Militant Moderate: And As I Watched Him On The Stage...

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

And As I Watched Him On The Stage...

Tony Blair's attempts to justify the chronic incompetence in the Home Office are nothing short of utterly pathetic. His only attempt at a defence is that the problem has been going on for a long time. That just doesn't hold up at all - Clarke was made aware of this problem a long time ago, and the problem intensified after he was made aware of it. Blair has to stop being allowed to get away with this argument - his party has been in power for nine years; it has had more than enough time to sort out problems within government, and it has manifestly failed.

I have been even more shocked by Blair's performance at PMQs today than I was yesterday when I learned that the man accused of the murder of a WPC in Bradford is one of those who should have been deported upon his release from prison for a criminal conviction. The only excuse for this seems to be that the man was a Somali national, and we do not return people to Somalia. What the hell is he doing in the country?

There are surely rules that any individual in society has to abide by for society to function properly. And if you do not have any intrinsic right, through nationality, to reside in Britain, then surely coming to this country to live implies a recognition of the laws that operate there? If you don't, then claiming any continued right to remain in the country must be blown out of the water. And failing to get rid of these criminals is a major stain on the government. Pretending anything otherwise is just a dereliction of duty.

If, as Charles Clarke has just admitted, there is a "systemic failure" in the Home Office, that has continued AND WORSENED beyond when he was made aware of it, then he quite simply has to resign. He is responsible for those actions, and his failure to act means that he has forfeited any public confidence in his ability to sort the scandal out. He has to go, now. Watching an attempt at a justification of this just makes me clench my hands in fists of rage. Satan's spell will continue to operate while the non-deportation of murderers and rapists is justified by the continuation of Charles Clarke in office.