𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The bloated, destructive leviathan of the welfare state is hopelessly unsustainable. Without change, we are heading for bankruptcy. But the new Prime Minister fails to recognise the scale of challenge. Recently he declared that instead of making “crude, punitive and unfair cuts” in benefits, he wants to address the “underlying problems” behind the surge in welfare claims, such as youth unemployment.

But the welfare system itself is one of the core underlying problems. Through its colossal size, it has fed the culture of dependency, undermined enterprise and provided perverse incentives to family breakdown and mental illness.

There is little hope of change from the Labour government, nor is the recent record of the Tories impressive on this subject. But this week Reform UK had the guts to set out a bold plan to cut £50 billion from the social security budget. Drawn up by the party’s Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick, the detailed programme featured a host of audacious measures such as tighter controls on Personal Independent Payments for the disabled, and a requirement on long-term claimants to carry out voluntary work.

But the most controversial element of the package was the proposed ban on benefit claims by foreign nationals. Inevitably, this provoked howls of outrage from the Left, which portrayed the move as another sign of Reform UK’s reckless cruelty. And it is true that there would be major obstacles to the implementation of this policy, most notably that negotiations over the Brexit withdrawal agreement would have to be re-opened because of the rights of EU citizens long settled in Britain.

But the status quo cannot continue. By acting as a key pull factor for migrants, indiscriminate welfare has not only put an intolerable strain on our infrastructure, but has also helped to transform our social fabric – without any mandate from voters.

The Left likes to pretend that all new arrivals to Britain are motivated by hard work and are therefore net contributors to our economy. On a BBC radio phone-in last Tuesday, Seema Sayeda, a representative of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, argued that our “economy would collapse without migration” and that “this country was built by people from other places”, though in a brief afterthought she mentioned the role of the British people.

But her assertions about the impact of immigration are nonsense. Before the 1960s, Britain had been one of the most homogenous nations on earth, and was also one of the most successful. Yet since the floodgates were opened by Tony Blair, our economy has stagnated while migrant numbers and welfare bills have soared. Contrary to left-wing propaganda about the influx of new dynamism into Britain, just one-third of new arrivals actually come here to work. Some studies have put the annual cost of migrant dependency at £21billion, while other research shows that more than £1billion in Universal Credit is given to foreign nationals every month.

To maintain that Britain owes the world a living is the economics of the madhouse. It is also a sure recipe for social breakdown and resentment. There is nothing fair about requiring British taxpayers to bankroll newcomers who may never have made a contribution to Britain. When Lord Beveridge created the modern welfare state in 1944, he specifically said that the new system was not meant to provide “something for nothing.” But that is exactly what it does.

Reform UK is going through a period of turbulence at the top, as egos clash and disagreements rage. Only this week, high-profile Tory defector Tim Montgomerie was suspended for openly attacking the party’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf, who himself is an abrasive, controversial figure. But it would be a pity if this turmoil ended the chance for a real debate on immigration and welfare. Reform UK is the only major party willing to face the up to the state we’re in.

Credit where credit due to ‘elf & safety culture

Robust traditionalists like to sneer at the modern obsession with health and safety as they look back at a supposed golden age of freedom from busybodies. But the sepia lens of nostalgia can sometimes distort the truth about the past. On Wednesday, an interim report by safety inspectors into the derailment of a train near Lewes in Sussex declared that the probable cause was a defect in the track that had resulted from the extreme recent heat.

Fortunately, thanks to greater safety awareness, rail accidents are now extremely rare. Indeed in the 12 years from 2007, there was not a single fatality on the entire network produced by a collision, a derailment or a failure of equipment, a far cry from the catalogue of catastrophes that featured in the first century-and-a-half of the railways’ existence, epitomised by the Harrow and Wealdstone crash in 1952 that killed 112, and the Hither Green derailment in 1967 that left 49 dead.

The dramatic improvement is not confined to the railways. It is incredible to look back at the late 1980s and reflect on the phenomenal loss of life that arose from a relentless wave of accidents, including the Kings Cross Fire, (1987 – 31 dead) the sinking of the Zeebruge ferry (1987 – 193 dead), the Kegworth Air Crash (1989 – 47 dead), Hillsborough (1989 – 97 dead) the Marchioness sinking (51 dead) and the Piper/alpha oil platform fire (1988 – 167 dead). Sometimes ‘elf & safety deserves a bit of credit for protecting lives.

A tale of two critters

The Gruesome Twosome have decided to leave California and return to Britain: so ends the most boring journey of relocation since Homer wrote the Odyssey. Although they have no discernible talent, likeability or business acumen, they have remarkable skill at generating a permanent, media-led drama around themselves. The heart sinks at the thought of the chapters to come.

Five years of Taliban rule

Progressives tend to be full of blustering self-righteousness but not moral consistency. There is no more glaring example of their double standards on women’s rights than their silence over the brutal misogyny of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which came back to power exactly five years ago this month. Where are the angry marches and demonstrations? Where are the threats of prosecutions by the International Criminal Court or the demands for global boycotts? Why is Afghanistan not treated as a pariah on global stage and barred from sporting competitions?

Bitter sweet symphony

I have pretty limited taste in music. As a student in the 1980s, I was square but never hip listening to Neil Sedeka and Tony Bennett. But I know what I don’t like – and that is the thudding soundtrack of modern Britain. So beers and cheers to the Wetherspoon chain for banning customers from playing music on their phones, a triumph for calm over cacophony.