There’s a now-famous Spiderman comic strip which became a very popular meme about three or four years ago. It features a villain called Sauron, an explorer who was bitten by something or other which somehow turned him into a pterodactyl, and who has now found a way to alter DNA. The iconic panel has Spiderman telling him that he could use his knowledge to cure cancer. To which he replies: ‘But I Don’t Want To Cure Cancer. I Want To Turn People Into Dinosaurs.’
I often think of this when I read about various politicians expressing anxiety about the crisis of liberal democracy, with all those danger signs warning of trouble ahead: sharply declining trust in institutions, increasingly aggressive street protests and radicalisation, widespread fears of political violence. All of these are related in some way to the issue of uncontrolled immigration, as well as falling standards of living, but illegal migration in particular causes huge reputational damage to the system. ‘The boats’ are the Spanish ulcer of status quo politics.
As of the end of September, the metre is running at 211,806 illegal arrivals since 2018, 83,000 since the last election, larger than the size of the entire British armed forces. Only 4 per cent have been removed, most of those Albanians.
A total of 781 migrants crossed the English Channel on September 24, the highest this year. Based on estimated lifetime costs, that day alone will drain British taxpayers of £273 million, with each asylum grant costing up to £400,000. The total cost of illegal migration is enormous, and a rational centrist politician who wanted to save their worldview and fight off the allure of nativism would act in a way totally different to their current behaviour.
But I don’t want to save liberal democracy. I want to have infinite immigration.
