IT is one of the most iconic images in modern political campaigning — and it could soon be back to haunt Sir Keir Starmer.
Giant billboards showing a long dole queue snaking out of a Job Centre with the slogan “Labour isn’t working” captured the nation’s attention nearly half a century ago.
The writing’s on the billboard, PM
GettySir Keir Starmer has been in office for little more than a year and voters have concluded that politics is broken[/caption]
Back before Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, it was used to depict rising unemployment.
But today the line could illustrate a myriad of problems engulfing the government.
The endless stream of illegal migrants arriving on small boats, for instance.
“Petty” criminals waiting outside stores to begin organised shoplifting sprees.
The 6.2million patients on NHS waiting lists or the 1.3million families in England in the queue for social housing.
Mass migration’s strain on public services is clear for all to see.
But in the past few days, people have drawn a more alarming conclusion — that illegal migration and rising crime are linked.
This has created a toxic mix of anger, frustration and fear which triggered a series of demos.
Women say they no longer feel safe and there is a deepening sense of unease about the large numbers of undocumented young men being moved into local hotels.
France claims migrants crossing the Channel on small boats see Britain as an “El Dorado” — but it’s become Hell Dorado for many living here.
Growing suspicion
Convicts are freed early from overcrowded jails, 90 per cent of bike thefts go unsolved, and shoplifting is up 20 per cent in a year to a 20-year high.
Retailers say this is because police refuse to investigate theft of items worth less than £200.
That’s probably because they are too busy combing through our social media accounts looking for “hate crimes”.
All this, along with the whiff of cannabis on almost every street corner, has led many people to conclude that Britain has become lawless.
It is truly staggering that our Prime Minister — a former public prosecutor who prides himself on the rule of law — is presiding over this.
Discontent is being fuelled by the growing suspicion that we are importing crime.
Migrants staying in taxpayer-funded hotels have joined organised shoplifting gangs which have stolen thousands of pounds worth of designer clothes from top stores.
Fury came to a head after an Ethiopian asylum seeker staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
He has denied the offence.
Today, The Sun reveals that four in ten people charged over sex attacks in London in the past seven years are foreign nationals.
Ministry of Justice figures show Afghans and Eritreans — among the top nationalities arriving by boat — were at least 20 times more likely to account for sexual offence convictions than Brits.
Taxpayers footing the £5.7million-a-day bill for migrant hotels face a double whammy when lawyers use legal aid to block the deportation of foreign offenders.
It’s not just that Labour isn’t working. Nothing works and Labour isn’t listening
A Lebanese man accused of murdering his beauty queen wife, who entered Britain on a small boat, was jailed for nine months for attempting to arrive without valid documents last week.
But when he completes his sentence, he is unlikely to be deported as human rights laws forbid his return home where he could face execution.
The public’s sense of injustice is magnified when they stage a peaceful protest and hear MPs branding them hard-right agitators.
Or when they see cops escorting far-left counter demonstrators to the same migrant hotel.
Yet the Government’s response to the protests is to set up a police team to monitor social media for anti-migrant comments.
People are beginning to make a link between the undesirables coming into Britain unchecked and rising crime
Nigel Farage
What is different about these demos — and should be ringing alarm bells in Downing Street — is that they are being attended mostly by mums, who are genuinely worried about their own and their children’s safety.
This is the silent majority who have had enough and think it is time to speak out.
Nigel Farage has been quick to spot this simmering resentment and has launched a six-week campaign to highlight rising crime.
The Reform UK leader declared: “People are beginning to make a link between the undesirables coming into Britain unchecked and rising crime. There is also a mounting sense of anger that the establishment is always trying to stop us from having a reasonable debate.”
Politics is broken
He has promised to spend £17billion on new prisons built on military bases, hire 30,000 extra police and send murderers and paedophiles to serve their sentences in El Salvador.
Labour scoffs it is an uncosted plan drawn up on the back of one of Farage’s fag packets — but their hoots of derision won’t convince those mums protesting outside migrant hotels.
They’ve endured 14 years of Tory rule, and after less than 14 months of Labour have concluded that politics is broken.
GettyReform UK leader Nigel Farage now thinks women could win him the next election[/caption]
It’s not just that Labour isn’t working. Nothing works and Labour isn’t listening.
Farage now thinks women could win him the next election.
Most people joining his bandwagon in the past few days have been female.
It was 58 per cent men and 42 per cent women at the general election but now it’s a 50-50 split, he says.
The former human rights lawyer in No10 may not have his heart in tackling the migrant crisis
This is one reason why his party has topped the last 65 opinion polls.
The other is a breakdown in trust among voters. They have lost faith in the police.
And they feel betrayed by politicians who they perceive as closing down any debate on their concerns and putting the rights of illegal migrants ahead of hard-working Brits.
The social contract is in danger of breaking down as all they get in return for paying record taxes is platitudes and promises.
Successive governments vowed to “take back control”, “stop the boats” and “smash the gangs”.
The former human rights lawyer in No10 may not have his heart in tackling the migrant crisis.
But he knows if he doesn’t, the next line of people he sees will be those queuing up to vote him out of office.
THE nanny state is throwing its protective arm around even more aspects of our daily lives.
It now offers advice that goes far beyond the familiar “mind the gap”.
Walking through a London rail terminal the other day, I was dazzled by three video screens urging me and my fellow travellers to “remember to keep drinking water in the hot weather”.
A few steps further on another message cautioned: “Please watch your step. The floor may be wet”.
It was probably caused by panicking passengers rushing to rehydrate.
While another flashing sign advised those with heavy luggage to use the lifts instead of struggling up and down stairs.
Who’d have thought of that?
Well, I’ve got some advice for Network Rail. See it. Say it. Stop it.
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