permanent status will have friends and fam-
ily appalled at their treatment: even if these
cases are the result of a clerical error, they
still shock. The computer-says-no mental-
ity, which lay behind the Windrush deba-
cle, is still hardwired into the Home Office.
The Prime Minister needs to issue firm new
instructions. If a European in the UK asks to
stay, the answer should be yes, unless there’s
a very good reason to say no.
The Prime Minister’s sister-in-law is
Amelia Gentleman, a Guardian journalist
who broke the story of the Windrush depor-
tations. She is now making inquiries of EU
nationals, and is unlikely to be short of mate-
rial. When the inevitable exposé comes, the
Prime Minister will say that he’s shocked
— which he will be — and blame a Home
Office system failure. But as Amber Rudd
found in her short spell as Home Secre-
tary, it’s hard to blame the system when you
run the system. Harder still for the Prime
Minister when he has made assurances to
EU nationals.
This takes us to a deeper conundrum.
Johnson has been consistently liberal and
pro-immigration: Brexit always has been,
to him, a way to better manage globalisa-
tion rather than torpedo it. As editor of this
magazine, he commissioned a leading arti-
cle suggesting an amnesty for illegal immi-
grants, under certain conditions. A radical
idea, but as Mayor of London he kept at it
and ordered a feasibility study. Only a few
weeks ago, he told MPs that he’s still attract-
ed to an amnesty. And for a simple reason:
he knows this is a question, fundamentally,
about people.
For example, Trevor Rene, born a Brit-
ish citizen in Dominica, shortly before
its independence. He moved here 15
years ago, served as an army reservist and
married a Brit. His commanding officer
wrote a letter asking the Home Office to
help get his paperwork right so he could
stay, but to no avail. Then there’s Dr Shashi
Awai, who arrived from Nepal 16 years ago
and overstayed her visa to work at East
Surrey Hospital. She ended up fighting
deportation lawyers, banned from helping
NHS patients as she did so. Sanjeev Pande
enrolled in Glasgow University in 2006 and
set up a successful computer consultancy.
But his papers were never in order, and he
faced deportation.
All along, the Prime Minister has argued
that such cases makes no sense: if people
have been in Britain for a certain number of
years, with no criminal record, why not let
them stay? He’s right, but the logic applies
more forcefully to the EU nationals who
came here legally and have lived, worked
The computer-says-no mentality
behind the Windrush debacle is still
hardwired into the Home Office
and paid taxes in Britain for most of their
lives. If they face a Home Office system that
is prepared to turn them away because of a
technicality, then warm words from No. 10
don’t count for much.
This is why the tone of Boris Johnson’s
government matters. The Windrush deba-
cle was the result not just of Home Office
officials demanding impossible amounts
of paperwork, but of a general theme of a
‘hostile environment’. If the Prime Min-
ister seeks to create a welcoming environ-
ment after Brexit, the Home Office needs
to be brought to heel. He once spoke about
building a bridge to France: an architectural
pipe-dream but it still conveyed the senti-
ment of a global Britain. It sent a message.
Talking about ending free movement early,
and about going after European criminals,
sends a different message.
Opinion polls show concern about
migration has dropped sharply since the ref-
erendum result: by some measures, Britain is
now the most welcoming country in Europe.
The issue was about control, not immigrant
numbers. We now see the chance for a new,more liberal consensus that Johnson is
ideally placed to create. Instead of putting
EU migrants on a £36,000 earnings thresh-
old (as has been suggested) how about low-
ering the figure for everyone? Or abolishing
the cap on high-skilled immigrants? This
would also help assuage fears about the
nature of Brexit and start to heal the wounds
created by the referendum.
As Foreign Secretary, Johnson sound-
ed several conciliatory notes. His party
needed to make clear, he said, that Brexit
‘is not some great V-sign from the cliffs of
Dover’. But in its first few weeks, we’ve seen
and heard plenty from his government that
looks very much like a great big V-sign. Not
the signal he intends, perhaps, but the signal
that many people — both British and Euro-
pean — are seeing.
We are barely two months into his gov-
ernment, so these are early days. But John-
son might have barely two months left: we
live in accelerated political times. The coun-
try and the world is wondering if his Brexit is
globalist and welcoming, or if he’ll gravitate
to the Tory comfort zone of talking tough
and hoping for votes. It would be depress-
ing if he ended up in Theresa’s May’s trap:
being so consumed with the Brexit talks that
he forgets to explain what this is all for, what
kind of country might come after.
One of the Churchill quotes he uses
is that Tories should be ‘conservative in
principle but liberal in sympathy’. A fine
post-Brexit motto. It’s not too late for him
to apply it.Old Man Elevenses
‘It pleases me to converse with young women
over a flat white, for elevenses!
The talk is of time, her research, her poetry,languages and certain shared places
dotted around the Mediterranean basin.
The morning lurches and glitters,and the waitress sweeps by, her form
an unbroken arabesque
her tight back pocket trailing a tea towel.And all the while, as the new watchfulness
raised its head and grew attentive
her delicate hands lay round her cup on the table.I accompany her demurely up Observation Row,
bow stiffly, as Rilke might have bowed to the Muse,
Ewiger Abschied! a nd walk demurely dow n again.’— Stephen Romer