I find Baroness Scotland odious and wish that she would be hoisted by her own legislation and extradited to the United States to face Racketeering charges for employing an illegal immigrant as a cleaner, with the same prospect of spending 30 years in a Texas slammer as the NatWest Three.
But I would be despondent if she lost her job as Britain's Attorney General simply because she didn't ask for the passport, work permit, or citizenship papers of her 'daily'. Who on earth does? At least she paid tax and national insurance on her cleaner's wages, which is far more than most other people would do. In politics, it's best to watch your back.
Equally, there would be a poetic irony. It's the government's job to make sure that people are not here illegally – not the job of innocent householders who haven't got the energy to clean their own homes because they have to work round the clock to meet Gordon Brown's tax demands. They pay handsomely for the government's much-vaunted promise to keep the streets of Britain free of illegal immigrants. As Attorney General, Baroness Scotland is a part of that, and if she is falling down on the job, then yes, she should go.
Not that the policy makes sense anyway. Many supposed asylum-seekers flood here because of our cushy welfare system. Maybe we should start there if we want to stem the tide. But many other immigrants come and are willing to work hard, in dirty jobs, in order to better the condition of themselves and their families. If anything, we should be congratulating businesses and householders – and even ministers – for giving a job and a home to such deserving folk.
