#PritiPatel’s #pushback: she’s facing strikes at home while losing support abroad

Does Priti Patel think she’s going to beat the backlash against her over refugees… with lies?

That’s the impression This Writer gets from Sajid Javid’s comments on TV:

For clarity, Alex Taylor was playing down Germany’s role in resettling refugees. That country hasn’t just taken in one million people; it’s taken a million every year since 2013, two years before Javid’s record starts.

Just taking it from 2015, that’s seven million people, or 280 times the number the UK took in during the same period.

Javid is one massive liar, isn’t he? And in this case he was doing it for his colleague, who was apparently busy talking to European leaders. Was she lying to them? I think they’d know too!

The language is fascinating if you like psychoanalysis. Patel says she’s talking with European leaders to “prevent further tragedies” in the Channel, without actually saying what she considers to be a tragedy in this instance.

We know that she has a so-called “pushback” policy that, if she goes through with it, will force refugees out of UK waters – to drown elsewhere if their transport is as flimsy as the raft that capsized in the Channel last week.

So she doesn’t consider these people dying to be a tragedy.

She considers the bad publicity attracted to the Conservative government by them dying to be a tragedy.

That’s how it seems to This Writer.

Another analyst’s dream is the tweet quoted below, which Clare Hepworth accurately describes in her response:

“We agreed more co-ordinated action was needed”. To do what?

Patel didn’t say – and that implies that it’s not going to be pleasant for refugees/asylum-seekers. This in turn means it is unlikely to be popular with the public – so she held back the details.

But while she’s off talking with her opposite numbers in Europe – a job that would have been much quicker and easier, by the way, if her boss hadn’t ticked off Emmanuel Macron with his Twit diplomacy – she’s facing court action by the workers she expects to enforce her “pushback” policy:

The PCS union, that represents Border Force staff, has joined Care 4 Calais to demand that Patel publish the legal basis of “pushback” and details of how she expects it to be carried out.

If she refuses, then they will launch judicial review proceedings to establish whether the policy is even legal.

General Secretary Mark Serwotka said, “The ‘pushback’ policy being pursued by the Home Secretary is unlawful, unworkable and above all morally reprehensible. Our border force members are aghast at the thought they will be forced to implement such a cruel and inhumane policy.

“PCS will not rule out all forms of industrial action, including disrupting the implementation of the Pushback policy if the Home Secretary insists on going ahead.”

He also said people trying to reach the UK should be allowed to so via safe routes so that their claims can be assessed here.

And his wish may be granted before his union gets as far as court:

It seems M. Macron was the only major French politician who was still in favour of a treaty known as the Le Touquet Accords, which allows the UK to police its borders at places like the Port of Calais. This makes it easy to turn refugees back before they are able to use the ferry like everybody else.

But BoJob has upset Macron. And with a French Presidential election coming up, and other candidates like Michel Barnier (remember him?) advocating an end to Le Touquet, it seems pretty soon the refugees will have their safe route to the UK after all.

Once they get here, it won’t matter what officials say; they’ll be on UK soil and may legally claim asylum.

That would really mess up Patel’s plan.

The claim that the UK takes more refugees than any other European country is blown already.

Any claim to be trying to be humane to refugees would also be blown.

Her policy would be in tatters.

And everyone who supported her crusade against refugees would be very upset with her.

Take a look at the question below:

It’s based on an old Patel lie – that refugees should settle in the first safe country they can reach.

With all the elements lining up against her, Patel may end up wishing her parents had done just that.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/


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