On Rwanda - Stephen Castle and Mark Landler in NYT:

‘But the victory in the House of Commons, by a vote of 320 to 276, came after two tense days of debate that exposed deep divisions within Mr. Sunak’s governing Conservative Party, having prompted a rebellion Tuesday of around 60 of his lawmakers who tried unsuccessfully to toughen the legislation.
The government gained the upper hand over the rebels on Wednesday by presenting them with the stark choice of voting in favor of the bill or risking a parliamentary defeat that could have wrecked the Rwanda policy altogether and delivered a crushing blow to the prime minister at the start of an election year.
The vivid display of disunity, nevertheless, has damaged Mr. Sunak’s authority. And it raised further questions about the effectiveness of the contentious legislation, which will now be considered by the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament, where more opposition is expected.
Under the Rwanda scheme, which has yet to be carried out, asylum seekers who arrive on the British coast in small, often unseaworthy, inflatable boats would be sent to Rwanda to have their claims heard there. But even if they were granted refugee status they would have to stay in the African country rather than settle in Britain.
The program has been condemned by human rights groups and refugee charities, and was ruled unlawful last year by Britain’s Supreme Court.’ (…)

‘Even assuming the legislation wins approval, there could be more challenges in court to stop any deportations. And most analysts doubt that the British government would be able to deport more than a few hundred of the approximately 30,000 who arrived in small boats last year.’

(…)

‘But to date, not a single asylum seeker has been put on a plane to Rwanda, and critics accuse the government of wasting money on an unworkable scheme. The British have already paid just over $300 million to the Rwandan government with a further $63 million to come, though the country’s president, Paul Kagame, told the BBC on Wednesday that the cash could be returned if no migrants are sent there.
The opposition Labour Party, which is well ahead in opinion polls, says it would scrap the plan. On Wednesday, its leader, Keir Starmer, asked Mr. Sunak to account for claims that the government had lost contact with more than 4,000 people it had lined up for deportation to Rwanda.’

Read the article here.

Rwanda. Too many politicians use the issue of migration for measurements and proposals that are nothing but theater. The audience is tired, but Rwanda might wake them up.
And yes, once again, democracy is theater, but not all theater is just trite spectacle.

It all could make a fine novella. You leave Africa in the hope to end up in the UK, while in reality you just make it to Rwanda. At least in the head of Mr. Sunak. Or maybe not even in his head.