Criminal and Inhumane

Patriots and other practitioners of British tolerance will rejoice at the news from the Mediterranean, where it appears that several dozen more jobs have been saved for British workers. In a commendable spirit of thrift, the Italian government has forbidden rescue ships to aid more than one refugee boat at a time before requesting a port, and the prime minister was quick to blame human traffickers rather than anyone who might have (to take a random example) blown up a country or two and then left the ruins to be picked over by religious maniacs. The reason anyone deigned to notice this particular incident seems to be that the invasion craft hit some rocks, whereupon the sea took much the same approach to waste disposal as British water companies and allowed a number of the bodies to wash up on a tourist beach. Economically and scientifically the Continent may still be cut off from the mainland; but the moral rapport looks as healthy as ever.