ‘address’ the subject. The Rwanda deal has so many holes in it, according to a number of immigration lawyers, as to be guaranteed to fail.
December 10, 2023
We’ve had 13 years of various Not-a-Conservative-Prime Ministers wearing blue rosettes and promising reduced immigration, whilst pushing Globalist and Socialist policies. Now, with electoral obliteration looking likely, we’re supposed to believe that Sunak WANTS to reduce immigration.
This is a Government which gives “free everything” to criminal migrants and throws ÂŁbillions at the Human Rights lawyers who prevent their deportation. A Government which deliberately gave employers the incentive to import cheap foreign workers by allowing them to pay 20% less to an immigrant than they would a British worker, encouraging them to throw British workers on the scrap heap instead of offering them training and incentives. At the same time the “nice” Red Tories castigate the British unemployed as lazy shirkers – losers who can’t be bothered to work and just want handouts.
Yet now we’re supposed to believe Sunak’s posturing about “stopping the boats” and “reducing” legal immigration (to 900,000 a year, 3 times the level in 2019) – so we’ll all troop back into the polling booths next year and put our X by the Red Tory Candidates so they can continue their dismantling of this country with mass immigration and the lunatic Net Zero policy.
Labour won’t win the election. The Red Tories will lose it because they have wrecked the UK and a large number of conservative voters now hate them. Rudyard Kipling had it right:
“It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good,
When the English began to hate.
Nothing Sunak does or says is going to stop the electoral punishment beating the Red Tories are going to suffer.
December 10, 2023
Good article on Conservative Woman today about legal immigration, pointing out that along with reducing legal immigration we need societal reform. The author claims:
1. The indigenous population are not having children because it is almost obligatory for women to go out to work and Britain offers little help to families.
2. Employers prefer foreigners because they have been raised with a work ethic and have a mastery of the basic skills, unlike the produce of our own ‘education system’.
December 10, 2023
Apologies. Daily Mail, not Conservative Woman.
December 10, 2023
The most harmful thing the Not-a-Conservative-Government did to the working class was shutting down the SecMods, which taught boys and girls who weren’t particularly academic, real skills for the workplace.
They haven’t dared reverse the destructive Comp system or promote real skills-based learning from a young age and instead have gone along with, and advanced, NuLabour’s policy of indoctrinating them with left-wing policies via the taxpayer-subsided “university” sector.
December 10, 2023
and too many of us grammar school boys couldn’t choose to be taught commerce, accounts, economics instead of (useless to us), classics.
and too many of the grammar school girls couldn’t choose to be taught the same above plus typing, but expected to study literature, art … not much chance of a job there.
December 10, 2023
The English are responding to the pressures put on them by the enemy within. All this is by design to get the English to pay for their own dissolution. When David Cameron inaugurated separate taxation for spouses, he created an incentive for both spouses to work instead of producing the next generation of English children; a situation that has been exacerbated by rapidly increasing taxation and government spending. Meanwhile the expansion of the benefit system under Bliar ensured that the working English would be paying for the spouses of foreign invaders and their children.
December 10, 2023
Indeed workers think they cannot afford children and still pay the mortgage – perhaps as they are paying huge amounts of tax to fund other people’s children their rents and benefits.
December 10, 2023
It’s a policy disaster, it’ll never work, everyone knows that.
Intercept and return all boats to France. Destroy the boats on French beaches. And stop paying Macron to facilitate crossings.
December 10, 2023
I think some French would not like being invaded, leaving wreckage on the beaches.
December 10, 2023
It would be much easier to guarantee the safety of economic migrants/asylum seekers on Ascension Island.
December 10, 2023
But how do you propose to move thousands there? Load up large cruise ships holding thousands. Flights? Forget it.
December 10, 2023
Gradually.
December 10, 2023
at a rate faster than they arrive here? What about the tens of thousands already here?
December 10, 2023
M T
Containers?
December 10, 2023
D C
Yes, and at the same time guarantee the safety of our streets.
December 10, 2023
Being the wrong side of 85 I do despair for my grand children who will have to put up with this problem and deal with the failings of the politicians. The usual response from the political class when things go wrong is “Not me Guv”
December 10, 2023
The prize if the Rwanda scheme works is exactly what ?
