Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

The problem with the Bibby Stockholm barge

Getty Images 
issue 29 July 2023

For British taxpayers perturbed by their £6 million daily bill for housing asylum seekers in hotels, New York City mayor Eric Adams has the solution: handbills. Exasperated by a sudden influx he characterises as a ‘disaster’, Adams plans to dispense police-tape yellow flyers both at the city’s 188 sites for housing migrants and at America’s overrun, purely notional southern border. The leaflets warn in English and Spanish: ‘Since April 2022, over 90,000 migrants have come to New York City. There is no guarantee we will be able to provide shelter and services to new arrivals. Housing in NYC is very expensive. The cost of food, transportation, and other necessities is the highest in the United States. Please consider another city as you make your decision about where to settle in the US.’ Well, that’s one colossal headache sorted, then. Why didn’t anyone think of flyers before?

In addition to three ‘culturally appropriate’ meals a day, migrants will enjoy a 24-hour food service

I’m reminded of being paid a pittance to distribute leaflets for a Little Richard concert in Atlanta in 1973 – a thankless task.

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