Suella Braverman has made another speech. The video is one that is her best/worst bits. Let me address many of her issues one by one.
Her claim to stop the boats. This is an issue that has come into place under the Conservatives. A decision not to stop them was made in 2021.France urged our government to open a safe and legal route for asylum seekers, they were willing to allow claims to be processed by applicants in France. We refused. If we had a decent system of processing applications for those in safe third nations, like we had for those refugees from Ukraine, we would not be housing loads in hotels (and other places). This issue has been weaponised and people have a view that we are housing refugees at the expense of housing the homeless. I do not see why this should be an either or issue. If we can house refugees (and we should) we can house the homeless (and we should). Processing applications quickly for those here will help, but it would be better to process them quicker for those abroad.
She then moves onto the European Convention on Human Rights. My view on this is simple. Do we deserve the same or less rights than those living in the EU? If we take a holiday in Spain or France, should we have more rights there which we lose when we return home?
Next is the allegation about racism. Yes, the Conservatives have had the first leader of a major UK political party and Prime Minister of colour. In addition to this, they have the most ethnically representative But look at how they categorise asylum seekers. I would argue that Islamophobia is more of an issue with them than racism. Sadiq Khan has faced the brunt of this, both in the current campaign and in past ones.
Yes, Labour cares about the planet. Many Conservatives do as well. It was a headline grabber to bring up grooming gangs, considering the lies she told about them before. She then claims that PREVENT, a strategy to prevent radicalisation, should focus on extremist Muslims, again ignoring the facts on this that the Far Right is a huge threat.
She claims that politically correct critics of the Conservatives have privilege. That is an interesting take on things considering how the Conservatives are funded!
She brings up how patriotism is embarrassing to many on the left. Sadly, for many it is and the right and the media that back them focus on that, not on the many on the left (including myself) who are proud of our great nation. She is also correct about how Starmer is viewed. Personally, I would sell the boring side of him, the man who gets the job done. Sadly, he has allowed the Conservatives to say that he has flipped on many promises, and as those who follow my blog know, I do not like the way he threw Sadiq Khan under the ULEZ bus.
If the Conservatives do let Farage back into the party, he will help to retain the Red Wall seats that Labour need to win back.
This speech shows that Labour needs to do more to fight the battles it can win, and move the battle to ground it can win on with other issues. I do not think that Labour will have as eye catching a speech as hers next week.