Aug 23, 2025 06:16 PM
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/asy...13019.html
EXCERPTS: Nigel Farage’s plan for the mass deportation of asylum seekers is still unrealistic. His advisers have given it more thought than the previous plan, which was to pick up people on small boats and take them back to France.
[...] Farage’s plan now is ... to send them Somewhere Else. ... “Somewhere Else” includes countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea...
Farage’s plan doesn’t even seem to convince him, because he has not one but two back-up plans, presumably in case public servants refuse to carry out instructions that may be unlawful in common law. He is “open to” reviving the Rwanda scheme, and also suggests Ascension Island as a place to imprison migrants who cannot be sent anywhere else.
Ascension Island, the UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic, used to feature in the “fantasy island” maunderings of Priti Patel, when she was home secretary. Nothing came of it because “it’s a long, long way and it would be expensive”, as Farage says, before giving the game away: “But again, it’s symbolism.”
He is right. It is symbolism, but it is effective. Attempts to point out the practical drawbacks of Farage’s policy are beside the point. The failures of existing asylum policy are so shocking, and the government seems to be so powerless to fix them, that almost any alternative policy seems worth a try.
As the summer has lengthened, it is clearer than ever that Keir Starmer’s government is in serious trouble. For a while after the election, the story was that poor decisions and a difficult inheritance led to early unpopularity, as if this might be a temporary thing. And it may still be that three years of unexpected and strong economic growth would transform the situation. But otherwise, the perception that the government – of both main parties – has lost control over who can come into the country seems fundamental. The default assumption has to be that, unless Starmer can stop the boats, Farage will be prime minister.
[...] ‘Which makes me wonder at the absence of urgency in the government. Starmer watched as Rishi Sunak, having promised to stop the boats, failed to do so and was punished at the ballot box. Yet he risks the same thing happening to him... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Nigel Farage’s plan for the mass deportation of asylum seekers is still unrealistic. His advisers have given it more thought than the previous plan, which was to pick up people on small boats and take them back to France.
[...] Farage’s plan now is ... to send them Somewhere Else. ... “Somewhere Else” includes countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea...
Farage’s plan doesn’t even seem to convince him, because he has not one but two back-up plans, presumably in case public servants refuse to carry out instructions that may be unlawful in common law. He is “open to” reviving the Rwanda scheme, and also suggests Ascension Island as a place to imprison migrants who cannot be sent anywhere else.
Ascension Island, the UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic, used to feature in the “fantasy island” maunderings of Priti Patel, when she was home secretary. Nothing came of it because “it’s a long, long way and it would be expensive”, as Farage says, before giving the game away: “But again, it’s symbolism.”
He is right. It is symbolism, but it is effective. Attempts to point out the practical drawbacks of Farage’s policy are beside the point. The failures of existing asylum policy are so shocking, and the government seems to be so powerless to fix them, that almost any alternative policy seems worth a try.
As the summer has lengthened, it is clearer than ever that Keir Starmer’s government is in serious trouble. For a while after the election, the story was that poor decisions and a difficult inheritance led to early unpopularity, as if this might be a temporary thing. And it may still be that three years of unexpected and strong economic growth would transform the situation. But otherwise, the perception that the government – of both main parties – has lost control over who can come into the country seems fundamental. The default assumption has to be that, unless Starmer can stop the boats, Farage will be prime minister.
[...] ‘Which makes me wonder at the absence of urgency in the government. Starmer watched as Rishi Sunak, having promised to stop the boats, failed to do so and was punished at the ballot box. Yet he risks the same thing happening to him... (MORE - missing details)
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