Newspaper Column – The Cornishman – 21/08/25

• It’s easy to mock hapless Rupert Lowe MP for demanding that Cornish charity rowers be apprehended as illegal migrants, but it’s an inevitable consequence for far-right politicians like him and their many media promoters, who seize opportunities to bang on about small boat migration in everything they see. 

Though stories, and yet more new government initiatives to deal with the ‘threat’ and its determination to ‘smash the gangs’ endlessly dominate news headlines (if I may dare to mention it) it needs to be placed in perspective.  

I don’t diminish the risk to life, nor wish to play down the criminality of people smugglers who profit from the trade, but there was no ‘small boat’ problem before Brexit. Indeed, those who campaigned for Brexit failed to explain their policy has made the migration situation ‘worse’ (we’re no longer able to return asylum seekers under the EU ‘Dublin Regulation’). Though the last Tory government promised to ‘Stop the Boats’, it was in fact their policies which started them!  

Fewer than 5% of all migration to the UK arrive by these ‘small boats’. Those who try to divert attention from mainstream issues to stoke fear about this would prefer you not to know that three quarters of these undocumented migrants have their asylum/refugee claim upheld. They have no choice than to arrive here ‘illegally’ because most of the legal routes have been cut-off.  

Those who protest outside hotels accommodating Asylum seekers should protest outside government buildings containing the people responsible for the policies. Rather than costing more than £5bn to manage this system, we should allow those waiting for their claims to be determined to work and pay taxes and pay for their own accommodation. 

Many of those who protest that asylum hotels accommodate potential sex offenders, are strong supporters of the sex offender who runs the US. Those who spend most of their time in this cesspit of dog-whistle politics seem unaware of the irony overload.  

 

• Oil and Plastics lobbyists have succeeded in halting (or at least postponing) our best hope to combat microplastics pollution.
  Talks at the UN in Geneva broke down (15.8.25) without agreement.
  Micro-plastic pollution is the most worrying of all forms of pollution. Unseen to human eye, it’s in the air we breathe and the water we drink. It pollutes every aspect of our lives, from embryo throughout life; found everywhere, from Everest to the ocean depths.
  Major Oil producing countries (Saudi Arabia, Russia) and lobbyists succeeded in scuppering the bid. And many nations became distracted by lobbyists who created a false dispute between curbing production and better management of waste, when both are essential.
  We should still continue to do all we can in our own lives to reduce use of and risk of making things worse, and I’ll urge government to do more within its powers. But a binding international agreement is essential.