Another week, another barmy ruling that allows a total scumbag to stay in the UK despite being a foreign national and breaking the law. This time it was a county lines drug dealer – you know, the people who spread misery across the country – who avoided deportation after a judge ruled he does not “currently” pose an “actual risk to public security”.
You what? Drugs gang ringleader Stephen Gomes was sentenced to eight and a half years for supplying “a large quantity of class A drugs to the Portsmouth area” in 2020. He was released months ago after serving half his term behind bars. Yet the 30-year-old from Cape Verde still managed to convince a judge his Portuguese father meant he should be allowed to stay in the UK.
Well, as ridiculous as it may sound, the ruling came from last-minute evidence to the court that was not presented at three previous hearings in the Home Office’s attempt to deport him, qualifying him for a higher level of legal protection under EU law. I’m tempted to ask why he hadn’t already been kicked out after three previous hearings, but, hey, what do I know?
Gomes, who arrived in the UK in 1998, had a “leading” role in a drug network known as the “Justin Line”, selling cocaine and heroin in Portsmouth. In April 2022, then-home secretary Dame Priti Patel issued Gomes with a deportation order.
The Home Office accepted his father was Portuguese but stressed the drug dealer should still be deported because he had been convicted of a “serious drug offence”.
But the Court of Appeal ruling established an ‘incredibly high” threshold for the deportation of the appellant. Explaining the higher test, Mr Justice Lane said Gomes could be deported only if he posed an “actual risk to public security – and, what is more, a risk so compelling as to justify the exceptional course of deporting him from a country into which he was now integrated by so many years’ residence”.
Ho-hum. And I thought we’d left all this behind post-Brexit. silly me. Until we start cracking down on foreign criminals, our country and our borders will simply not be safe.
I hope you’re listening, Mr Starmer, but I rather suspect not.
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Looks like the terrible Chagos Islands deal is going to go ahead, costing us billions of pounds to rent something we currently own over the next decades. With this grasp of economics, is it any wonder the Labour government has managed to tank the economy Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith says the deal is “one of the biggest blunders any government has managed to engineer”. That’s putting it mildly. I predict trouble ahead. Wait until China stages an armed takeover with the assistance of its regional ally Mauritius.
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THE Express laid bare the scale of Keir Starmer's Channel migrant crisis last week with an alarming new analysis. March’s figure of 4,586 illegal arrivals from small boats is the highest ever recorded in the first six months of a calendar year. In fact, three of the top ten months with the most arrivals have come under the Labour leader’s premiership.
Officials claim there have been far more “red days” – when crossings are considered likely because conditions are calmer – than in previous years. Of course they do. It’s got nothing to do with the fact Labour cancelled the Rwanda agreement that might have helped deter illegal arrivals! Consequently, we’re seen as more of a soft touch than ever.
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THERE aren't many pros to being terminally ill… but at least I don’t have to worry about my pension tanking after Donald Trump’s tariff announcements last week. Small mercies!
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THE RSPCA is very sensibly asking for the return of dog licensing. As a dog owner, I’ve been calling for this for years. Sadly, there are still too many people who buy a dog for all the wrong reasons – status and machismo spring to mind – but don’t bother to train them or ensure they have the resources to look after them
It’s evidenced by the fact thousands of pet owners have yet to get their animals fitted with a digital chip or are failing to keep records up to date a year after new rules came into force. A paid-for license might make a few idiots think again about getting a pet and it would certainly make it easier for the authorities to enforce against infringements.
The truth is that expecting people to take personal responsibility in our uber-liberal society doesn’t work. Too many people don’t care. That means many aspects of community we used to take for granted, such as decent, courteous behaviour are breaking down. Irresponsible dog owners (and don’t get me wrong, there are millions of brilliant dog lovers out there) are just one aspect. We need to start tackling anti-social Britain one problem at a time and dog licenses would be a good start.
And maybe we should start looking at licenses for children, too!
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THANKS for your many kind comments after I revealed my new mobility scooter last week. Remember, if I can do this, so can you!
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IT only seems like we’ve had a few days of sunshine and already we’ve got raging wildfires down in Dorset. More than 80 firefighters spent seven hours tackling a devastating heath blaze reminiscent of a volcanic eruption at Upton Heath nature reserve, near Poole.
The Met Office has issued amber wildfire alerts across the country due to unseasonably warm temperatures (nope, I hadn’t noticed them particularly, either). Anyone else wondering if we should expect a plague of locusts next?
