What would you like the priorities of His Majesty’s government to be? I have quite a long list. Sorting out the economy would certainly be up there, as would closing the border. But I imagine the government has had to put such things on the backburner because it turns out that one of its actual top priorities has been ensuring that Alaa Abd el-Fattah can come to the UK.

Who, I hear you ask? El-Fattah turns out to be an Egyptian ‘activist’ who has lately spent a certain amount of time in the prisons of General Sisi. In 2021 he gained British citizenship through his mother, who lives in the UK. I think that clears up any fears of the anti-integrationist movement in this country by the way. That is good enough for me – to my mind, once an Egyptian who is in prison in Egypt is given British citizenship, he becomes as British as you or me. I’m sure we can look forward to seeing him down the Dog and Duck on the first Saturday evening that he’s available.

Everything that should be a priority is not, and the last things that should be a priority are made a priority

That certainly seems to be the attitude of Keir Starmer’s government. Last week the Prime Minister announced that he is ‘delighted’ El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been ‘reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief’. He went on to pay tribute to the dogged efforts of ‘Alaa’s family’. You’ll notice by now that Starmer is on first-name terms with the former Egyptian prisoner. ‘Alaa’ has........

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