Gary Lineker should be applauded for speaking out against the Tories

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We should learn from history and not continue a policy that will bring eternal shame to the UK (PA Wire)

Gary Lineker seems set to be punished for speaking out against the Tory party and expressing his concerns about the government’s attempted crackdown on small boats. He should be applauded for it.

However, he may not have used the most accurate simile. The government’s asylum plan is much closer in nature to the pitifully small immigrant quotas applied to those migrants who fled from Nazi Germany and sought to reach the safety of the UK during the Second World War.

The Kindertransport was but a small ray of hope in those dark times, and yet even then there were extremely small quotas for refugees.

Those who got through have almost without fail been of value to our UK society ever since. We should learn from history, and not continue a policy that will bring lasting shame to the UK.

John Evans

West Sussex

What a difference a week makes

After earning plaudits for a measured statesmanlike success with the new Windsor Framework for Northern Ireland, Rishi Sunak has sunk to new depths with his support for the new illegal immigration bill.

How on earth can a policy that breaks international law bring anything but further ridicule to our nation’s international reputation?

As The Independent has pointed out, this policy would seem to be an electoral ploy and gimmick, rather than a rational and humane (or legal) response to the worldwide issue of displaced human beings.

Graham Smith

Addressed Supplied

Back where we started

It was devastating to hear that Suella Braverman and the government have yet again renewed their efforts to stop those seeking to enter the country via France and the English Channel, and using the services of “people smugglers” in order to obtain sanctuary in Britain.

In the last few years, the Tory government has wasted huge amounts of money attempting to stop “illegal” immigration to no avail. They have reduced legal means of entering the country, which has given people smugglers an ideal opportunity to make vast fortunes with the lives of desperate people.

Do Braverman and the government have any practical, workable idea of how to stop these desperate people from attempting the dangerous channel crossing? No! All their attempts have failed due to the illegality of the legislation, yet they still continue to butt their heads on the same problem.

Again the government has been warned that this legislation has a high probability of failure. Additionally, their own MPs are in a quandary as to how to proceed, and the Lords will probably send it back to the Commons.

Where does that leave us all? Right back where we started several years ago. Like many other areas of their governance, the Tories have not thought through the consequences of their decision.

No doubt that this is no more than political posturing in lieu of any legal, workable, or compassionate method of ensuring a long-lasting resolution to this insidious problem.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Yet another failure

So, as well as contributing to the use of some of the most inflammatory language ever used by MPs in parliament, we are now told that Rishi Sunak’s new law on small boats may breach international law and, thus, will be yet another failure.

How many more gimmicks are we supposed to put up from this utterly discredited government?

We need a proper cross-border police unit, the fast-tracking of asylum seekers so that hotels are not paid at huge expense to the taxpayer, and we need to stop people from being exploited by cross-border gangs only interested in making money.

Geoffrey Brooking

Hampshire

Neither humane nor necessary

As I sail toward my 66th birthday and the prospect of my pension becomes a reality, I’m wondering whether I could “jump the gun” and persuade someone near Dover to slip me over the Channel to “la belle France”. I could slip down to the warmer south and present myself as escaping an oppressive and cruel regime where the older generation is brutally denied their pension rights until 66.

We already see how their own citizens are objecting to the French government raising the retirement age from 62 so clearly, I’d be in sympathetic company. Emmanuel Macron and his government appear to have little or no understanding of the issues we’re having with people leaving France to come here illegally, so I can’t imagine they’ll have any interest in sending me back. It looks like a win-win to me.

I get to retire and receive fulsome French state support, social and healthcare provisions, and the French get to demonstrate to Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman that our attempts to send illegal immigrants back are neither humane nor necessary.

Steve Mackinder

Denver