Time to be tough to solve migrant crisis, says NICK FERRARI

If you recall, Dover District Council had warned householders to keep their doors locked during the day as well as the night, following reports of illegal migrants breaking into steal cash, phones and even cars to make their “getaway”.At the centre of this mess – and not for the first time – is incompetence of mindboggling proportions that can be tracked all the way back to the Home Office.Home Secretary Suella Braverman is not to be envied as she tries to wrestle with a government department that increasingly resembles those scenes from the Benny Hill show, where he used to go round and round in circles getting precisely nowhere.Other “hits” from this disastrous outfit include the shameful Windrush scandal and the briefing of a previous Home Secretary with such dud information that she was forced to quit.Little wonder then that we have a daily hotel bill of £6.8million to house these arrivals, a processing centre in Kent bursting with three times the number it was designed to accommodate, a girl hurling a message in a bottle pleading for help over the barbed wire fence of the camp, RNLI crews being turfed out of training sessions in hotels to make way for some migrants and a group of these unfortunate folk being dumped in the middle of the night at Victoria station. Our history of respect and welcome to those in need of starting a new life is being openly abused (Image: GETTY)Yet when Braverman said the crisis was “out of control” with a system that is “broken” and we need to stop pretending “everyone making the crossing over the Channel is a genuine refugee or asylum seeker” it attracted undiluted fury from the Labour benches. That showed just how out of touch the Opposition is on this.Bizarrely, this could be the issue that could breath some life into the Tories’ depleted and sagging sails.Let’s be candid about this crossing crisis. Our history of respect and welcome to those in need of starting a new life is being openly abused. We are watching criminal gangs make vast profits out of preying on people’s desire to make a better life.In some cases we are using Royal Navy and Border Force vessels to ferry young men into the country where they are immediately recruited into criminal gangs.The Government in various guises has tried unsuccessfully for the past 12 years to put right the policies of Tony Blair which threw the doors of this country wide open. Ludicrous ideas such as taking immigrants to Rwanda have been tried and failed. Concerns continue over living conditions at Manston Detention Centre (Image: Getty)So here’s my simple, three point plan. One: as there is no legal route to seek asylum into this country from many parts of the world, we need to rapidly put a system together.An Australian seeking to live and work here can apply to our consulate in Canberra. They then know precisely where they stand with getting into the UK. We need to open centres in the countries with the highest numbers of people trying to get here. If it can work in Canberra, then it can work in Kabul too.Two: we need to be tougher and move quicker. Some 80 per cent of applicants are allowed in, but it can take more than two years for a decision. In France 28 per cent of applications are successful and it takes six months. In Italy it’s just under 50 per cent in an average of nine months.Three: for the thousands already in transit, we seek permission of the French to put a processing centre in place in Calais. Much as our Border Force checks people coming to Dover on the ferries at a centre at Calais docks, we do the same at another site elsewhere. Anyone trying to get to the UK would be processed there and if unsuccessful, their photographs and fingerprints would be held on a database, in case they attempted the crossing having been denied entry. In addition, anyone picked up in dinghys in the Channel would be returned to that new centre.Far from being inhumane, this plan would seek to ensure people stop putting their lives at risk on the increasingly colder high seas. Safe, official routes would be established and the angry army of human rights lawyers aided by out-of-touch politicians would be silenced.NHS wants another £7billionAlthough this feels like attacking a member of your own family, we do need to talk about the NHS. The bosses are asking for an extra £7billion – yes, SEVEN BILLION – due to rising costs and the impact of inflation.Acknowledging it is the sacred cow of politics and worshipped almost as if it were a religion by many, with a £50billion black hole in the nation’s finances, now is the time to ensure there is full accountability for the vast sums of cash that go its way.In the last four years alone, an extra £137billion has been sent to the NHS by former prime ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson.That takes the total annual budget to £192billion, or approaching £4billion A WEEK.Like most of you reading this, I’ve seen the NHS in action and it is awesome.The staff are almost universally dedicated and long suffering, and it is often due to their skills and medical advances that many of us are now living far longer.Yet stories of war veterans spending 24 hours on a trolley in A&E reveal a crucial part of it is not working.And to those who say it is the envy of the world, answer me this: how come no other country on the planet has set up a similar service?Defending his insane decision to go into the jungle, disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock concedes: “Some may think I’ve lost my marbles.”Hang on chum, there’s a fair chunk of folk back here in Blighty who doubt you had that many in the first place.The fact he is to pick up a reported £400,000 for the show is a kick in the teeth to the nurses employed by the NHS he used to run and who would need to work for around 14 years to earn that amount.He also needs to understand, politicians aren’t celebrities in the first place.They’re paid a lot of money to act on behalf of their constituents – which he palpably won’t be able to do while chewing on kangaroo’s testicles 10,500 miles away.A shocking move by a derided politician that shows we are nearing the end of this “Hancock’s Half Hour”.While he was campaigning to win the Conservative leadership in the summer, Rishi Sunak pledged a “comprehensive ban” on death trap motorways (also known as “smart motorways”) and agreed they were “unsafe”.Now, the Department of Transport has said while the roll out of any new ones would be paused, they are continuing with gathering data to review existing ones.This is a wrong and dangerous U-turn. Scrap them NOW.