It is hard to conceive of any way in which “small boats week” could have gone any worse. It was meant to be a concerted PR push by the government to focus attention on its campaign to what it likes to call “stop the boats”. It has, instead, been a many-layered, multi-faceted and non-stop advert for all the myriad ways in which the policy, which is itself a failure as a concept, is nevertheless failing on its own terms, and for which no one but the government is to blame.
The week began with much to-ing and fro-ing over how many asylum seekers would be cleared to board the Bibby Stockholm, a barge the government has bought for no reason other than it will attract attention, and which it had hoped to overcrowd with asylum seekers.
It had involved one would-be “passenger” being told to board anyway, despite having tuberculosis, a decision that has been described by a doctor involved in the process as a “potential public health catastrophe”. And it has ended, on Friday afternoon, with the small number of passengers on board being evacuated after legionella was discovered in the water supply.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies