(no subject)

I saw an advert on the side of a bus today encouraging us to help stamp out tuberculosis. One of the reasons the disease is still an active concern here is that a lot of it has come into the UK over the past 20 years or so from asylum seekers from countries with high levels of TB. So we’ll incarcerate them like dangerous prisoners, we won’t let them work legally, we’ll generally strip their dignity, we’ll make it almost impossible for them ever to become official citizens unless they’re rich and can make substantial entry payments, and we’ll happily hunt down and deport people who’ve been living here peaceably for over a decade—but we won’t test them for TB when they first arrive because that might violate their human rights.

[Poll #954911]

No hope

Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope is a LibDem. Quite young for a peer, he has trundled across from the Commons already replete with all the values that make the majority of his party such terrible speakers. Here, he demonstrates the classic technique of constructing a long sentence without an apparent relevant operative verb, leaving sundry clauses strewn around the place like old pants in a bachelor’s bedroom. That sentence in full:

There are some inelegancies there

the benefit simplification team

the consideration of the David Freud report

going forward

once the Bill is put to bed and the regulations come through

if the Minister is willing to keep as open a mind at that stage

once this Bill is read a third time

we all look forward with confidence to getting these systems right

because this is a very important piece of legislation.