Well done to the Channel 4 halfwits

The number of people arriving here in small boats has increased since Sir Keir Starmer was elected Prime Minister on 4 July last year. The 20,000 figure was passed in December. Perhaps the increase is a consequence of these disparate individuals yearning to live in a country in which Angela Rayner is the Deputy Prime Minister. Or maybe they have noticed that one of the great cabinet posts has been conferred upon David Lammy and they think to themselves – goodness, these guys are taking affirmative action to absurd levels. We can’t go wrong here.

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Either way, the numbers seem to be up and the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, continues to paddle around forlornly in the English Channel, striking a deal with the French over penalties for refugees who fail to take any notice when the dilatory French coppers try to apprehend them.

I fear it will make not the slightest difference. The only way to stop people coming is to make this country a much less desirable place in which to arrive as an illegal migrant. Otherwise the demand for transport, however perilous, will continue and you can bet that the supply of that transport will not reduce.

‘Going after’ the traffickers, as Labour continually avows, is the dimmest means of attempting to reduce the numbers of small boats setting out from Calais, but it does allow Yvette to pretend that the problem is not the refugees per se, who are lovely people, but the ‘traffickers’. This is what we call a category error, but if it allows Yvette to feel good about herself, who are we to cavil?

Meanwhile, there is no social crisis so grave that it cannot be made worse by the sudden arrival of the Channel 4 halfwits on the scene.