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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 28, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

Jump in the discussion.

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How did the Boriswave happen? Did the government not realize the new immigration policy would increase immigration? Did they not notice the increase as it was happening? Did they not realize the increase would be politically unpopular? The last one seems particularly unlikely. Johnson is a skilled politician – he did win a general election, after all – so he surely wouldn't make such a mistake.

What about Truss and Sunak? I guess the former didn't have much time to implement policy changes, but the latter had two years, so all the same questions apply to him.

This explanation focuses on the culture of Conservative MPs. The author focuses on why the Tories ignored the obvious flaws with the 'invite the entire third world' policy, but I think the trigger was something more short term. The government panicked that cutting off the supply of cheap EU labour would cause inflation as demand came roaring back post-COVID. Combine that with regular old incompetence from the Home Office who simply didn't think consider allowing unlimited numbers of low-skilled migrants from the third world to bring unlimited numbers of dependents with no requirements might have quite a large take-up.