A couple of hundred illegals sent away at a cost of over ÂŁ1,000,000 each, and they can be returned to us if they misbehave in Rwanda.
Guess what the illegals will do ?
A bloody silly policy, thought up by a bloody silly Government ,that does not have a clue about Human nature.
The only way to stop illegal entry, is to stop entry in the first place, intercept and immediately return.
December 10, 2023
I agree. This bill is idiotic and reflects the low intellect and naivety of our government. Just turn the boats back, destroy them, and you will break the criminal model overnight. Then tackle the issuing of legal visas by upping the minimum wage, deporting people who are here and not working, and stopping dependants coming. Itâs a strange country that gives more rights to foreigners than its indigenous people but that is what this government has allowed. A British person cannot bring in a spouse unless they meet an income threshold but an EU citizen can bring in anyone with no income threshold. How is that fair?
December 10, 2023
@ Berkshire Alan – +1
December 10, 2023
2024 will be the Conservatives equivalent to 1993 in Canada when the governing Progressive Conservative Party lost 167 seats and retained only 2. You have only yourselves to blame.
December 10, 2023
Sunak should do nothing with the vote on Tuesday he should let it fail, it is a sticking plaster and will not get him a election victory whatever happens with the economy in the next 12 months.
After he loses the vote he should dissolve Parliament and call an election for early January which curtails campaigning time.
Simple campaign messages.
The economy is recovering after global events and we have handled it well.
Parliament, the courts and the Lords are stopping us shutting down immigration. Give me a mandate to reduce immigration by increasing the number of points required for legal immigrants and particularly their dependents and by offshoring illegals on a remote Scottish island. No illegal will be granted asylum and we will find a way to repatriate.
More staff for the NHS but only front line
More staff for the police but only front line
Lower taxes which generate more money
Lower public sector pensions
Reform of the benefits system
Scrapping all net zero legislation concentrating on pollution and cleanliness
Fewer University places but more proper apprenticeships
Capped quango salaries
Reduced numbers of unelected SPADs
Scrapping of mayoralties.
No self ID for anything medical starting with Sex.
He stands a chance of winning if the electorate believe him. His credibility is his problem and that doesn’t get any easier the longer he leaves going to the country.
December 10, 2023
One thousand times No. I hope that our esteemed host will allow me to reproduce the text of Enoch Powell’s 1974 letter to his constituency chairman, with a few amendments for present day effect: –
âI consider it an act of gross irresponsibility that this general election has been called in the face of the current and impending immigration situation.
The election will in any case be essentially fraudulent; for the object of those who have called it is to secure the electorateâs approval for a position which the Government itself knows to be untenable, in order to make it easier to abandon that position subsequently. It is unworthy of British politics, and dangerous to Parliament itself, for a government to try to steal success by telling the public one thing during an election and doing the opposite afterwards.
Obviously â and I am sure this will not surprise you â I personally cannot ask electors to vote for policies which are directly opposite to those we all stood for in 2019, namely secure borders, an Australian style points system and taking back control, and which I have myself consistently condemned as being inherently impracticable and bound to create the very difficulties in which the nation now finds itself.
I shall not therefore be seeking re-election for [constituency] at this election as the Conservative candidate; whether I stand otherwise shall remain to be seen.â
December 10, 2023
could be a position over 200 might consider soon! But we all know they are complacent and cowardly.
December 10, 2023
The best late Christmas present would be an Election called in January.
December 10, 2023
Nobody believes in him. That is the problem. He is a proven liar and not to be trusted. Better to vote for Reform who would deliver these policies.
December 10, 2023
Not strong enough.
1. There must be a cap on overall numbers and on each category of skills
2. It must cost an employer more to import than to employ a Brit
3. There must be a linkage between reducing immigration and investing in training Brits in the skills industry needs.
4. Applicants must demonstrate they will not be a burden on the British state.
None of this is in place now. It is what Australia does and why its GDP/capita is nearly 50% higher than that of the UK.
December 10, 2023
It’s not just policy, the political class have lots of those.
It’s actually execution and operation of the wheels of power. There are lots of laws and powers in place already, the problem is that they are not being used.
December 10, 2023
Yes and the additional problem with this Bill / policy is that it was never intended to work.
