Now that Parliament has returned from the summer recess, those issues that have been dominating media discourse for the last 6 weeks can, at last, be properly addressed. So, straight out of the traps, the Home Secretary and illegal asylum seeker entries.
The Home Secretary seems to have opted for Reform-lite solution to tackle the waves of illegal migrants crossing the channel, and arriving by other methods. So, in yet another splendidly performed U-turn, she has now abandoned her previous position and is refusing to allow migrants to bring their families once they have been granted right to remain.
This, of course, seems to have gone down badly with her own backbenchers, who broadly remain in favour of supporting illegal migrants, irrespective of the cost to our economy and public finances. Interestingly, one thing she didn’t repeat in her statement was the familiar “smash the criminal gangs” when detailing the government’s policy on illegal migration.
The policy, however, seems to be a step in the right direction. But it does not go far enough. The important point behind the migration to the UK is the pull factors, the attractive offerings the migrant traffickers present at the expense to the UK taxpayer.
Allowing families to come is one, but our poorly controlled black economy, our lack of identity checks, our supposedly free healthcare (actually charged to non UK nationals, but the money is rarely recovered by the NHS), and the fact that we house migrants in three star hotels whilst other nations hold them in detention centres, all contribute to many pull-factors that make the UK worth paying a trafficker up to $10,000 for a less than first class channel crossing in an overcrowded rubber dingy.
So the government, languishing in the opinion polls, is taking on a more right wing approach. But we saw where this led with welfare reform before the recess. A weak version of a much needed reform was reduced to nothing by waves of government backbenchers refusing to support their own government.
The Prime Minister has, in order to try to perk things up, had a minor reshuffle. But taking control of public finances from the Treasury and into No10, and employing a few economists with no real world experience is not going to create a vision that people will get behind. Oh well, four more years to go.
