The BBC’s tracking-down of Kardo Ranya as a people-smuggling mastermind is a triumph of investigative journalism. But anyone who thinks this will seriously help ‘smash the gangs’ is deluded. As the drugs trade illustrates, where there is demand there will be supply.
What’s to be done? Imagine you were the party leader of a mainstream British political party. Daydreaming, you see a vision – pouffe! A bang and a flash, and there stands the Fairy Queen herself. ‘What, oh party leader,’ she demands, ‘is your heart’s desire?’
Your reply is unhesitating but – you suppose – hopeless. ‘A winning strategy for the next general election,’ you wail. ‘I ask only for that. Tell me, Enchantress, is there one simple policy that could secure for our party the millions of crosses on the ballot paper that would put me in Downing Street? Speak, oh paranormal one!’
Kemi Badenoch should go in hard on the Rwanda project. It’s already Conservative policy
‘Well now,’ she replies, beginning to sound more like a political analyst than a fairy queen, ‘today’s your lucky day, though you might not think so after the drubbing you got from Reform last Thursday. I get this request all the time from party leaders, and it’s not often I can help. But in your country, and just at this point in history, there happens to be something a government could do that would be easy, wildly popular – and cheap. And its success would be almost immediate. Ten to 12 weeks I reckon.’
