Best Of

Stephen Timms - “There are no plans to review the (Motability) Scheme’s qualifying benefits.”

That really is a nonsense. A couple of years ago waiting for my car to be serviced at Sytner BMW in Cardiff (it was still under a gratis service package- I'm not mad) there was a big Motability sign in the showroom.

A Motability car should be restricted to a basic Corsa and none of your fancy metallic colours.

Wouldn't it be better to have it as a simple stipend, so that the recipient could choose between using it for Uber or towards a car payment?

A large car, or at least boot, is sometimes required to carry a wheelchair or scooter.

The father of another kid at school was in a wheelchair (this was the later 80s). He designed a system that allowed the wheelchair to be picked up and placed in a box on the car's roof.

Very rarely, I see someone using such a system, which I think was developed from his ideas. Quite inventive, although the potential failure modes always concern me.

This is while the user is not in the wheelchair, right?

Macron

This pilot framework will be decided once the legal issues are resolved and agreed in the EU

So not agreed yet

Hello ECHR

Oh god. He hasn’t actually got any agreement at all, yet?

He is so dismally wet

ECHR aside, the question is whether France has the right to sign this under EU law.

Any ECHR issues would surely affect both the UK and France.

So if I’m reading this right Starmer the Gang smasher has got a deal to

1. Send back about 5 people a day as 500 come over every day

2. Even as he sends them back we’ve got to take others who have a family link

3. So this will encourage more to try so they can establish a family link?

4. He hasn’t even got this terrible deal anyway, it’s just an agreement to maybe agree down the line maybe

Have I got that right?

The International Rescue Committee, the international aid charity run by former Labour cabinet minster David Miliband, has also condemned the plan. Flora Alexander, the IRC’s UK director, said:

This agreement marks yet another step in the wrong direction – doubling down on deterrence rather than offering meaningful protection. Prioritising tougher enforcement without creating safe, legal routes is both dangerous and ineffective. Evidence shows that these policies don’t stop people from seeking safety – they simply force them into more perilous journeys, putting lives at risk.

Proposals such as a ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme risk undermining the right to seek asylum, a core principle of international law. They ignore the root causes of why people cross borders in the first place – to escape conflict, persecution and crisis. Border security must not come at the expense of human rights or the UK’s moral and legal obligations.

It's clear that 'human rights' is really a ratchet to undermine state sovereignty.

Or the other way. Increasing 'nation-state' absolutism at the expense of international law and institutions is a ratchet to undermine human rights.

There's no human right to live in Britain, even if you have a speech impediment or high blood pressure.

The International Rescue Committee, the international aid charity run by former Labour cabinet minster David Miliband, has also condemned the plan. Flora Alexander, the IRC’s UK director, said:

This agreement marks yet another step in the wrong direction – doubling down on deterrence rather than offering meaningful protection. Prioritising tougher enforcement without creating safe, legal routes is both dangerous and ineffective. Evidence shows that these policies don’t stop people from seeking safety – they simply force them into more perilous journeys, putting lives at risk.

Proposals such as a ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme risk undermining the right to seek asylum, a core principle of international law. They ignore the root causes of why people cross borders in the first place – to escape conflict, persecution and crisis. Border security must not come at the expense of human rights or the UK’s moral and legal obligations.

It's clear that 'human rights' is really a ratchet to undermine state sovereignty.

Or the other way. Increasing 'nation-state' absolutism at the expense of international law and institutions is a ratchet to undermine human rights.