Rishi Sunak must not ignore the migrant crisis – just look at Sweden and Italy
THE average Briton’s perception of Sweden is a liberal paradise where everyone looks like a Nordic supermodel, lives in modern Ikea-style homes and leads a harmonious ‘hygge’ existence of cozy togetherness.
Yet it has just taken a dramatic swing to the right amid voter anxieties over immigration.
New Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson chairs a coalition involving three centrist parties and support (in exchange for “extensive influence” over politics) from the Sweden Democrats – a far-right party that was once treated as a political party. pariah, but has just taken 20.5 percent of the national vote.
For two decades, Sweden has been generous in accepting non-European refugees and housing them in large urban areas just outside the big cities.
But, as The Times reported this weekend, this well-intentioned gesture has resulted in feelings of segregation, undeniable poverty, the growth of violence between drug gangs and consequently increased concern from voters about how immigration is handled.
So now even the establishment parties are now talking about freezing asylum numbers at the absolute minimum allowed under EU law, deportations and gaining access to benefits based on learning to speak Swedish and signing the country’s common “shared values”.
“Immigration to Sweden has been unsustainable,” says Kristersson, citing poor integration, unemployment and insecurity while announcing a “paradigm shift” in immigration policy.
Meanwhile, in ItalyGiorgia Meloni settles in as the country’s first female prime minister, presiding over the most right-wing government since World War II.
Trying to fix the country’s dire economic problems will be her first job, but it’s no secret that she thinks Italy’s migration policy has been too lenient and risks turning the country into what she calls “Europe’s refugee camp”.
As a taste of what might come, she said last month: “The smart approach is, ‘You come to my house by my rules.'”
Now Rishi Sunak has the top job, all of the above should be front and center as he begins the journey which, he hopes, can lead to the British public actually voting for him at the next general election.
And his reappointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary is a good start given her tenacity and understanding that something has to change.
Since 2018, the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has now exceeded 75,000 – equivalent to the population of Harrogate and East Kilbride.
This is not about women, children and desperate refugees fleeing persecution.
We have always been, and should remain, a welcoming refuge for those who truly need it.
And to this end, we should continue our talks with France to set up effective treatment centers that, once vetted, will allow people to enter here legally and, most importantly, safely without having to board the flimsy dinghies run by illegals human trafficker.
No, the problem is economic migrants – mainly young men – who find cash work and send the money home while rarely investing in a local community or, as many articles have pointed out, arriving here and joining drug gangs, either voluntarily or otherwise. .
Our new prime minister needs to sort out the economy and make some tough but necessary decisions about public spending, but he also shouldn’t underestimate (or worse, dismiss) voters’ ongoing concerns about uncontrolled immigration.
He ignores it at his peril, as the fate of Sweden and Italy proves.
Give the glue activists a swing so their plans don’t get stuck
FOUR Just Stop Oil campaigners taped their feet to the Abbey Road crossing made famous by The beetles.
Wearing hi-vis jackets, they arrived at 1pm and were not removed by police until 2.40pm – meaning 100 minutes of inconvenience for motorists who reportedly “couldn’t pass”.
But the image shows that, with some creative thinking on the part of the police, cars could have been directed to drive slowly around the obstruction via the wide pavements while pedestrians could use the blocked road.
Thus leaving the not-so-cruel foursome to stew in their own glue until a) they needed the bathroom or b) they felt hungry.
This tactic worked Germany when activists stuck to the floor of a car park and staff simply turned off the heat and left them there overnight.
After grumbling about a lack of food, no bowl to pee or defecate in, and another left for medical treatment because his glued hand became swollen, the protest was a damp squib.
So the next time a group of entitled twerps throw soup, potatoes or whatever over a board and stick to the wall, why not just leave them there, scratch them off as an exhibit under the guise of “performance art” and let the rest of us watch on while they quickly unravel?
Worst… didn’t carry anyone
COMEDIAN Jack Dee has reminisced about his days as a waiter.
“People would come in and say, ‘Can we have the grumpy waiter for our stag party because he was funny last time, he was so rude to everyone,'” he recalls.
He admits to putting extra hot water in the finger bowl “for someone who snapped their fingers at me” so he got burned.
All of this resonates, because I was once the grumpiest barmaid in the world.
In the eighties I worked in a pub in South London frequented by braying yuppies and if I didn’t like their tone when I ordered, I’d simply wander off and serve someone else.
When they eventually demanded to know where their drink was, I replied, “Since you didn’t bother to ask nicely, I served someone with manners instead.”
Fortunately, the landlord found my transparent unsuitability for the job a source of great joy and refused to fire me.
A royal mess
LIZ TRUSS shook hands with the queen just two days before she died, announced the sad news to the nation outside Downing Streetread at the funeral and was photographed and shaken hands by our new monarch, King Charlesall within the space of a couple of weeks.
In other words, immediately after taking office she was parachuted into a level of global visibility that most world leaders can only dream of.
And yet she messed it up.
It beggars belief.
Cancer care is urgent
ANOTHER big headache that our new Prime Minister needs to address – and quickly – is the number of people dying needlessly from cancer due NHS failures to address the disease.
Doctors missed 100 cases every day in 2020 due to lockdown, and now the average person waits 55 days for treatment, making the UK one of the worst countries in Europe to be affected by cancer.
But it’s the human stories, rather than the statistics, that hammer home the harsh reality facing those desperate for treatment.
Like Lizzi England from Daventry, for example, who was 29 and pregnant with her third child in 2019 when she was diagnosed breast cancer.
She had a mastectomy before giving birth, went through chemotherapy and several rounds of radiation and last year learned that her cancer has spread and is now incurable.
But obviously she wants to stay alive as long as possible for the sake of her children.
Last week she wrote: “I’ve been chasing progress on getting my new treatment today as I haven’t heard anything.
“I had my scan on August 19 and it confirmed that my cancer was growing.
“I’m two months from that point! . . . why there’s no damn hurry.”
Why really? Breast cancer alone kills 31 people a day. That’s one every 45 minutes.
Whether treatment is curative or palliative, every patient deserves a sense of urgency.
Recipe for sex
AFTER The Kim Kardashians grandma “MJ” championed the pleasures of having six in front of a roaring fire, the reality star reveals that she tried it with an ex-lover Pete Davidson.
“We had sex in front of the fireplace to honor you,” she tells 88-year-old Mary Jo.
Like advice from grandma, it makes a change from passing down recipes I guess.