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DOUGLAS MURRAY

The Left seems to hate Britain… yet thinks it’s fine for migrants

HUNDREDS of illegal migrants continue to cross the Channel and enter Britain every single week.

This country then spends millions of pounds putting them up in hotels.

Hundreds of illegal migrants continue to cross the Channel and enter Britain every single week
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Hundreds of illegal migrants continue to cross the Channel and enter Britain every single week
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used his Easter sermon to lecture the Government on its decision to send migrants to Rwanda
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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used his Easter sermon to lecture the Government on its decision to send migrants to RwandaCredit: Getty
Natasha Devon, who hosts an unpopular talk show on LBC, would appear to be one of those Brits who hates their own country
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Natasha Devon, who hosts an unpopular talk show on LBC, would appear to be one of those Brits who hates their own countryCredit: Twitter/ NatashaDevon

Almost all of the arrivals will stay, because once you are in the UK it is almost impossible to deport you.

A fact the illegal migrants and the smuggler gangs know very well.

So what plans are there to deal with this? As far as I can see, most of the people who express concern about this situation have zero answers.

Various left-wing charities, commentators and politicians seem to hope the public just won’t notice. Sure, a few people in Dover might notice. But otherwise they think the current system can just roll on and on.

They are content with this country having two asylum systems. One a legal route, the other a route by which whoever makes it over the Channel in a boat first also gets in.

Read more on migrant crisis

Perhaps this lack of answers is one reason why there has been such rage at an actual plan to deal with the crisis in the Channel.

The Government rightly wants to put people off from coming.

Nothing will put them off more than learning that if they do make it, they will most likely be transported to Rwanda. A country which has kindly just signed a deal with this country to process the migrants.

Poor Rwanda. Since this deal was announced, the various moaners in this country have portrayed it as an utter hellhole.

But the same people present France as a hellhole. Which is why the migrants supposedly have to flee France for the safety of Britain.

As Sun columnist Trevor Kavanagh wrote, it is a scandal that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used his Easter sermon to lecture the Government on this policy decision.

What is his idea for stopping the illegal boats? Has he got any policy? Of course not. None of the critics of the Government’s plan have. But wow, are they angry.

Until this weekend I had never heard of Natasha Devon. It turns out she has some very unpopular talk show on LBC radio. I caught a bit of it over the weekend. And there I was treated, along with her other two listeners, to a very revealing outburst.

Ms Devon would appear to be one of those Brits who hates their own country. Among much else, she seems to still be angry about the Brexit vote of six years ago. Indeed, she is so angry that she must do us down at any opportunity.

She went on a spree, first of all attacking the Government plan as “illogical”. I guess she thinks she’d know.

She also seemed to imagine all the men flooding across the Channel will fit neatly into whatever job shortages we might have. So if you’re waiting for a dentist’s appointment, worry not, there’ll be another boatload of dentists arriving tomorrow.

But the big reveal was this little outburst. “We need to acknowledge that we’re not a great country everybody wants to come to. We’re a silly little island struggling in almost every industry. We’re cutting off our nose to spite our stupid, racist faces.”

Well, that sounds pretty racist to me. I’m glad we are such a tolerant people that we even put up with our own people saying this about us.

But the outburst was telling. Because the people who hate this Rwanda plan are trying to hold a lot of things in their heads at once.

They hate their country but cannot understand why people are trying to come to it. They talk about Britain as if we are not the world’s fifth largest economy, but a failed state. Which people from failed states weirdly want to escape to.

These are squares that these critics cannot circle. So they don’t bother. Instead, they pretend we should just put up with illegal migration, or not notice. Because otherwise we’re “racist”.

Well, I have news for Ms Devon and her fellow critics. One reason people come to this country is because we are a fair country, as well as a rich one.

And part of being fair is upholding the rule of law. You either have a rule of law or you don’t. Just like you have borders or you don’t.

This country has an asylum system. Mass illegal entry via gangs across the Channel cannot be part of it. So we have to find ways to stop it.

None of the people who have spent the past few days moaning have come up with any plan.

So this Rwanda deal will have to do. Like everyone else who believes in the law, and believes in Britain, I hope it works.

