Thursday, November 14, 2024

The prime minister has announced the arrest of a man "suspected of being a significant supplier of small boat equipment" as part of his attempt to "smash the gangs" that run the cross-Channel trade in people. 

I fear he is in danger of overclaiming when he says: "Our approach to smashing criminal gangs is already having an impact."

Today's arrest only makes clearer that the problem is not the supply of dinghies but the demand for crossings. Keir Starmer can no more smash the gangs than Rishi Sunak could stop the boats without a policy to reduce demand from desperate people to cross the Channel.

And as the Conservative government found out, an effective deterrent is extremely difficult. 

Written by John Rentoul

Which three current cabinet ministers served in Gordon Brown's cabinet?

Answer at the bottom of today's email

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A look back at the week in Westminster

A four-day week? Whoever thought of such an idea

"We're not living in the 1970s," said Emma Reynolds, the pensions minister, this morning, when asked why the government refuses to let civil servants try a four-day week (see news report above). 

She speaks as a member of the House of Commons, which has been sitting for four-day weeks since the election (apart from two Fridays in July). 

Of course, parliament is not normal employment, and recesses and non-sitting days are not "holidays". 

In The Independent's view – we had an editorial on the subject last week – the public sector should not get too far ahead of the private sector on something that might look like a cushy number at the taxpayer's expense. 

If, as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) suggests, a four-day week is more productive, then the public sector can adopt it when it becomes the norm in the private sector. 

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"I am always hearing about the middle classes. What is it they really want? Can you put it down on a sheet of notepaper, and then I will see whether we can give it to them?"

Harold Macmillan, days after becoming prime minister in 1957 (thanks to James Heale)

Quiz answer: Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband

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