Another One Bites The Dust

Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Hodge, has entered the debate over the European Convention on Human Rights, suggesting its terms may need to be “reconsidered” to address challenges posed by migration.

He said “There is an emerging consensus within Europe that people should go back to the Council of Europe and say, look, we need to tweak the terms of the deal.”

Lord Hodge has joined Lord Sumption in criticising the ECHR as written, but Lord Sumption goes further, advocating for UK withdrawal entirely.

This is further evidence of Reform UK and other right wing movements around Europe
shifting the Overton window back towards common sense.

If the UK were to leave the ECHR we would join other democracies like Canada, The USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia who are all fully fledged democracies with robust democratic institutions. None are in the ECHR!

However the UK’s Asylum woes do not end with the ECHR. The system has been overwhelmed by mismanagement.

The emphasis on fast decision making at the front end is coming at the cost of accuracy and quality. This means that the Home Office is merely shifting asylum cases into a second backlog, the one in the tribunal system.

Asylum decisions made without interviews are being challenged in the courts. Leaving the ECHR alone will not fix this issue. We also need root and branch reform of the Asylum system and our international treaties.

Around 75% of Asylum Seekers are recognised as refugees and become permanent members of our society. Of the remaining 25% few are even removed from the UK. The longer they stay in the UK awaiting a court hearing, the harder it becomes to remove them.

This is really expensive because Asylum Seekers are not allowed to work, and so have to be supported by the government whilst awaiting a decision. After the decision has been made they often remain a cost to the tax payer becoming a burden on local councils instead of central government. Even if they do find work it’s usually low skilled labour that adds little to the economy. They often send remittances back to their home countries and they frequently holiday there, which belies the idea that they’re fleeing persecution in their homeland.

However the question I am asking today is why are we in this situation? Why do our politicians and courts assume that we are responsible for housing the third world? How did we get here?

It goes back to a colonial mindset that has infected the thought process of the establishment in Britain. 70 years ago when the ECHR came into being, global GDP was largely centred around North America and Europe. Asia was as poor then as Africa is today.

Today we face a very different reality. China’s GDP is larger than Germany’s. Japanese GDP is larger than the UK. Indian GDP is larger than France. The wealth of Saudi Arabia is much larger than Italy’s. The South Koreans are richer than the Spanish. Today, Europe is less than 25% of global GDP. It was 50% 100 years ago.

The elites of this country have convinced themselves that we’re still responsible for the third world. Either because they feel we’re responsible for third world poverty. Or because they think we have a moral duty as a wealthy nation.

Neither assumption is true. We are no longer a wealthy country. We haven’t been for a long time. Per person we are not the 5th, or 6th richest country in the world. We are the 27th. Furthermore our public debt is 100% of GDP, so the exchequer is even less wealthy than the people.

Secondly, British colonialism is not responsible for third world poverty. There are many hitherto poor countries and regions who have surged past the UK in wealth terms in the last 70 years, simply by following the British model of free markets, property ownership and respect for the rule of law. Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore were all economic back waters before embracing free market capitalism. Taiwan’s break with mainland Chinese communism has unleashed the economic dynamism of its people. The formula for economic success is obvious and available to any country which chooses to embrace it.

It’s time for our leaders to wake up and smell the sushi. Asia is a wealthy continent that is capable of looking after itself. We’re not exclusively wealthy in the modern world, in fact we’re not wealthy at all. Therefore we’re not responsible for housing the third world. We simply can’t afford it and frankly our own people come first.

We’re facing the worst housing crisis for 70 years and instead of housing our own people we keep inviting millions into the country. Where is the morality in exporting our industry to Asia and then inviting their homeless to be housed here at the expense of our people who have lost good jobs to globalisation?

Housing costs and energy costs are the largest reasons for the cost of living squeeze in recent years. Lowering the cost of living needs to be the number one policy for the next government. That starts with reducing demand from abroad.

It is for these reasons that I have absolutely no hesitation in advocating for withdrawal from the ECHR, refugee or Asylum conventions. They were designed for different circumstances in a different era. Our new economic reality means our responsibilities are now much more limited. It’s time for us to put our own people first.