Priti Stupid

This explains an awful lot.

It was not just that Priti Patel did not find herself convinced by the argument against capital punishment that it might result in the execution of an innocent person. 

There are very longstanding answers to that one, and even those of us who do not accept them acknowledge that they are intellectually respectable.

No, Patel showed every sign of never having heard of the problem. When confronted with it, then it was too complicated for her. She simply could not understand it.

It had never even occurred to her independently when considering the subject of the death penalty. That can only be the mark of an exceptionally stupid person. 

For thousands of years, "What if there were to be a mistake?" has been the first question to have occurred to everyone who has given thought to this matter. Everyone, apparently, apart from Priti Patel.

Nine years later, and Patel is the Home Secretary who is considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Morocco, Moldova, Papua New Guinea, abandoned passenger ferries, and offshore oil rigs.

If, that is, the boats carrying them had somehow managed not to be repelled by her giant wave machine.

Do you demand better than the "choice" between this and the revival of New Labour, which these ideas would not have disgraced? If so, then please give generously.