Who needs low expectations when we now have a home secretary so low-calibre, it could almost make you nostalgic for Priti Patel
A rival emerges to Priti Patel’s personalised “HOME SECRETARY” flak jacket, now believed to form part of the memorabilia collection of a future chain of anti-immigration-themed family restaurants that will quickly become Britain’s only post-Brexit growth sector. (They will, ironically, be staffed by immigrants.) This rival is Suella Braverman’s Chinook, the military helicopter that the current home secretary used to fly the distance of precisely 19 miles between Dover and Manston yesterday, as she sought to aggressively cosplay a complex problem into simply going away. Will it work? More on the obvious precedents shortly.
Some of those following this Kent visit will also have noted a starring role for the phrase “on the ground”. “She’s on the ground,” explained the prime minister’s spokeswoman of Braverman, “visiting Western Jet Foil and Manston.” A No 10 spokesperson echoed this: “The home secretary was in Dover to receive an update on operations on the ground.” The official government readout of the visit explained that Braverman had been Braverman-ing “with Border Force officers, military and other personnel on the ground”.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
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