London Diary: Britain’s boring politics goes ‘full Indian’

Britain’s once famed two-party system, which offered two clear choices to the voters — free marketeer, small-state Conservatives and socially liberal big state Labour — has collapsed, like much else of what was once considered uniquely British including, one dare say, driving and good manners.

It was first challenged by Liberal Democrats offering a left-wing and ‘woke-ish’ alternative to the two main parties. Back in 2010, under its then leader Nick Clegg — yes, the same chap who later defected to American capitalism as Mark Zuckerberg’s troubleshooter — the party won enough seats to prop up David Cameron’s Conservative government as a junior coalition partner. That move went down so badly with its core supporters that the Lib Dems have since then been struggling to stage a comeback.

Meanwhile, a new far-right party with a Trumpian anti-immigrant agenda has hit the scene like a gale force wind shaking the very foundations of the Conservative-Labour duopoly.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party (a new avatar of the 2018 Brexit Party) has risen rapidly in the polls on the back of a populist agenda that includes deporting immigrants back to where they came from — to make a ‘broken Britain great again’.

According to pollsters, if elections were to be held tomorrow, it would be in pole position to form the next government with the chain-smoking, beer-swilling Farage as prime minister.

Conservative MPs are deserting in droves to join Reform with the Indian-origin Suella Braverman, a former home secretary, being the latest to jump ship. Farage claims he now has more members of the last Conservative cabinet in his top team than its leader Kemi Badenoch does, prompting jokes about this lot’s role in the chaotic administrations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Suddenly, Britain’s once boring politics has gone ‘full Indian’ in its unpredictability.

Buy your way to permanent residency — illegally

If you happen to be in Britain and don’t have the requisite documents to stay on permanently, you can now buy a work visa. An undercover investigation by the Times has revealed that fake jobs are being sold for up to £20,000.

These fraudulent schemes enable people to obtain visas by presenting sponsorship certificates issued by government-approved companies that falsely claim they are being hired for high-skilled jobs or in sectors where local talent is not available. The documents thus obtained are used to stay in the UK, creating a paper trail to support claims for permanent residency (after five years).

For over four months, the Times was part of 13 Facebook groups for people seeking UK visas. Reporters spoke to 26 agents offering sponsorship and documented more than 250 examples of fake jobs being offered in hospitality, logistics, social care, IT, finance and marketing. Agents and companies demanded payments ranging from £7,000 to £20,000. There was a premium for roles that allowed dependents to live and work in the UK.

‘Those buying sponsorship include people who have lost their sponsored jobs and need a new one within 60 days if they are to remain in the UK. Other agents target international students who want to stay after their graduate visas end,’ the report said.

The government has promised urgent intervention. “We are investigating this illegal activity and it will not be tolerated,” the Home Office said.

But this is not the first time such a scam has been exposed. Probably not the last, either.

Church of England makes history

The last outpost of male monopoly in British public life has been busted with the Church of England appointing a woman as the Archbishop of Canterbury — a first in its 1,429-year history.

Sarah Mullally (64) who replaces Justin Welby — forced to resign for failing to check child abuse in the Church — will lead the Church of England and its 110-million strong worldwide Anglican communion.

She takes over at a particularly difficult time for the Church. Average attendance at Church of England services on any given Sunday in 2024 was about 580,000 — that’s less than one per cent of the population.

Her priority must be to reverse what appears to be an inexorable decline. As one commentator put it, this will “need all her administrative and political skills”.

Cancelled subscriptions for focusing on politics

The London Stock Exchange Group has cancelled hundreds of Financial Times subscriptions complaining that it isn’t covering the London markets enough and is focusing more on political news.

According to one analysis, the FT mentions the FTSE-100 about 70 per cent less than it did in 2010, despite lending its name to the index.

And, finally, an example of poor general knowledge in British journalism as narrated by Times columnist Samuel Martin: “I once worked at a newspaper where a junior on the foreign desk asked if our house style was Iran or Iraq. It’s the type of question one can imagine emanating from the White House these days.”