Ascension Island isn’t the answer to migration – ID cards might be

The desire to solve the ‘small boats’ issue represents a rare consensus, writes Sean O’Grady. The problem is how to do it, and what credible alternative plans do Labour have? The answer may already have been suggested years ago...

Nations with open border policies, such as the Schengen group in the EU, have required identity cards now for years (Getty)

About a year from now there may well be a new government faced with a series of intractable problems – stagflation, the continuing damage caused by Brexit, and the strategic challenges posed by Russia and China. However, there is no issue more emotive and more apparently insoluble than migration, and in particular, the flow of desperate people making the dangerous journey in small boats across the English Channel. Today, more may arrive.

They are risking their lives; there have been tragedies; and there will no doubt be worse tragedies to come. The fact that the government are having to resort to more and more bizarre schemes – the ridiculous overcrowded barge off the coast of Dorset, and a new scheme to send people to the virtually uninhabited volcanic islet of Ascension, 1,000 miles from land – merely demonstrates the paucity of realistic, legally sound, practical options.

One of the few things that all involved do agree on is that the UK should try to “stop the boats”. It’s an ugly slogan, for sure, and so are the attitudes of some on the right, and the dehumanising talk of “illegals” and “invaders”; but it’s actually something that represents a rare consensus.