Fri. Nov 15th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

WELL, knock me down with a feather. What an enormous surprise THAT was.

The Supreme Court has decided the Government cannot send asylum seekers to Rwanda so that their claims can be processed.

The Supreme Court has decided the UK Government cannot send asylum seekers to Rwanda6

The Supreme Court has decided the UK Government cannot send asylum seekers to RwandaCredit: Gary Stone
Rishi Sunak is now pressed to find an alternative to prevent small boat overload6

Rishi Sunak is now pressed to find an alternative to prevent small boat overloadCredit: PA

This was an attempt by the Government to deter the huge numbers — largely men from the Middle East and Africa in their twenties — from coming here across the Channel.

The idea was that the migrants might think twice before setting out for Dover — and the loathsome people traffickers be put out of business.

But as ever seems to happen, the courts decided it would be illegal.

It sometimes seems everything the Government tries to do to solve this enormous problem is immediately thwarted by lawyers and judges.

READ MORE ON MIGRANT CRISIS

And what is the human cost of these judgments? It means many more people will die trying to cross the ­Channel.

The NGOs who aid the refugees and encourage them to cross, and lawyers who try to stop us stopping them, don’t think about that.

But the truth is that they and the courts are effectively killing people.

The Supreme Court — we shouldn’t have one, by the way, but that’s another issue — decided Rwanda was not a safe place for asylum seekers to be processed.

Well, safer than those asylum seekers being at the bottom of the English ­Channel, no?

But the judges said the African country could not be trusted to abide by various international conventions when it dealt with the incomers.

They said it was biased against Middle East migrants.

The judges also said Rwanda might send migrants back to their ­country of origin, where they might be in danger.

Ermine-clad twits

Sheesh! Good job I’m not Home Secretary, then.

I would send all asylum seekers who try to enter the country ­illegally straight back to their countries of origin.

How should the Government respond to this?

It seems to me very difficult.

But given the verdict of those bewigged ermine-clad twits, one thing seems pretty clear.

With the possible exception of Denmark, there’s no country on Earth which their lordships would find “safe” for the processing of migrants.

These judges are so remote from reality, so distanced from the real problems, that there is almost nothing the ­Government can do.

Rishi Sunak is a weak Prime Minister and will probably throw in the towel, which means we will continue to be inundated with asylum seekers.

Stronger politicians than him have ­suggested a way out.

Boris Johnson (come on, you remember him) has insisted we should officially and legally designate Rwanda a “safe country”.

But that would take a political fight. For now, at least, Rishi seems to be up for this.

Suella Braverman, who Rishi sacked as Home Secretary on Monday, has said the law needs to be changed to block off ALL legal challenges to deporting the asylum seekers.

But again, such a course of action would require a politician with guts and nous.

There is no evidence that Rishi has those commodities.

What will likely ultimately happen is that Sunak gives up the ghost.

We get still more migrants.

And more die making the crossing.

I hope the lawyers, the NGOs and their lordships are proud of themselves today.

Yep, I could cope with Kate’s Coke habit

TALENTED ex-skag head Pete Doherty has been talking about his relationship with Kate Moss.

He said the thing that put him off her was this – she apparently used to order her assistant to bring her a Coke every day.

Pete Doherty has opened up about his electric relationship with Kate Moss6

Pete Doherty has opened up about his electric relationship with Kate MossCredit: PA:Press Association

Hmmm.

Now it may be that Pete slightly misheard.

But even if he didn’t . . . it’s a small price to pay for shacking up with Kate Moss on a regular basis, isn’t it?

I think I could put up with that.

Israeli Arabs’ truth

HERE’S an opinion poll you won’t see reported on the BBC.

Before the hideous Hamas invasion of Israel, the proportion of Israeli-Arabs who said they felt “kinship” with the state of Israel was 48 per cent.

More Israeli Arabs than ever feel a 'kinship' with Israel6

More Israeli Arabs than ever feel a ‘kinship’ with IsraelCredit: AP

Since that day of savagery it now stands at 70 per cent.

These are the voices we don’t hear enough.

Those of ordinary Palestinians who live in the Israeli state.

Who have voting rights and MPs in the Knesset.

And receive positive discrimination in stuff like university places and job opportunities.

So much for “apartheid state”.

Tree-mendous motoring

SORRY I couldn’t be with you last week.

But I made a crucial mistake while driving.

Do be careful of trees when you're driving6

Do be careful of trees when you’re drivingCredit: Getty

Here’s my advice.

If you are out and about in your car, try not to drive into a tree.

No good will come of it and you will quite possibly hurt yourself.

As, er, I did.

The tree is fine, by the way..

Certainly in a lot better shape than my shoulder

Shane a fighter

THERE were heart-rending pictures of former Pogues star Shane MacGowan lying in a hospital bed with tubes up his nose.

Battling a bout of the deadly brain disease encephalitis.

I met Shane once, at a very rowdy party in a very messy squat in London, 1984.

If you’d suggested to me then that this snaggle-toothed hellraiser would have lived another 40 years I’d have laughed you out of court.

But aside from being a brilliant songwriter, he’s also a survivor.

Here’s hoping you make it, Shane.

Dave’s winning formula

HERE are just some of the reasons the country is so excited to see David Cameron back in government.

  • Everybody really likes Cameron because of his shiny face and the fact he was such a brilliant PM.
David Cameron was a wise appointment for Sunak's cabinet6

David Cameron was a wise appointment for Sunak’s cabinetCredit: Rex
  • He forced the country into an austerity programme, cutting spending on the police, NHS, schools etc – and that’s why we’re all so well off today.
  • The whole country has been desperately worried that there aren’t enough old Etonians in positions of power.
  • He really captured the public mood over Brexit.
  • He’s always got his finger on the political pulse. OK, he thought Labour would win the 2015 election and that we’d vote to remain within the EU. But, er, apart from that . . .
  • He’s showed how clever he is by trousering vast sums of money from lobbying companies.
  • He’s got a tiny wind turbine on his house to show how green he is. By 2038 it will have generated enough electricity to make a cup of tea.

I’m sure there are lots more reasons why we all love Cameron.

Perhaps you could think of a few and send them to Rishi.

It’s a sure election winner.

Government wins

NOT everything the Government has done is utterly useless.

Only most of it.

Two bits of good news – Kemi Badenoch has signed a trade pact with Florida.

As she rightly said, this lucrative deal would not have been possible without Brexit.

And inflation has really come tumbling down.

It’s now the lowest it has been in two years, at 4.6 per cent.

It’ll take some time, mind, before the voters feel the effects in their pockets.

Will North revolt?

I WONDER if anybody in the north of England, aside from Rishi Sunak, will vote Conservative at the next election?

All commitments to levelling up have gone.

Instead of a fervent commitment to Brexit, the Government is now more pro-Remain than it was BEFORE the 2016 referendum.

The Tory vote in those famous Red Wall seats will evaporate like a snowflake falling on a steaming heap of dog poo.

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