All these “solutions” that leave open a long process of legal challenge are designed to push it repeatedly into the future – to look busy while achieving nothing.
Perhaps the original plan was to make it an election campaign issue in the 2024 GE, saying that the govt attempts to fix it were being thwarted by lawyers, lefties and the bleeding-hearted woke types. However, that won’t hold water now, people are seeing that any opportunity to fix this is being thrown away, we can see that every “solution” is simply the latest scheme with very obvious holes.
If it walks like a duck etc, then eventually you have to admit that it is actually a darned duck. And the duck/elephant in the room on this score is that clearly Sunak has no intention of fixing immigration. Perhaps the (parliamentary) Conservative Party as a whole never did.
December 10, 2023
The very existence of all of these options, in marked contrast to a hypothetical Bill that simply read “Mischief X is abolished, and this is how” (if only it was that easy), further illustrates that this is an exercise in being seen to be pretending to do something.
December 10, 2023
Mr. Redwood – I have to say when you repeat your suggestions to âgo after the moneyâ, disrupt the gangsâ etc., I have to ask myself if you are naive or just deflecting. How can âweâ – over here, not over there – go after the gangs of follow the money. If you put someone under cover – posing as a migrant – and found who they handed their money to – what would that achieve? You think the French police are going to arrest them? Really? How naive do you have to be to think the French donât really want to see the backs of all the migrants waiting in the coast to nip over here and claim their free board and lodgings?
There is only one way to stop the boats and that is physically. Pick a fine day and physically stop them.
If you canât bring yourself to do that, as soon as they land move them to a handling centre in the Falklands. If they are genuine refugees from war, famine or oppression – theyâll tell you who they are, where they are from and what they are running from. If they are genuine we should take as many as is practical.
Maybe itâs about time we acknowledged that this is a global problem and needs a global solution. Given the choice, or the chance, billions would like to live their one and only life somewhere other than where they were born.
Reply The boat businesses operate into the UK and often beyond illegal entry here. We also have extradition rights for cross Channel criminals anÂŁ can follow the money electronically from a desk in the UK
December 10, 2023
Reply to reply. If what you say is true – how many people in this country have been arrested and prosecuted? How much money has been followed? What has this produced? Has anyone been arrested or prosecuted? One person?
December 10, 2023
Mike
They come because our government allow it. In fact, they even encourage it with FREE stuff plus pocket money.
December 10, 2023
So much theatre – so much effort, and for what!
The only real answer is to get us out of the ECHR and make sure no treaties get in the way of doing our thing our way….
Unfortunately our government has been well and truly neutered, and the only thing they know how to do us to tax us to extinction
December 10, 2023
There is no shortage of effective means of solving illegal entry which many contributors have explained on this blog spanning several years.
The so-called Conservative leadership is most at fault and those idiots keep damaging our nation, wasting on things that donât work.
You canât fly to Rwanda on a Dodo even if both wings operated in favour. Trying to flog it with a whip wonât work either.
It was dead before this Reverse Midas PM started his weak attempt at recovery. Whatever he touches turns to plop.
December 10, 2023
Why donât we simply tell the Border Force to meet the boats in mid-Channel and send them back to France? We should physically prevent them from entering UK waters in the first place. If the boats sink that is a problem for France.
December 12, 2023
We must have a few hundred thousand boats in the UK that could be deployed to send them back the way they came.
December 10, 2023
If as much time and effort not to mention money had been put into effective border security as has been put into debating legal manoeuvres and fighting off legal challenges to our national rights of security and protection, we would not be in this Gordian knot like mess.
The sooner someone comes with the necessary sword to slice this stupidity the better.
This current government have no sword.
December 10, 2023
Hi sir John
There are only 50 places in Rawand holding a maximum of 100 refugees. What’s going to happen to the hundreds of thousands left
Stop the boats ar douse the people selling places on the boats it can’t be that difficult just send in the SAS under cover why aren’t we arresting the people driving the boats before any migrants are picked up they should see who is driving the boat
Remembering we have given France million
Pounds a richer country than us of coarse the French are passing their problem onto us and then we pay them millions of pounds
Thanks
December 10, 2023
Option 1: The Conservative Party gets rid of Sunak and instals Braverman, preferrably before Christmas…. and might then stand a chance at the next General Election.
