Snippets and gleanings - unintended consequences

The biter bit
Ireland plans to return asylum seekers to the UK under new emergency laws, in an effort to stem arrivals through Northern Ireland. The taoiseach, Simon Harris, wants the proposals brought to cabinet next week amid concern that Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan is rerouting asylum seekers from the UK. So, along with every other indignity heaped upon us by fourteen years of Tory misrule our EU neighbours now think of us as a third world country on which to offload their unwanted migrants. Sunak is clearly missing a trick here; the inexorable logic is that he should emulate his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, and charge a million quid a head for taking them off their hands.

Hell hath no fury
On becoming leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland on the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf described the defection to Alba of his defeated rival candidate, Ash Regan, as "no great loss". He could little have imagined then that only a year later she would be holding the casting vote in confidence motions deciding his future. Yet, in politics, truth is regularly stranger than fiction and that is precisely what seems set to happen. He might perhaps have heeded the words of American playwright, Wilson Mizner, who said “be kind to everyone on the way up; you’ll meet the same people on the way down.“ 

Desperate Dan
And on the subject of defection, the shock departure of Dr Dan Poulter MP from the Tory benches to Labour has rocked the already jittery Tory Parliamentary Party. Such defections, known in Parliamentary parlance as 'crossing the floor' are relatively rare, most disaffected MPs choosing to resign outright, triggering a by-election, or sit as Independents. Dr Poulter, still in medical practice as a hospital doctor, feels unable any longer to "look his patients in the eye" over the state of the NHS under Tory stewardship. Admittedly, he has taken fourteen years to reach his conclusion, but better late than never I suppose.

The Pompey pretender
The good Dr Poulter's exit from the party he describes as having become "a nationalist party of the right” is encouraging rightwing Tory MPs to clamour for a leadership contest (when do they ever not?). Already restive to get rid of Rishi Sunak, they are believed to be trying to trigger a coup ahead of a rumoured July snap general election. The spotlight has once again turned on the MP for Portsmouth North and Leader of the Commons, the redoubtable Penny Mordaunt. She has dismissed such claims as "codswallop" but then she would, wouldn't she? It seems the image of Ms Mordaunt wielding the mighty Sword of State at King Charles' coronation has caused her desperate colleagues (mostly male) to come over all unnecessary.

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