A record 750,000 illegal migrants have entered the UK in three years and deportations remain shockingly low. As migrant hotels fill up and border policies fail.
Over a thousand years ago, King Cnut the Great of England and the North Sea Empire was having difficulty in expressing to his pagan subjects that his power did not extend to control over the tide. Cnut finally had to prove his point by dragging his throne to the bottom of the beach at low tide and sitting in it until his courtiers were forced to wade in and save their king from drowning.
Thus the pagans were converted.
Though the same trick seems to be taking a little longer in 2025, Rishi Sunak – the last Conservative PM left standing when the music stopped – might also be vindicated for his failure. Leaders, even democratic ones, need to be aligned with greater forces if they are to succeed.
Politicians from different parties blame each other for the stalemate. Conservatives highlight Labour’s historical leniency, while Labour condemns Conservative cuts to border security and deportation budgets. Analysts, however, note that both parties lack a coherent long-term plan, leaving the nation stuck with a broken asylum system.
Regardless of whether Conservative or Labour parties occupy Downing Street, their policies have failed to stop the continuous flow of people entering the country. Today, as the new Labour government approach their first year in power, the opposition are starting to engage in a lively exchange of ideas. So total was the Conservative Governments’ failure that their party’s very existence is now under threat. Yet the Labour government ushered in by default, as their own leader admits, won a ‘loveless victory’ and are probably the most unpopular ruling Party in modern times.
Plans for Renewal
Talking to the Triggenometry talk show, the Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch displayed a refreshing introspection that totally lacks in American party politics.
“We talked right but governed left, sounding like Conservatives but acting like Labour,” she said. “We deserved to lose.”
Ultimately, a mix of international human rights obligations and legal interventions by European courts hamstrung the conservatives’ deportation efforts. Inevitably, Badenoch is now being asked whether she sees a future for Britain in the ECHR.
“What I’m not going to do is say ‘we’ll leave the ECHR and work it out later.’ That’s what we did with Brexit and look what happened.”
“Leadership is about forging a path and taking people in a particular direction. The party under David Cameron was very different from the party under Theresa May, different to the party under Boris Johnson and so on. So you have to look at the person at the top and then you will understand what is going to happen.”
But referring to the chaos of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is a risky gambit when the vote for Brexit was largely inspired by the very migration concerns that drove her voters to UKIP and now Reform.
With the oldest party in British politics now faces serious slump in confidence, even Badeoch’s front bench grandees are conceding that decisive action may involve adopting uneasy bedfellows. Among them is Greg Smith – the big society firebrand turned Shadow Secretary for Business and Trade. Though quick to qualify his remark with the fact that elections are a long way off, he has admitted that avoiding a socialist future might mean ‘playing nicely’ with other parties.
