The plan to house migrants on barges could soon come unstuck

Frank Sinatra once sang about the seductive properties of bright and shiny ephemera. ‘Her heart will sing, singa-linga, wearing baubles, bangles and beads,’ crooned Ol’ Blue Eyes. There is a temptation for anyone cynical about politics – that’s nearly all of us by now – to view the Government’s announcement of planned new asylum-seeker accommodation as a similarly knowing exercise in buttering us up with something eye-catching but insubstantial.

Barges, barracks and airfields make up Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick’s latest attempt to get the electorate in the mood to couple-up with the Conservatives at the next election. These are the favoured and suitably Spartan-sounding new locations for thousands of the young men who have arrived in the country illegally on small boats.  

We are certainly entitled to wonder whether it is just a distraction, given that those accommodated in this way are likely to be free to come and go as they please rather than being held in secure detention.