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Been thinking about why the right has kicked up such a fuss about asylum-seekers at this moment. Seen people saying it’s a way for the government to distract from its handling of coronavirus. I think that’s mistaken - the Channel ‘crisis’ is probably the last thing they want.
Patel etc are obviously using it as an opportunity to look tough, but it's a big risk... if they don't make the issue disappear then they will look like they're not in control of the situation.
The noise has mostly come from parts of the right outside the government - notably, from Farage. It's easy to think 'well of course he would be having a go at asylum-seekers' but it's worth thinking about why it's being deployed now.
British anti-immigration discourse constantly switches between three themes: "too many people"; "the wrong kind of people"; and "illegal people". The right often dwells on one when it becomes a useful way to apply pressure to the government at a particular moment.
Obviously, the current row fits the third of these themes: asylum panics are not only about borders, but about people allegedly getting access to state support they don't deserve. This makes it a particularly powerful (and needless to say damaging) theme right now.
There's a fight on to reshape the state, post-Brexit, which has been given an extra edge by the economic shock caused by the pandemic. It's no accident, I think, that Farage has been the loudest recent voice on asylum-seekers.
For the right it's a useful wedge issue, which pushes the government on a series of points at once. I think this statement sums it up. It's about the EU, "queue jumpers", "Australian-style" borders, attacking human rights etc all in one go. https://twitter.com/AthertonNWales/status/1295655113495924736
The bigger problem is that the government is happy to oblige. This is a threat to migrants' rights rn but the attack on the 'lefty human rights establishment' can be deployed elsewhere. How many people in the next few years will have cause to demand justice from the state...?
