Missed boats
ALL of a sudden, the PM and Home Secretary are talking tough on immigration.
Stricter language tests, degree-level qualifications for skilled jobs, a clampdown on human rights loopholes and an end to visas for foreign care workers.
It could be that the Government has had a remarkable conversion and now accepts that people’s concerns about the impact of mass migration on public services and our way of life are valid.
Yet the facts suggest otherwise.
Sir Keir Starmer’s first act as PM was to bin the Rwanda scheme — the only credible deterrent to the Channel boats — and his woolly promises to “smash the smuggling gangs” weren’t convincing.
So isn’t it much more likely that it’s Reform’s surge in the polls that has changed his mind?
People are fed up with being ignored.
They want Labour to stay the course — not just pay lip service to the Reform surge, then quickly revert to type.
So today’s white paper laying out the plans to slash net migration is a pivotal moment.
Nigel Farage warns it is doomed to fail, saying the measures are “tinkering around the edges”.
They also run contrary to Labour’s every instinct for open borders, so will they even be seriously enforced?
Sir Keir should know that voters will be watching — and any back-sliding will be punished heavily at the next election.
Irk From Home
THEY just don’t get it, do they?
Even as the Government promises to crack down on public spending, another quango — the Environment Agency — squanders thousands of pounds of your money on equipment to let civil servants work from home.
When are they going to realise that there is not a limitless supply of tax-payers’ cash for them to splurge on making their lives as cushy as possible?
Even if they can demonstrably do their job more efficiently without returning to the office — and we’re not convinced that is the case — why are we expected to pay through the nose for them to enjoy that privilege?
Vinda-loser Ed
BRITAIN’S beloved curry houses are the latest industry put at risk by Ed Miliband’s mad dash to reach Net Zero by 2050.
Getting rid of their traditional gas-fired tandoor ovens and hobs would be ruinously expensive and the food would suffer, chefs say.
It’s a recipe for disaster at a time when restaurants and takeaways have already seen running costs tripled.
How much faith do we have in the Energy Secretary meeting his unrealistic goals without causing serious economic harm to the country, businesses and ordinary families?
Absolutely naan.
