I started to write a blog yesterday and find that the Guardian Newspaper has already published much of what follows; nonetheless, I will add my few bits as well into the ether.
The amounts of money being pissed away by this government is astronomical. If an episode of Yes Minister had been written which including the current governments list of insane expenditure, it would have been seen as a complete fantasy; yet, it is not.
Over a billion pounds has been defrauded from the government in its zeal to help out business during the pandemic. No effort appears to have been made to recover that money. Millions have been spent on useless and unfit for purpose personal protective equipment and no effort seems to have been made to sort out how it happened, nor any attempt made to recover that money. Do we remember Grayling’s awarding a shipping contract to a company with no ships? Over a billion pounds have been spent on the empty and contagious Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge. Yet more millions have been paid to Rwanda (£250m to date plus another £50m due next year). How much longer can this go on?
I read, from a BBC online news report by Andre Rhoden-Paul, that “The Home Office has said Rwanda has an initial capacity to take 200 people a year, but there are plans to increase that number when the scheme begins.” So far that works out at £1,250,000 per person in the first year. The idea behind the deterrent factor is that it will save lives by stopping the boats and that it will be so successful by the beginning of the year, the boats will have stopped. Does that not suggest that there will no longer be a need for the flights as the boats will have stopped and there will be no more people to transport. So a scheme that is only required for one year will have cost the taxpayer an exceptional amount of money.
Mr Rhoden-Paul’s article goes on to add “The department has also estimated the cost of sending someone to a safe country - not specifically Rwanda - is £169,000, compared to £106,000 if they remain in the UK.”. What does an extra £63,000 matter?
Of course, having established the scheme, it seems only natural to keep using it, so who else can the government send off to Rwanda. Any person who is or deemed to be an illegal immigrant will be shipped out to Rwanda, or maybe just people we don’t like. Russia has its Siberia, now the United Kingdom has its Rwanda. How cool is that?
You cannot stop refugees from seeking a shelter where they believe a shelter exists. So long as western Europe and the Americas hold out the myth of offering refuge they will continue to come. The only real way to stop the flow is to stop the carnage and suppression that exists forcing them to leave their homes and become refugees. That means international co-operation. So long as nations are allowed to subvert and ignore international co-operation so long there will be refugees. Instead, help make the place they live better, or as good as, the place they think they are going to.
It is simply not right to show commiseration and concern for the plight of some people (e.g. Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians etc..) and then treat them like a plague because of the manner in which they seek refuge. The hypocrisy of the likes of Suella Braverman, Priti Patel and their acolytes is more than gargantuan.
I note that Priti is eight years older than Suella. I also note that one has rarely, perhaps even never, seen a cosy photo of the two of them together. I am not sure what one can surmise from that. Both born in London, of Indian background via neighbouring African countries Uganda and Kenya.
According to Wikipedia, Suella was named after Sue Ellen Ewing from the soap opera Dallas. Her mother was a fan. Sue Ellen was the long suffering wife of the notorious JR Ewing, one of the great television villains. The catch phrase “Who shot JR?” made it across the globe in 1980. The episode in which JR was shot aired on 21 March 1980. The resultant publicity around “Who shot JR?”, which created a furore, led to the “who done it?” episode on 21st November 1980.
Suella Braverman was born on the 3rd April 1980, only 13 days following the fatal episode for JR; but, I think one can assume that Suella’s mother was watching “who done it?” on that Friday evening 43 years ago, with her babe in arms. Apparently some 83 million people tuned in to watch the episode, one of whom was a seven month old Sue-Ellen Cassiana Fernandes, now known as Suella Braverman.
I wonder just how closely the lives of Suella and Sue-Ellen have coincided. Dallas gave us a view of Sue’s alcoholism within an atmosphere of “corruption, betrayal, lies greed, affairs and scandal” as some critics have described her. I do not know if Ms Braverman has taken to the bottle, but as for the rest, what can one say?
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