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Just days after Vox Political published a 5,000-word plan to fix the asylum system, the government has suddenly announced… a plan to fix the asylum appeals system.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper now admits that delays in appeals are “unacceptable” and has promised a new, independent panel of adjudicators to hear cases more quickly.

If that seems familiar, it should. This Site’s plan set out the case for a “decision surge” — hiring and training decision-makers and tribunal capacity to clear claims faster, including appeals.

That’s the lever that collapses demand for so-called “asylum hotels”, because right now it takes more than a year to hear an appeal and 51,000 cases are stuck in the pipeline.

So: credit where it’s due — but let’s be clear about what this move isn’t.

• It isn’t a full fix. Appeals are only one bottleneck. Without more capacity for initial decisions, housing, and returns agreements, hotels will still fill up.

• It isn’t transparent. This Site called for a public scoreboard — weekly intake v outputs, hotel headcounts, costs — independently validated. Cooper hasn’t offered that.

• And it isn’t proof against spin. A new “independent body” risks being another layer of bureaucracy unless it’s properly staffed and funded.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are shouting “chaos” while quietly encouraging councils to block hotels — with no answer to the question of where people go instead.

Reform UK shouts “mass deportations” that have no basis in law or capacity.

The truth is simple: you don’t drain hotels with slogans; you drain them with throughput.

Appeals reform is a start, but unless Cooper takes on the rest of the system, this looks like politics first, competence second.

Still — let’s not ignore the timing.

Vox Political published a plan on Tuesday; the government shifted by Saturday. You decide whether that’s coincidence.

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