Option 2: The Conservative Party gets rid of Sunak and instals someone with less credibility than Braverman, on matters of immigration …. and reduces any chance it might have at the next General Election – as compared with option 1.
Option 3: The UK electorate gets rid of Sunak and instals Starmer hopefully only for a few years.
I can see no other options although some might say that the return of Johnson now might be a good option. I think Johnson might be an option after a few years of Starmer failure.
Personally, I prefer option 1.
December 10, 2023
@ oldwulf – that would be the same Braverman whose speeches since being sacked reveal she knew what she should have done in her two tenures as Home Secretary rather than deliver the nothing that she did?
December 10, 2023
@formula57
So … you would go for option 2 ?
Whom do you have in mind ?
December 11, 2023
See also Priti Patel!
December 10, 2023
Would you say that? Seriously? He strikes me as as much use as a chocolate teapot. How he ever got to be an MP, let alone PM, will always puzzle me.
December 10, 2023
@Mike Wilson
I believe that Johnson made a good front man. He tried to sort out the mess left behind by May .. but was ultimately let down by those around him. I don’t know whether he could do the same again at some point in the future. What other options might there be ?
December 10, 2023
Braverman talks a good game. But it has been all talk and no action. Do you really thinks she will be any better just because, just like all the others, she tells you what you wanted to hear ?
FFS Oldwulf try and remember and learn from the past !
December 10, 2023
@Mark B
So …you would go for option 2 ?
Whom do you have in mind ?
December 10, 2023
Today it has been announced Conservative lawyers has concluded that Rishi Sunakâs Rwanda deportation plans are not fit for purpose
December 10, 2023
I am no legal expert but – even as a lay man I know that the bill is a loser . It has arrived at a time when any opportunity to topple Sunak exists , it will be used as a means to oust him from office . He cannot possibly survive – even he has stated that ” He is running out of patience ” . The trouble is Labour does not have the alternative approach that would win the trust of the people – there are too many odd-balls in their front line , so , where does sentiment turn to ? ; is it to the relatively unknown Reform and the persona of Farage ?. It was interesting that yesterday I had delivered through my door a leaflet on behalf of a local Reform Party and I have to say that the priorities that were highlighted certainly fitted my present thinking .
December 10, 2023
There is only so much frustration voters can bear, it really is time for a change. The current mix of Conservative Party MP’s is manifestly not working. I have never voted Labour and do not intend to. I never bought into Tony Blair’s fake attraction and I won’t vote for Starmer, but it is high time to try something other than the shambles that this current Government has descended into. Sorry Sir Redwood, but I think you follow my drift, I would make an exception and if you were my MP I would surely vote for you, but your Party has lost your good sense and needs rebuilding from scratch.
December 10, 2023
Recently we have had the Chairman of the Conservative Party being against clearing out the dead wood at the top, he would rather loose the election than try to create a team to win one. The problem in his mind is that to bring inexperienced fresh faces especially from the 2019 pool that who would immediately calls an election would win hands down and decimate all the opposition, this is not what he sees for the Party he is Chairman off.
Put it this way the opposition is bad extremely bad, they are diabolical, but they are not this residue of Boris Johnsons failures that keep digging holes, destroying the Conservative Party and taking the Country with them. Bo-Jo was removed but his collective responsibility team stayed on.
Then to add to these woes the CEO of the Conservative Party is out canvassing for ideas from around the World on how to rebuild a decimated Party that might one day actually win an election after loosing the next one.
The opposition has never been in such dire straits, that includes those one Nationers, âBarbie & Kenâ could win against them. But this weak ineffectual shower will just loose, and loose embarrassingly big.
December 10, 2023
Robert Jenrick has said that if there are too many immigrants they do not integrate. Well caught up sir. Enoch Powell said exactly the same thing 55 years ago. We can be allies with the USA without trying to copy their disastrous social model. ZPG is the desired population policy. In addition to the Rwanda idea, which may not work, are we prepared to construct a fleet of Royal Navy patrol boats and station them three miles from the French coast, with strict instructions to turn back all of the small boats? Are we prepared to stop legal aid to people who are unwelcome?
