Peter Hill

ALL political careers end in failure, it is said, and so do all governments but I can’t recall a government that is failing as consistently and spectacularly as the one presided over by Theresa May. Almost every major policy has resulted in a humiliating U-turn. I don’t know why the Russians bother to use cyber wars to promote Jeremy Corbyn when the Tories are doing such a fantastic job themselves.

The dismal end of Home Secretary Amber Rudd is such a farce that it could run for years in a West End theatre. After days of ducking and diving, she finally coughs to being less than truthful over targets for removing illegal immigrants. But what is wrong with such targets? The fact that some Windrush cases were handled with the sensitivity of a sledge hammer does not change the fact that illegal immigration is a major problem.

Tory guilt has fuelled the Labour Party’s cynical exploitation of Windrush. Don’t tell me that previous Labour governments were unaware of it.

Do we want to abandon all notions of controlling immigration, which is what Corbyn seems to be advocating? There are untold millions of asylum seekers and economic migrants around the world desperate to live in Britain. Shall we open the door to the lot?

The Prime Minister is a ditherer. She doesn’t have the courage of her convictions – that’s if she has any. We need someone capable of leading Britain through one of the most difficult periods in history. God help us if that turns out to be Marxist fantasist Jeremy Corbyn but I fear it will happen. q SELLING Wembley Stadium to an American billionaire would give the FA a bundle of cash but there is one big flaw with flogging the family silver: you can only do it once. Remember what happened when self-appointed financial genius Gordon Brown sold off Britain’s gold reserves? We ended up with no gold and a big bag of peanuts. q SOME leading universities are lowering their entry standards for students from poor backgrounds but where will this end? Further allowances will have to be made because these students will still have difficulty catching up with the better educated. This will mean universities accepting lesser final exam results from some candidates. I am not keen on the idea of my doctor having a second-level qualification or my architect being not quite qualified to build my extension to the highest standard. q THOUSANDS of people are signing up to join a demo against President Trump if he visits London. If I were him I wouldn’t come within 50 miles of the capital, which has become a focal point for the disaffected and disturbed. Barely a week goes by when the city is not disrupted by grudge bearers protesting about something or other.

An invitation to London these days is a sure ticket to being insulted, if not actually stoned, for any leader not seen as embracing the far-Left views of Momentum. These nutters won’t be happy until Britain cuts off links with every country other than wacko states like Venezuela and North Korea and our own people are starving. q DEATH duties hit a record £5.2billion in the past year, up £400million, shaved from the homes and possessions bought with hard-earned income on which income tax has already been paid. Inheritance tax is legalised theft by the state.

I remember sitting in former Chancellor George Osborne’s office with a group of Daily Express readers and listening to him say that the Tories wanted to abolish the tax altogether. It didn’t happen and never will as long as governments regard private wealth as a gigantic money pot which they can pillage at will. q A PROPOSED ban on electric shock collars for pets has been diluted by Environment Secretary Michael Gove after widespread protests from owners who use them to stop animals from straying into dangerous areas. Now only collars used for behaviour training will be banned. I guarantee that no one has asked a single cat or dog and I think anyone buying such a collar should first be made to try it on themselves. That’s fair, no? q SCHOOLS are removing traditional clocks because many children can’t tell the time from them and it’s feared that they might get mixed up over how much time is left during exams. For similar reasons no doubt all children’s shoes will soon have to be fastened with Velcro – most already are anyway – because the poor kiddies can’t tie a bow.

Apparently many children arrive at school never having seen a book or heard a nursery rhyme. It’s the new Dark Ages. q OUR NHS will need an extra £50billion in England alone by 2030, according to a leading expert. We can safely assume that will prove to be a huge underestimate, as would any sum you plucked out of the air. “Our” NHS has become an edifice of religious sanctity and anyone who questions its spotless virtue is electorally cursed. In a futile attempt to convince voters of its commitment, the Tories are likely to introduce a special tax to fund the NHS because they haven’t the guts to think the unthinkable. q THE fraudster pictured posing with a genuine marathon runner’s number and medal turns out to be one Stanley Skupien, a homeless rough sleeper known as the “Jogging Tramp”. He claims he did it “for all the homeless people”. So that’s all right then, is it, like shoplifting, not really theft?