The Spectator's notes | 10 September 2015

Presumably Britain has some sort of policy on immigration, asylum and refugees, but instead of struggling to understand it, you can save time by following its media presentation, since that is what seems to concern the government most. Essentially, the line is that Labour lets them all in and the Tories don’t and won’t (‘No ifs, no buts’). When, as at the last election, it turns out that net immigration has been rising under David Cameron, he apologises shyly and sounds tough again. He was sounding very tough until last week, when the photograph of the dead boy on the Turkish beach suddenly turned him all soft. This Monday, his tone was compassionate and he said he would let more refugees in, but tried to cheer up his party’s hard men by announcing in the same statement that he had ordered the death last month of a couple of British jihadis in Syria. It was put about by government sources (though not stated by Mr Cameron in Parliament) that the jihadis had been trying to kill the Queen. Presumably it was not a coincidence that this briefing took place two days before Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in our history, so patriotic feeling could be played on. We have no idea what, if anything, the dead men actually did to plan regicide. Meanwhile, it still seems to be weirdly hard for Afghan interpreters, who really have risked their lives for British forces, to be let into this country. These almost daily tergiversations are quite shaming.

In Islam, the concept of the ‘ummah’ is important. It describes a supranational community of the faithful. Extremists often attempt to mobilise it against national regimes which they dislike. Why, when issues of migration arise, do Muslim leaders not call more loudly for the ummah to help Muslim refugees? It is usually Muslim lands which they flee.