Thinking of England

Given the current situation in Zimbabwe - "the near collapse of the country's economic and political stability and increasing state-sponsored violence" - the reaction of the Ministry of Unfitness for Purpose should of course be fairly predictable; and of course the Ministry has come through splendidly. Having been prevented by the Appeal Court from forcibly availing Zimbabweans of Robert Mugabe's tender mercies, the Ministry has taken out "a series of adverts in the Zimbabwean expatriate press in Britain urging asylum seekers to return to their home country" and is sending letters to hundreds of people, thus ensuring that they are aware the Ministry knows where they live while telling them they "should consider" going back.

Coincidentally, the Ministry is also seeking to deport the nineteen-year-old who was at the centre of last year's revelations about the ways in which certain immigration service members were processing their material. The Conservative MP Richard Benyon contrived to miss the point spectacularly when he said that "the person who decided to send Tanya back does not understand the political situation in Zimbabwe", since the Ministry of Unfitness for Purpose is presumably concerned more with the political situation in Britain. You can say what you like about the political situation in Zimbabwe, but at least those who return there will not be returning to a country swamped with asylum seekers. Kate Hoey, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe, asks: "What message does this send to vulnerable women around the world, let alone in Zimbabwe, about attitudes to victims of sexual abuse in the UK?" Well, Make Love Not Trouble would seem to be the obvious one.