December 10, 2023
I wonder, Sir John, if you and your fellow MPs ever get on a TfL tube train and look round you, and ask yourselves what on earth is going on? Since 2the 020 epidemic, the number of sullen non-English speakers occupying the seats has ballooned to epidemic proportions.
December 10, 2023
Mancunius
Somebody I know – a leftie, recently travelled to London. On his return he told a group of us in a rather shocked voice that in London, he’d not heard any English speakers and saw no faces that looked like his!
He teaches English to migrants!
December 10, 2023
Those left wing anti-democracy agents calling themselves the âOne Nation Partyâ (you just cant put the word conservative in that grouping) Need to ask themselves the same question that Lee Anderson has recently asked, how is it OK for the UN to send refuges to Rwanda, which they do, but it is something the fighters against democracy and the Human Rights of the UK Citizen, refuse to permit.
December 10, 2023
Solve the problem of the legal challenges by establishing a couple of offices in France where asylum claims can be lodged and heard quickly on production of identification and submission to the taking of fingerprints etc.. Any migrant who eschews this and turns up illegally instead can be reasonably assumed to have no credible asylum claim and can be dealt with as we see fit with no legal aid or recourse to courts.
December 10, 2023
+1
December 10, 2023
The man to watch is David Lord Cameron of Remain. He is not sitting in the Lords twiddling his thumbs. He has probably already been working on the one option which is guaranteed to stop the boats and which Sir John has not considered, at least not in his Diary. This is to agree with the EU a quota of ‘asylum seekers’ to be sent to the UK. Given the incentives in the UN Convention for the first country an asylum seeker arrives in to assist their onward passage elsewhere, this is in fact what has already been happening, particularly in the case of France and the UK as the latter is such a soft touch.
I’ll bet that Sunak and Cameron are working on this right now. The Rwanda farce will be maintained as a distraction – it is turning out exactly as Suella Braverman foretold.
December 10, 2023
+1
December 10, 2023
There are multiple answers to illegal migration. Firstly they should be confined . Then no one should be allowed to stay if they come in a boat. They are returned if they come in on a plane so why not a boat.
EU countries chuck out and pay the fines. EU countries have declared a moratorium on asylum. We should declare one for 30 years. Then no one should bring in vast families. One doctor brought in 20 family members.
No one should be able to get asylum and then holiday back home. Stop people sending money home if they are not legal migrants.
December 10, 2023
Frances :
I would have thought it obvious that any “asylum seeker” found to have taken a holiday back home should be deported back to their country.
The fact that this happens shows us that our elitist rulers care nothing for the country.
December 10, 2023
Genuine asylum seekers would be applying for asylum in France and furthermore would be crossing the Channel with their passports to prove they had been fleeing from torture and war in their own countries.
So any Channel boat arrivals, attempting to illegally enter our country without passports and hence without ID, should be immediately returned to where they set out/from where they have been living, namely France, just as we would for anyone else rescued from the sea, such as those in fishing or leisure boats who have got into difficulties.
This, as Australia has proved, is the only real and lasting solution and the fact that this action has not been taken against tens of thousands of young men of fighting age and with no ID invading our country shows that the PTB care not one jot for the residents of the UK.
It is time our PM applied the first duty of any countryâs leader and that is to protect our borders and our nation and used the military, not Border Force (?) and the RNLI to repel the invaders who are paying the people smugglers to break into our country illegally.
December 10, 2023
Not if they can speak English – courtesy of our appalling colonial past.
December 10, 2023
I see the medical message boards are full of tales of woe of the disasters that this newly created (by the politicians) PA profession is causing. A dumbed down non doctor, acting as if they are doctors, with no insight into what they dont know. Its going to kill a lot of people. Presumably as a result of the recent NHS troubleshooting by patricia hewitt and mckinseys, which I notice has had little press coverage.
Why oh why are the politicians rubber stamping such nonsense?
Why do we even need so many not doctors? Why dont we train more actual doctors?
December 10, 2023
software online triage is the way to go.
December 10, 2023
Iain
They are chasing numbers. ie Trying to bring down waiting lists. If this means a few ‘casualties’ along the way, then so be it. They will all be long gone by the time this next scandal blows up.
December 11, 2023
oh the scandals are there for all to see. we already have TV shows following PA’s around making clearly wrong decisions for anyone with half a clue to see. less training that a 2nd year medical student but left alone in A & E to supposedly diagnose… its already a disaster.
