Extreme language and politics make a fatal combination

How long will Suella Braverman be the UK Home Secretary? Not long I predict. The last time she was in the job she lasted just a few weeks. This time around, given a second chance by new prime minister Rishi Sunak, she might survive in her post a little longer but she's hardly going about it the right way. Talking of an "invasion" of illegal immigrants will no doubt be greeted with cheers and nodding of heads by the extreme right in the country who hate all immigration from wherever it comes. That's why they voted for Brexit because they were promised that once free of the EU shackles the UK government could stop everyone coming to Britain via little boats and other unsafe forms of English Channel crossings. But of course that hasn't been the case. Successive home secretaries have failed to stop the boatloads arriving, sometimes as many as 1,000 people a day. Which is why Braverman, currently fighting for her political reputation, has leapt into the fray with inflammatory language to underline the problem she says she is facing as the minister in charge overall of stemming the daily boatloads of immigrants. Enoch Powell, a feared right wing name from the past, warned in a notorious speech in 1968 that Britain would be flooded with immigrants and the nation would be hit by "rivers of blood" violence. Now Braverman has adopted similar histrionic rhetoric to warn the country of what is going on in the English Channel each day. There is no doubt that the boatloads of immigrants seeking a better life in the UK are a challenge for the government. But I fear that under Braverman as Home Secretary it's not going to be solved by sensible, humane policies. Sending them all off to Rwanda is grossly inhumane and stupid. Somehow Braverman and her sidekick immigration minister Robert Jenrick have to find ways of joining with the French to get some order into this catastrophic crisis. But cooperation and sensible policies won't come easy if the person responsible in the UK regards immigrants as invaders, although the right wing in the Conservative party will no doubt love such language and if Sunak decides to sack her they will kick up a mighty row. Good luck Rishi.