Despite the efforts of the Westminster MSM, today’s ‘news’ are so thin on the ground that going back to bed looked like a good option. Digging deeply and also looking at reports from ‘Teh Continent’, I did find a few pearls for your delectation. Firstly, check out the headline for the customary compilation of print front pages: “Newspaper headlines: Fresh Russell Brand allegations and call for asylum reform“ (link). 

Yay – more Brand and ‘asylum’! Leaving yon scandal aside, a look at this ‘asylum reform call’ shows that this is about Ms Braverman going to the USA where she will give a speech in which she will say something about the UN Asylum charter needing reform. The DT’s headline is sufficient:

“Suella Braverman: Absurd UN asylum rules have created 780m ‘refugees’ – Home Secretary to call for reform of global convention that has led to ‘huge incentives for illegal migration’.” (paywalled link). 

Yeah, well – pull factors such as unlimited financial support and help in letting families follow certainly are not incentives! Moreover, nobody in the MSM newsrooms is digging into what Matt Goodwin called the ‘Charity Judicial industrial Complex’, certainly not here in the UK. This complex is international and relies on government handouts.

You’ve heard of Lampedusa and Italy’s difficulties with this wave of Sub Saharan boat people. This is the background for a report in the German paper “Die Welt” from the weekend. The German government is apparently handing out German government money to German NGOs working in Italy. The Italian government is outraged (machine translated from German):

“The Federal Government wants to support organizations that take care of boat migrants in Italy. This is a “very serious behavior” for the government in Rome. Berlin is putting its [Italy] country in trouble, says the Italian Minister of Defense.” (paywalled link)

This has now escalated: Ms Meloni, the Italian PM, yesterday wrote a letter to the German Chancellor Mr Scholz, as the German paper reports, providing a quote from that letter (again, machine translate from German)

“I have learned with astonishment that your government, without coordinating with the Italian government, has decided to provide significant funds for non-governmental organizations working to receive irregular migrants on Italian territory and to rescue them in the Mediterranean,” Meloni wrote in her letter to Scholz. EU countries that wanted to help Italy should better focus on “structural solutions” such as cooperation with transit countries to stop entry.” (paywalled link)

Interesting, innit! Compare and contrast with our UK politicians: here we have the prospective Labour PM warbling about ‘crushing people smugglers’ while the current Home Sec will talk about reforming the whole UN ‘Rulz’ concoction. Meanwhile we keep paying Macron for doing eff all to stop the dinghies from leaving France.

At the same time French authorities are pretty harsh in preventing all those poor refugees from entering France at the Italian border. There are more French police at this border, more drones – and: 

“Since the beginning of the year, 31,000 people who wanted to get from Italy to France have been arrested and returned to Italy.” (paywalled link, machine translated from German)

How astounding: France is able to send back ‘poor refugees’, ECHR and UN ‘rulz’ notwithstanding! In contrast, our lot is incapable of doing so and provides maritime taxi services instead.  Well, Woke Whitehall, with support from the Woke Westminster MSM, are obviously more powerful than our elected government.

Moreover, Sunak is clearly frit of taking on yon Charity-Judicial Industrial Complex, having his hands full with the Net Zero acolytes and the HS2 ‘runaway costs’, leading to some Tory Big Beasts making an appearance, gleefully reported in The Times thusly:

“Lord Hammond of Runnymede, a former chancellor, told The Times that the project risked becoming a white elephant if it was not finished, and Patrick McLoughlin, a former transport secretary, said that scaling it back would be “completely wrong”. It means that two former Tory prime ministers, three former chancellors and a former transport secretary are all opposed to curtailing the line.” (link, paywalled)

Strange, innit: none of the above, Sunak included, are apparently in the least bit concerned about the ‘runaway costs’ of illegal immigration or the role this will play in the coming GE. Instead of acting and returning illegal migrants, ECHR notwithstanding, like France does, “we” pay Macron while also providing free ‘everything’ to the many illegals arriving here from France. Clearly these are not ‘runaway costs’ of concern to Sunak or the Tory Big Beasts. 

That’s all I have for today. I wonder if the Frogs have been using our money to beef up their Italian border rather than stop dinghies from leaving their war-torn Channel coast. Have a good day.