Decision to scrap Rwanda scheme looks more insane each day… Labour haven’t a prayer of ending illegal immigration
Border retreat
REMEMBER when “free movement” was a sacred principle from which the EU could never budge?
Eurocrats would swear the entire edifice would crumble without that as its foundation stone.
David Cameron was so certain Brussels would never compromise on it he didn’t even raise the issue in his doomed “renegotiation” before the Brexit vote.
Long after that, the EU repeatedly insisted free movement was mandatory for access to its markets. And now look.
Under siege from illegal immigration, and spooked by the threat of terrorism, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have thrown up border checks.
Brussels used to allow that solely for brief, time-limited emergencies.
But there’s no deadline to end these.
It’s just a new reality for the EU.
Many Eurocrats used to claim our Brexit vote, partly to control immigration, was driven by racism.
Many Remainers here still believe it — which surely means the same is true now of the beloved EU they still bafflingly clamour to rejoin.
Not that our border controls yet work. Quite the opposite.
One in every 100 people now in Britain is an illegal migrant, Europe’s highest total, thanks partly to the small boats crisis.
Another 973 landed illegally on Saturday alone.
Labour haven’t a prayer of ending it.
Not after the petulant, ideological decision to scrap our sole deterrent, the Rwanda scheme, which was already beginning to work.
That decision looks more insane each day. They should swallow their pride and admit they got it wrong.
SOS for SAS
WOULD the SAS heroes of the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 be prosecuted today under the European Convention on Human Rights?
After all, they shot dead five terrorists on live TV.
That could be considered a breach of the “Right To Life” clause.
Yes, it does allow a few exceptions, but the SAS men might now need to argue those in court against some vexatious complaint — and prove their force was “no more than absolutely necessary”.
This legal minefield, planted by our Human Rights Act enshrining the ECHR into UK law, is cited by three senior SAS veterans as an existential threat to the regiment.
They say fears of being prosecuted over lethal actions in the line of duty are likely to deter volunteers.
Ex-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also claims SAS troops are constantly wary of UK law even in the heat of battle.
The retrospective legal hounding of Our Boys has long been a scandal.
We cannot let it wreck recruitment too.
Another ECHR clause allows the “Right To Life” to be suspended during war or national emergency.
Labour should get in the habit of invoking it.