Our Home Office is once again proving itself not fit for purpose.
A woman holds a placard during a protest outside the Bell Hotel (Image: Getty Images)
Let’s get one thing straight from the outset: it is not racist to have concerns that a large number of mostly undocumented young males are being settled close to where you live, or possibly where your children or grandchildren attend school. It is showing understandable concern over a situation where both central and local government have patently lost control.
And while some of the protests at the three areas targeted for demonstrations last week, Epping in Essex, Canary Wharf in East London and Diss in Norfolk, verged on the near hysterical with chants and banners demanding “Save Our Kids,” the campaigners’ main concerns were wholly justified. Some on the left seek to portray all these protesters as “far right” and point out the actual number of sexual assaults, convicted or alleged, is extremely low.
This is a wholly risible argument and would be like trying to explain away the murderous activities of Dr. Harold Shipman as being of little significance because it was the work of just one doctor.
Although it is easy – and understandable – to blame the asylum seekers and migrants, that is to miss the central issue. Fault lies solely at the door of the “not fit for purpose” Home Office, because if they dealt with the tens of thousands of asylum claims expediently, there would be no need to house people for as long as we do.
How can it be that, on average, in Italy they can process claims in eight months, in France twelve yet here it is EIGHTEEN months. And that’s the average! Some have waited years.
Given the litany of errors, no one should be remotely surprised that many people feel they are being ignored and growing increasingly restless. It gives me no pleasure to remind you that last month on this page I actually asked “What price summer riots?” My question has since been proved prescient by a bizarre series of bungles from various authorities.
First, Essex Police’s initial denial they had escorted pro-migrant protesters to the hotel at the heart of the Epping clashes, then being forced to admit they had deceived the media when video evidence emerged of them doing precisely that served only to underscore the claim the asylum seekers and those who support them enjoy better protection and policing than the rest of us.
Similarly, whoever sanctioned the booking of rooms at the Britannia International in Canary Wharf, which cost an average of £425 a night and are therefore beyond the dreams of most of us who pay our taxes to fund this insane largesse, needs to have their heads examined.
But, as anger burns the government continues to tinker around the edges.
Last week we were told about a series of financial sanctions that will be introduced, assuming any of these despicable people traffickers actually bank domestically with NatWest or HSBC, they’ll move their accounts in seconds.
As they were escorting pro-migrant campaigners to the Essex flashpoint, police warned there would zero tolerance shown to those demonstrating outside the hotel. Such double standards are obviously going to stoke up local tensions.
And to round it all off, the government also revealed it would share details of locations of “possible flashpoints” where large numbers of asylum seekers were being housed with food delivery firms after it was revealed many were illegally working for those companies.
This means while you and I are not allowed to know if our local hotel has been earmarked as an asylum hostel, but Deliveroo and Just Eat are!
Just another example of incompetent inaction that “feeds” this anger.
