10th September 2021
This government is abandoning manifesto commitment after manifesto commitment.
This is notwithstanding that, in a representative parliamentary democracy, it is only by manifestos that we have anything that approximates to mandates for a majority party returned in a general election.
Such manifesto commitments are not, it seems, binding commitments on the government.
But.
Elsewhere in government, the ‘will of the people’ is being invoked – and perhaps in the mist sordid and disgusting way imaginable to any any sensible and humane person:
No.10 Confirms New ‘Turnaround Tactics’ For Channel Migrant Boats: 'It's what the public want'https://t.co/09k1ohBgFc
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 9, 2021
Because of this policy, fellow human beings will die.
There will be those who will be dead tomorrow who otherwise would not be dead but for this policy.
This policy is not in any manifesto.
The invocation of ‘it is what people want’ is nothing more compelling than speculation.
But it is enough.
Because ‘it is what people want’ then other people will die.
This is a ‘pick and choose’ approach to representative democracy.
Things that had been explicit in a manifesto on which people people had actually voted are casually discarded.
And by reason of the slogan ‘it is what people want’ lives of fellow human beings will be just as casually discarded.
The common feature is executive arrogance.
Ministers believe they can do as they wish to anyone, regardless of actual mandates.
This does not mean well for our democracy.
Brace brace.
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there was another incidence of wotp today too, delivering it is this mp’s job apparently https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-58518526?at_medium=custom7&at_campaign=64&at_custom1=link&at_custom4=A8E408BE-1251-11EC-AD35-EEDD4744363C&at_custom2=twitter&at_custom3=Regional+BBC+Yorkshire
Thank you for this link, Adam. I agree with Mr Bray, you should be able to go up and ask an MP a question. And you should be able to get a civil answer.
Perfectly put.
Thank you.
The boy that could get away with anything has not changed, we just gave him increasing levels of power. Having already laissez-faired his way to extiguishing the lives of a significant number of the electorate, let’s not pretend he will be concerned by the demise of those who do not have a blue passport.
The official opposition is far too busy dismantling itself to be in any state to compete. Perhaps the only hope is that Ed Davey continues to remain invisible to all media until 20 minutes ahead of the next election, before sweeping up all of the protest votes and forming a government. It’s not likely.
Well put. Unfortunately, the mediocrity of the Opposition gives Johnson a free pass. Unless Labour abandons its own unicorn of a comprehensive victory on the back of FPTP, the Tories will win the next GE. Johnson may be replaced but the populist recipe is too successful to be abandoned.
The irresponsibility & lack of lucidity of the opposition – particularly Labour but there are some in the Libdems who are scared of an Alliance too- is nothing short of criminal. They shouldn’t be forgiven. The lack of true inspiring leadership – yes, an Alliance would be challenging but genuine leaders deal with challenges rather than run away from them- is abysmal: lost in their small electoral calculations, they are endlessly rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
How do they know that it’s what the people want? I don’t want it. I am probably not alone.
We must all write to our MP and tell them that this is not our will. I feel it is very important that we record our opposition to this policy and not just by being outraged on social media. I know many of them won’t respond but that is not the point. They are our representatives and if you do not speak out then whatever happens is done in your name
At last the true meaning of the slogan “ take back control” emerges ……
i would not call it a retun of the wotp, since 2016 it seems to be the only advice the gov takes, as exuse for their direction of travel. I am sure a social care reform is a reall wotp and look what they did with this will. Anything will be possible until the next election it seems. So 4 more years at least unless the wotp decides, with the very important help from the uk media (the only wotp that sems to count), that it does not want to have an election who knows. /half sarc
But i think the crunch time will arrive much earlier, to be honest around xmas 2021. And yes as a german aware of my countrys history, politicans who claim to fullfill the wotp scare the shit out of me, brace brace indeed
The Will of Farage *should* be merely an extremist point of view that has no chance of being British government policy. I don’t recognise my country.
Isn’t part of the difficulty the fact that ‘real people’ are kept away from politicians? They survive in their party-centred echo chamber so don’t really hear what people really want.
I know somebody who is pretty harsh generally, but even he thinks that migrants must be pretty desperate to want to come here.
Politicians – of all hues – need to meet more people who are not politically affiliated. And, even more importantly, politicians should remember that part of their role is leadership – and they should be aiming to help us become better people.
Thank you for presenting what will become the awful reality of this policy so clearly. It is utterly inhumane.
This government have shown their lack of respect for human life for over a decade. It is extremely distressing. I certainly do not want this.
Is there any hope?
The people who want this do so because they’ve been led to believe we are overrun by asylum seekers. In fact we take far fewer than other European countries, including France. Yet the Home Secretary has the nerve to blame the French.
Tim Wright, you are not alone.
And yet, by putting these things out there, some people are emboldened and say “Hurray! Here’s someone who is speaking for me! I don’t want these people here, sponging off me, taking our housing, filling our cramped country”
Tim, you and I will be appalled by what some people are saying – but just today I’ve had people say variations of that to me, and saying it with (apparently) no real awareness of what they are proposing: that we should legitimise the killing of migrants. Someone said to my partner that it was time the boats were torpedoed. Torpedoed! – What extremism is now afoot that people are seriously saying things like this?
And the reason is because those who setting the agenda, the ones who should be setting the example, are choosing to whip up this fear of ‘the other’, to appeal to the worst in us rather than exalting us to be our better selves.
This is so horrible, so utterly depressing for we who strive to be compassionate, to see things from the point of view of others, and to acknowledge our own relative good fortune.
I am both ashamed of my country, and the for lack of morality with which we are being led.
I think the fact that the RNLI had something like a 3000% increase in donations when Farage had a go at them for supposedly being a taxi service for immigrants, that the majority of decent people do not want this.
I don’t know whether it’s possible, but it would be nice if the RNLI could charge the Border Force (or whoever is supposedly policing the channel) for continually having to help them out. Eventually I hope that Priti Patel will be up before an international court of law.
The people know what they want and deserve to get it – good and hard.
King Canute knew a thing or two. As a practical matter I can’t see how Mrs Patel can ‘turn back’ those migrant boats. The law of the sea, EU/UK spats and the prospect of dead babies in the water put a stop to such foolishness. In fact I am sure Mrs Patel is not so stupid as to believe or expect any such ‘turning back’. She is not that stupid is she? The idea is strictly for the tabloids.
In reality rougher winter weather will soon be with us and fewer migrant boats will try the crossing. A lull for Mrs Patel until next year. A success ready to be lauded – until next year. She might not be in the job by then.
Then we might wonder what useful purpose is served by preventing migrants working once they get here. A make-work scheme for Home Office clerks maybe. Or another illusion of usefulness presented by the Home Office. The whole interview/right to remain process looks a grubby hypocritical mess.
TBH I am not exactly delighted to see migrants pitching up but on the other hand a few may be genuinely fleeing from conflict and as a country we have a duty to take our fair share. Taking into account our role in creating conflict – and making a mess of it. We could of course make our country so poor and miserable no one wants to come here…
I don’t want it. Your blog, though excellent, makes me want to cry.
Page 48 of the Conservative Manifesto does offer some forewarning
In December 2019 just after the general election I sent the following prediction to some friends:
“Dominic Cummings can now pursue all those ‘creative destruction’ policies that he has espoused over the years
I predict that it will happen gradually, in the same way that an abusive partner gradually restricts their victim so there is no point at which they flee, instead over years they become a prisoner in their own home, bruised and battered, too weak to do anything at all”
I clearly got one thing wrong, but not the direction of travel