So two-faced, Nicola

ONE of the maddest Covid enforcers in the land has been Nicola Sturgeon.

The Scots Nationalist leader has pushed some of the toughest rules on people north of the border.

Nicola Sturgeon does nothing to sort out the many problems that do exist in Scotland such as the epidemic of drug overdoses - but she is very strict about masks
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Nicola Sturgeon does nothing to sort out the many problems that do exist in Scotland such as the epidemic of drug overdoses - but she is very strict about masksCredit: Wattie Cheung

Remember last Hogmanay, when police wearing masks forcibly tore the whisky away from revellers at parties?

Sturgeon does nothing to sort out the many problems that do exist in Scotland. Such as the epidemic of drug overdoses. But she is very strict about masks.

Get a pile of smack, and overdose on it, and Nicola won’t care very much. But let your cotton mask slip in public and Nicola will scold you.

She likes to lead by example – strutting in her mask (tartan, of course). She installed these laws. And made wearing a mask indoors compulsory.

So what a wonderful thing it is that a video has now emerged of her failing to follow her own rules.

It shows her recently on the campaign trail in East Kilbride. There she is in a barbers totally maskless. As she tries to woo the people inside.
Sturgeon herself is always the first one to call for other people to resign. Mainly if they don’t happen to share her politics.

What she did in East Kilbride was a clear case of breaking of the rules that she herself has imposed.

So will she now follow her own advice and resign? It seems unlikely.

I have a compromise. How about admitting that this mask enforcement in Scotland went on far too long, and long outlived any use it ever had? A bit like Nicola’s politics.

Gender neutral lingo is in class of its own

THE police, the Lords, and now the Soap Awards. It seems everyone, everywhere has decided to go “gender neutral”. Everyone except the public, that is.

Just this week we have had news that House of Lords staff have been told to avoid “offensive” terms such as “man-made” or “manpower”.

Adele told fans she was proud to be a woman at the Brit Awards
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Adele told fans she was proud to be a woman at the Brit AwardsCredit: Getty

Police have been told to stop saying “Sir” or “Madam”, using instead lovely terms like “you”. And now the British Soap Awards are going to scrap the male and female categories.

I am so fed up with all of this. There are a tiny number of people who do not know what sex they are. Or find the whole thing confusing. I don’t know if any of them are in the House of Lords. I suspect not.

The police are meant to spend their time pursuing criminals, not policing language.

And the Soap Awards should have learned from the chaos at the Brits when they tried to do away with the different categories.

Nobody cares if you do away with “best male” or “best female”.

Nobody is offended if they win the best in their category. Nobody says it means they are better than the other sex. It is all so stupid.

If I had my way, anyone who suggested these time-wasting ideas would be fired. It would be the fastest way to get your P45. Because it is not just a waste of time, it achieves nothing.

So I say, get back to your work. Run the House of Lords. Police the bloody streets. And give us a good evening’s entertainment. That’s all. Though I am tempted to say: “And man up.”

Shale snub shame

AS our energy bills keep sky-rocketing, just remember this.

During the past decade our country had an opportunity to gain a massive new energy source. But our politicians got scared off fracking because of green maniacs, among others.

Energy policy is not something you can just reverse overnight
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Energy policy is not something you can just reverse overnightCredit: Alamy

Now the industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said he reckons this country is sitting on 50 years’ worth of shale gas.

What has happened is a scandal.

Energy policy is not something you can just reverse overnight.

Few things have to be thought about so much with the longer view.

But our politicians have been woefully short-sighted.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

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Had the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government not been scared off, we might currently be enjoying the beginning of an energy boom in Britain.

Instead, we are all in the same position. Looking at our energy bills each month and seeing them going up and up.

Search for privacy really is Olympian

HOW kind of the Duke and Duchess of Woke to come briefly through Britain on their way to the Invictus Games in the Netherlands.

I notice that Prince Harry and wife Meghan were accompanied by a former bodyguard of Barack Obama.

Oh, and a film crew from Netflix.

The couple’s search for privacy really is Olympian, isnt it?

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