Hundreds people risking their lives to cross the Channel on the very day a handful of migrants were stopped from being flown to Rwanda shows controversial deportations are not the answer.
Few would dispute trafficking gangs need to be stopped and that Britain has the right to police its borders. But what have we become?
Dumping people 4,000 miles away is “immoral”(Church of England bishops), “appalling”(Prince Charles) and “ugly”(Tory MP and former minister Jesse Norman) when legal routes for refugees are largely shut.
Seven in 10 of those who do reach our shores are found to have legitimate claims to stay.
The flight from the Boscombe Down air base in Wiltshire was an expensive political gesture.
Boris Johnson and Priti Patel were even forced to issue a rare ministerial direction after mandarins warned there was no evidence to justify the expenditure, including a £120million down payment to Rwanda.
No easy answer exists but what the Government is doing, inciting hate, is clearly wrong.
Listen to them
Grenfell inferno survivors, relatives of the dead and the West London community will decide collectively on a memorial to the 72 who lost their lives five years ago.
But what New York did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the toppled twin towers is a potential source of inspiration.
With the ongoing public inquiry exposing a culture of indifference, contempt, cost-cutting and safety failures that proved fatal for tenants of the high-rise block, Conservative-run Kensington and Chelsea Council and the UK Government must listen to the people.
But had residents been listened to years ago, there would be no need for this memorial.
He’ll bottle out
Boris Johnson will no doubt resist being grilled by national treasure Lorraine Kelly.
The cowardly PM knows Lorraine always punches up at the powerful, not down on the powerless like he does.
