Politics has been beyond surreal for quite some time now, but rarely has it felt more dystopian. Has there ever been a spectacle quite so grotesque as two people, fighting to be the next prime minister, seeking to outbid one another by announcing ever more extreme policies that a clear majority of the country find repulsive?
The current terrain in the ongoing battle is a contest to see who can be the most cruel to asylum seekers. Or rather, not actually be the most cruel, but simply say the most cruel things. Liz Truss boasts that she will deport “more” asylum seekers to Rwanda. This is despite the policy not merely having failed for every other country that’s tried it, but having been found to be illegal in almost every case – not to mention that the Rwandan government itself, having taken the £120m payment up front, has announced that the maximum number of people it can take is 200.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to do “whatever it takes” to get the Rwanda policy “off the ground”. He won’t, and he can’t. He just knows that he has to say that he will, to appease the 160,000 Tory members who will decide the outcome of the contest.
