My hunch is the next generation of aspiring leaders will have a firmer grip on the meaning of conservatism than the current crop. Or, at least, I hope so — otherwise there might not be a party to lead.
Lewis Goodall is wrong. Here in Britain, it isn’t the right that runs the risk of leading us down to polarisation. It is the left.
The elephant in the room is that, unless something significant changes, it is unlikely that the Prime Minister will be able to see through any these plans.
The Home Secretary declared that “our country has become enmeshed international rules that were designed for another era. Labour turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act. I am surprised they didn’t call it the Criminal Rights Act.”
The Levelling Up Secretary added that the Home Secretary had made “thoughtful points” that “we do need to ensure we have a core of values that everyone who lives here accepts.”
Well-founded concerns about the suitability of post-war international agreements to modern global conditions are not strengthened by being lumped together with attacks on multiculturalism.
“As case law has developed, what we have seen in practice, is a interpretive shift away from ‘persecution’, in favour of something more akin to a definition of ‘discrimination’.”
Instead of a Conservative housing policy that emphasises home ownership and architectural beauty, it will now be done the Labour way. When tower blocks start rising over the Home Counties, I hope that our remaining MPs realise their mistake.
The logic of the choice remains as Ken Clarke put it – Rwanda or nothing. Sir Keir has swallowed much in his pursuit of power, but Rwanda is a mouthful too much for him, or at least for his party. So he’s trying to bluff his way out of the problem.
The Veterans’ Minister adds that “it’s a really difficult policy area” but that 400 people are being housed and he is “really proud of the effort.”
Immigrants, too, get old. Assuming standards of medical care remain, or improve as the science advances, enormous movements of migrants would be constantly required just in order to pay the bills of earlier waves.
If Sunak doesn’t commit the Conservatives to leaving, and then somehow wins the next election, the next Leader of the Opposition will take up the cause.
Our deputy editor tells Newsnight that the controversy about housing illegal entrants in hotels will continue until the Government bites the bullet and builds a proper asylum estate.
On the one hand, France would increase measures to prevent migrant crossings, and anyone crossing from France would be returned. In the other, the UK would commit to resettling one registered asylum seeker from France (or the broader EU).