We must get a move on in sorting out our Rwanda deportation policy, or we risk being sunk at the election
The frustration with this Government is not that it is bad or incompetent, but that it is always just too late.
The bus has been missed and there is not another one in sight. This is where we are with the Rwanda policy.
There were things that could have been done and which the Government was advised to do but they have not been done and now the obstacles have grown and an election looms.
Amendments were proposed to this year’s Borders bill which would have prevented the Supreme Court from blocking the Rwanda scheme.
In the United Kingdom the highest form of law is that passed by Parliament.
The Courts may interpret it or even declare it incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights but they cannot override it.
Ultimately, power is with you the voter via your representative in the House of Commons whom you may fire if you are dissatisfied with his performance.
Yet the Government did not make these amendments, it took the risk that it would win in Court and the question is why?
It could be hubris, perhaps the Prime Minister and his legal advisers were confident that he would win or perhaps it was squeamishness.
Those demanding firm action were supporters of Boris and the Government did not want to upset the international elite, the Davos types who prefer international symposiums to domestic democracy.
Either way it has not worked and now time is against the Government which does not seem too have been prepared.
Where is the emergency legislation? Why was a new Bill not put to Parliament on Thursday?
How does the Government propose to get such a Bill through the House of Lords when there is insufficient time to use the Parliament Act?
This lack of foresight makes it highly unlikely that the Rwanda scheme will be operational before the next election but Rishi Sunak must try, his majority depends upon it.
Thus emergency legislation needs to be introduced promptly which gives explicit authority for deportations to Rwanda, it must amend any other laws which are seen as obstacles to this, including the Human Rights Act.
It will probably get stuck in the Lords or the Courts and then it will become a centrepiece of the Election Campaign.
In the meantime legal migration, which is about 15 times the level of the small boats, can be reduced with no Parliamentary or legal fuss and it is, in truth, a bigger issue with greater societal and economic effect.