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I think history will be more nuanced in its judgment of Boris Johnson then your post implies, Michael. In terms of his record as Mayor, he cut the murder rate in London by around 50%, he left London a far richer city at the end of his term of office compared to how he found it in 2008, he built around 100 000 affordable homes (more than his predecessor, Ken Livingstone), he cut road deaths by around 40%. The only blemish is the waste of £43 million on the Garden Bridge, a beautiful but impractical idea. As far as his record as Prime Minister is concerned, he saved the country from a dangerous political paralysis when a Remainer Parliament tried to reverse the result of the Referendum, he  ensured that the British population was vaccinated against covid faster than our European neighbours and thereby saved many lives, he gave crucial support to Ukraine which enabled the Ukrainians to withstand the initial assault on Kiiv. On the minus side, however, he allowed the scientists to overcome his initial scepticism and ordered a disastrous general lockdown and he failed to curb the abuse by Downing Street staff of ambiguous lockdown rules in the workplace.How will history judge Keir Starmer? The removal of WFA, the imposition of higher employers' NI contribution, the imposition of inheritance tax on struggling farmers, the imposition of VAT on the parents of children with special needs at independent schools, the destruction of the British fishing industry in the reset with the EU, the surrender of the Chagos islands, the failure to curb illegal migration. It's not going too well, is it?

Steven Rose ● 39d

Perhaps Starmer should spend more time on this than cosying up to the unelected 'politicians' that run the EU."Man who helped smuggle more than 3,000 people into Europe jailed" - BBC News'An Egyptian fisherman who helped organise the movement of more than 3,000 migrants as part of a £12 million illegal boat crossing operation has been jailed for 25 years.UK-based Ahmed Ebid, 42, was involved in smuggling nearly 3,800 people from North Africa to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023, with some making their way to Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.Ebid is the first person in the UK to be convicted of being involved in people smuggling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Italy.He arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2022 after spending five years in jail in Italy for attempted drug smuggling. He applied for asylum in the UK but never received a decision.That meant he had been in legal limbo, neither facing removal nor being granted permission to stay. His sentence means he will almost certainly be deported once it has been served.Ebid, whose wife and sons are in the UK, had been living in Home Office-funded accommodation in south-west London at the time of his arrest'.Seems a nasty piece of work and the arrest shines a light on the boat loads of illegal immigrants or 'asylum seekers' as some call them that arrive daily.🎼🎶🎵 "Another one bites the dust".First of many I hope.I hope none of those on this Forum so sympathetic to mass immigration into the UK were not those letting out accommodation in West Putney !

John Hawkes ● 41d