More like this
2015 starts now: Tories get tough on scroungers and immigrants
Theresa May has infuriated the judges – but it's music to the ears of Tory election guru Lynton Crosby
THERESA MAY'S latest attack on judges – for making Britain's streets more dangerous by allowing foreign criminals to dodge deportation because they have the right to a family life - has produced the expected howls of indignation from the judiciary who accuse her of undermining the rule of law. But the headlines will have delighted David Cameron's election team.
On Thursday, Cameron is to hold a secret election planning summit at Chequers with Chancellor George Osborne, chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and his newly appointed Australian election guru Lynton Crosby, who has wants a crackdown on welfare scroungers and immigration to be at the heart of the Tory offer to voters in 2015.
Judging by May's intervention, Crosby is well on track with his strategy. May used an article in the Mail on Sunday to denounce judges for sticking religiously to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
May says the judges are ignoring new guidelines issued last July which made it clear that the right to a family life was only qualified. In a nutshell, she is complaining that some judges have "got it into their heads that Article 8 … is an absolute, unqualified right".
She accused them of subverting British democracy and vowed to bring in a new law to override the ECHR and make it clear that deportation should be the norm in all but the most "extraordinary circumstances".
The Home Secretary may have upset the judges, but she knows she has put her finger right on the G-spot for many Middle England voters who are sick of Daily Mail headlines saying foreign criminals cannot be deported.
May's attack brought an instant reaction from Baroness Helena Kennedy, the Labour-supporting lawyer and human rights campaigner, on the Marr Show yesterday.
Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, also weighed in against May, saying in The Times today that here remarks were damaging and "undermined the rule of law".
These howls of indignation will be music to Lynton Crosby's ears.
Only last week, David Cameron announced at Prime Minister's Questions that the government will look at "every single one of our systems" to ensure that people he called "benefits tourists" are not taking advantage.
Yesterday, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith promised to "shut the door" to migrants wanting to come to Britain to live on benefits – even those from other EU countries, such as Romania.
IDS's proposed measures might include requiring people to show they have put down roots here before claiming state help. Under the "habitual resident test", migrants could be required to show they had leased a home in this country for a year before being entitled to benefits.
Duncan Smith also revealed that Britain is doing battle with Brussels over the "completely crackers" rules that see £1 million a week in welfare payments sent to children who live abroad while their migrant parents work in this country.
Speaking on the Marr Show, Duncan Smith said: "My view of life is simple – we make sure our door is shut to those who want to come and claim benefits and is open to those who want to come and contribute and work and make this economy good and strong."
Meanwhile David Cameron is travelling to India where he will make it clear that there is no bar to Indian students wanting to study in Britain and that visas will be given freely to Indian investors wanting to invest in UK businesses. In short, you are welcome to come to Britain if you have the money.
All of which has rung alarm bells with some Tory supporters who don't want the Conservatives to fight the next election as the Nasty Party.
Peter Hoskin, associate editor of the Tory grassroots website ConservativeHome, yesterday warned the party to "resist falling back on lazy and pernicious rhetoric about 'shirkers' and 'scroungers'. Not only does this overlook the broader truth of the situation… it also denies the moral impetus behind Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms, which is to help the workless back into the labour market."
Hoskin concluded: "There is a more general concern, too. Mr Cameron recently told his MPs that the Tories' focus at the next election will be on aspiration and on 'raising the nation up'. This can certainly overlap with a tough line on welfare dependency; less obviously so with immigration. There's a risk that an essentially positive message will be muddied, perhaps even overwhelmed, by something more negative."
Ed Miliband could not have put it better himself. ·
Disqus - noscript
What in hell went wrong???? Benefits should be for those who live work and contribute to this country. It was designed to help those in times of need. Now we have government paying benefits to all and sundry because of EU law? Do we get benefits and free health care if we go to most European countries? Why should we foot the bill for free loaders? We have enough youngsters here doing that. How about reducing handouts to people who work? Tell the employers enough of employing people for cheap and only employing part timers so to avoid their social responsibilities to their employees. This is MADNESS!
Please don't fall for this cretin's tactics of appealing to the publics' basal instincts. The issue of benefit scroungers is really insignificant compared to the key issues facing the country. Please look at the statistics and stop worrying about it.
And telling those who have practiced, studied and defined for law for most of their lives how to execute the rule of the law is moronic. The law - and its dealings with Human Rights - is hugely, vastly complex and quite clearly incomprehensible to this wretched being and the bigots who support her.
Mr Joe Bigoted Public: "Me know how da law works! Me can tell vose dumb ass Judges how to do ver jobs. Lynch vem orrible evil scrounging criminals" Idiots!
Benefits should be for people who contribute to society, but the right wing Media fear machine mixes up everyone together to get a big scare number. If they measure all those who were born abroad you are including Prince Philip, several Victoria Cross Winners whether Rifleman Bharri from Iraq or at least a couple of Ghurkas from WW2.
If they quote children born to a foreign born mother. They are talking about Churchill.
As an EU citizen we can all go to any other EU country and get the same benefits as the locals, yes you can get subsidised healthcare, if you live there and work there you will get their equivalent of child Benefit and yes they will educate your children.
Teresa Mays scary we can not deport all the nasty foreigners are mostly about people who committed their crime years ago, were caught years ago, served their sentence and either are about to be or even have been let out and then we suddenly change the rules and say as well as your jail sentence we want to deport you. If the offence is significant enough, and you deal with deportation at the time of the original trial and sentencing it is relatively straightforward. Trying to change the rules in retrospect is harder. Doing it with an understaffed and incompetant Immigration service is even harder.
I'm with Dave - jobcentreplus is not fit for purpose and in my humble opinion discriminates against the indigenous British peoples thus inciting racism
And no SRoughley it is not insignificant it is destroying our once great nation !
If the state is no longer able to support scroungers who will sponsor MPs?
...you are SO right - deckhanddave - predictably, I fear, we have a knee-jerk reaction from the "thinking" and, probably, left-leaning judiciary.
sroughly, it seems, forgets that it is the Legislature (ie Parliament - our ELECTED representatives) who formulate the law - the Judiciary (the Judges) are responsible for delivering and, sometimes, interpreting and clarifying the law - they are NOT there to tell the Legislature what laws to draw up; in other words, the Judiciary must observe the spirit of the law as well as the letter of the law - no matter how much they might disagree with certain aspects of any particular law - that principle is a corner-stone of our precious democracy.