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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026

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the left and half the right won’t stand for 3

What's the logic here? Too expensive?

Broadly my model is that 95% of the Labour party and 35% of the Tory party don't want restrictions on 'refugees' no matter what, so they're a dead loss. 3 is therefore viable but very difficult to get through Parliament in its current configuration.

The public does want something done, but balks if it's visibly violent or leads to deaths. So 1 and 2 are out.

"send them back directly where they came from. Don't ask any questions, don't bother with process, just send them back"

is difficult practically. There are three questions: how do you get them on the planes, how do you make the planes carry them, and how do you make the destination let the planes land / take them off the planes?

Mostly the relevant countries don't want these people back and / or it would be unpopular to be seen to take them back. So dedicated transports are unlikely to be permitted to land. For weaker countries you could always start landing unapproved somewhere, but that is difficult and expensive and technically an act of war. If you can't do that, you could put them on passenger jets, but that's expensive and you need a minder to supervise them and passengers / airlines are likely to protest or grandstand.

Not saying it's impossible with enough will, but it's not straightforward. By and large it doesn't beat the Rwanda plan.

The public does want something done, but balks if it's visibly violent or leads to deaths. So 1 and 2 are out.

I'd like to see some evidence that this is an organic property of "the public", rather than a media enviroent imposed top-down. Again it would be a bit odd if there reaction to it would be greater than the reaction to the rape gang scandal.

how do you get them on the planes, how do you make the planes carry them

The same way you do with every deported individual.

and how do you make the destination let the planes land / take them off the planes?

In the case of Afghans, the Taliban is perfectly happy to take their people back, it's the western governments that don't want to do it.