Modern Britain's counsel of despair

Telegraph

6 days ago

There can be no greater indicator of hopelessness in Government than the flailing around this weekend of Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers.
Even as the people of this country were protesting up and down the land from Glasgow to Diss in Norfolk our Prime Minister was fixated on a country far away, negotiating with the EU for a way to airdrop aid into Gaza.
Demonstrations have taken place all weekend against the occupation of migrant hotels even as more illegals found their way to our shores. Larger and larger crowds of demonstrators have been gathering to demand an end to the housing of 'asylum seekers' and a shutting down of our borders.
But if you'd been monitoring the output from Downing Street, you might not know it.
With every international policy that emanates from the office of the Prime Minister – such as the promise to recognise Palestinian statehood at some point in the future – there is often a domestic act with far reaching consequences.
The latest betrayal of the British people is a plan to spend millions on repurposing housing with local councils in order to accommodate yet more asylum seekers. There are apparently 700,000 potential homes in London, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham. The Government would pay for councils to either lease or buy the properties and then renovate them en masse.
Not only has the proposed pilot scheme angered homeless campaigners but it will dismay many younger people who were promised the vote only last week. After all, what hope will teenagers have of ever buying their own home if the current supply, and even newer converted properties, are earmarked for new arrivals to the country?
And to make matters worse an elite police squad has been set up to monitor anti-migrant posts on social media. They're going to be pretty busy.
Britain has never been more categorically in a state of disrepair. Yet it seems as though this Government and its ministers are determined not to acknowledge it. Instead it seems determined to downgrade our status ever further. Consider what's happened over the last few days. President Donald Trump arrived in Scotland with a warning that immigration was ruining not just this country but all of Europe.
We learnt that dozens of Taliban fighters are amongst the many thousands of Afghan refugees who came to the UK under the resettlement scheme. That terrorists from the Middle East have entered the country posing as asylum seekers. We've also seen a rise in homeless foreigners sleeping on our streets. It is fostering resentment, and a mounting sense of unfairness. Sixth-formers might have the vote in 2029, but how many will support Labour against this backdrop?
As the anger deepens around the country over immigration and the way the government is failing to control it, Starmer's proposal to bring Palestinian children to Britain will be met with further alarm. In a weekend poll, 27 per cent of Brits said they didn't 'sympathise' with either side. We can perhaps read into this that it is not an issue of great importance to them.
More and more people are telling me that they have had enough of being treated like second class citizens and they hold the Labour Government responsible. Who can blame them?