Immigration legislation has been getting more and more extreme, crazier and crazier for about 10 years now. And it has received ZERO public attention. Hopefully the Windrush scandal will mark a change. 1/
Ever since John Reid had to resign there has been bad legislation every 18-24 months, without waiting to see what effect the last bad legislation will have. The 2007 Act, the “Rules based system”, the 2012 Rules, the 2014 Act, the 2016 Act - and we are promised MORE post-EU 2/
All of this legislation has been aimed at convincing the public the immigration system is tough. The problem is - it always has been tough. Tough and frequently cruel. 3/
But public perception, fed by the frothing Mail, Express etc, is the opposite. Attacks on the human rights act, complaints about criminals not being deported, all reported daily with zero context 4/
The government - and Theresa May especially - has been trying to fight a perceived problem with real legislation for years. Legislation that has destroyed thousands of lives, but made zero impact on public perception. 5/
They might as well be trying to fight fear of zombies with this legislation. But it affects real people. Real families have been divided or destroyed. British kids are growing up without removed fathers or mothers. 6/
There has been no debate about how cruel this country’s immigration system has become in the past decade. I doubt the public in general has a clue. 7/
So if the Windrush scandal makes people look at what is being done in their name every day, that at least will be no bad thing. Because it is not an aberration. It is a feature of this system, not a bug. /Ends