December 10, 2023
Sunak quoted as saying that Rwanda wouldn’t agree to anything that breaches the ECHR.
Are we really supposed to believe that an African country could care less about *European* legislation?
And if it were true then it would beg the question… why did you choose Rwanda then?
It’s actually not a bad question anyway. There are plenty of other population-challenged countries that would have jumped at the chance to solve that problem and in the process be given money and a budding partnership relationship with the UK.
December 10, 2023
The Falklands could do with a bit of cultural diversity.
December 10, 2023
On Friday night Nadine Dorries confirmed that as Chancellor Rishi Sunak opposed the Rwanda deportation plan. Now he backs it. The guy’s a lying grifter and nothing more than a ten bob Blair, who is the man responsible for destroying our country using mass immigration and identity politiics
December 10, 2023
And QE.
December 10, 2023
What a good article in The Sunday Times, by Dominic Lawson. He exposes the lunacy behind the government’s subsidising the Drax wood-pellet operation. The cost, up to 2035? About ÂŁ23 billion, which would have paid for a very large nuclear power station – or maybe ten SMRs.
And we now face a nuclear power gap. I wonder what those Homer Simpsons will do? Emigrate, probably.
December 10, 2023
Sea_Warrior :
The two main reasons for Drax are :
1) It boosts the Governmentâs figure for the amount of ârenewableâ energy.
2) It provides reliable, dispatchable power and keeps the lights on.
We should be grateful for its existence for otherwise, as a coal-fired station, it would have been explosively demolished by now by our COP26 president as seen for Ferrybridge in this official SSE video :
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1429456184902393858/pu/vid/720×720/JwPnpycxEiyBmqVJ.mp4?tag=12
December 10, 2023
If the government want a deterrent to stop illegal migrants coming in small boats they should stop Border Force & RNLI ferrying them in & stop giving them hotel accommodation, spending money and access to NHS. Why is it ok for these people to live in tents in Calais but not here?
December 10, 2023
I do believe the Commons own ‘Star Chamber’ of Lawyers have declared the Rwanda Bill unfit for purpose. So should it not be an urgent case of ‘going back to the Drawing Board’ again?
If Conservative Lawyers have found loopholes, the HR Lawyer brigade will find even more. Stop wasting our money and bring in Barristers and Judges who have experience of such Laws to determine exactly what is required and can neither be bodged nor dodged.
December 10, 2023
Damian Green, the chair the One Nation Conservatives(says it all). He has never been a Conservative; he has always been an ultra left-wing Liberal⊠(I nearly said Democrat, but he doesn’t and never has believed that the UK should be a democracy)
CCHQ, the Conservative Party needs to ask why their message is failing, – it because they refuse to have Conservatives, people who will defend democracy and freedoms in their selection process.
December 11, 2023
Fortunately, he’s been unable to secure a new Constituency. The local Associations know he’s not a conservative. Unfortunately, he’s likely to be sent to the House of Frauds to swell the number of LibCONs/Dems …. and the rest of his life being funded by taxpayers who refuse to vote for him.
December 10, 2023
Mr Jenrick â âWe were not sent to Parliament to be concerned about our reputations on the gilded International Circuit. It is absolutely critical we fix this problem because in my job, day in day out, I have seen untold damage that these small boat drives are doing to our country, the community cohesion issues that weâre seeing the billions of pounds that are being wasted on hotels.â
Yes, MPs were sent to Parliament to serve the UK People, UK Peoples Human Rights and not the unelected unaccountable self opiniated outside of the UK.
December 10, 2023
How many years has illegal immigration been a problem?
And in that time how effective has been this Government’s response?
As you point out Sir J, there are plenty of solutions, but no effective action to date.
Wishy-washy from your dear Rishi…
How many years has legal immigation been a problem?
Rinse and repeat….
December 10, 2023
All problems that Mrs May watched developing, knew the outcome, lied to the voters about, and cynically pulled the levers of power in the opposite direction to what she was saying. And carried on since then too. So it’s not just rishi, although he has to go, it’s the entire ruling elite.
December 10, 2023
The people voted for brexit …I’m still waiting
The membership voted for Liz …they’re still waiting