Months after the frenzied airlift of Afghans from Kabul in August, evacuees are still being warehoused in UK hotels.
This is despite all 32 of Scotland’s councils stepping up to accommodate these traumatised people in homes where they can rebuild their lives.
It is appalling that a disjointed approach from the Home Office means evacuees are languishing in hotels when they could be settled in available properties.
Across Scotland, officials on the ground have worked tirelessly to identify properties and ready them for the refugees who so desperately need them.
But, months on, they are still sitting empty and councils can’t, in good faith, keep properties sitting vacant.
Behind the scenes, councils have been pressing the UK Government to cooperate with them but have been stonewalled at every turn.
Their workers have been refused access to hotels where they could assess the needs of refugees and match them with properties.
Now councils which are desperate to help may have to pull out of current dispersal programmes.
This situation is all the more galling given Home Secretary Priti Patel’s false claims that Scottish councils have not “lifted a finger” to help house refugees.
Defence Secretary Bruce Wallace made similar claims condemning councils across the UK for not doing enough. The current scandal blows a hole in their claims.
The blame for an absurd situation lies firmly at the door of this useless UK Government.
No way out, PM
Boris Johnson being compared to a Mafia boss is a new line in the never-ending story of how a government lost its moral compass.
The heads of crime syndicates might argue they are more organised and far better dressed than the Prime Minister.
That aside, claims that Tory whips are tying to intimidate and blackmail rebel MPs show the nastiness behind Johnson’s bumbling persona.
Threatening to withhold education spending in a constituency is disgraceful and goes beyond what is acceptable from the Whips office.
The latest revelations shows the staggering ineptitude of Johnson’s operation and the contempt the PM’s lackeys have for democracy.
“Back us or the kids lose the school” is not really an offer to win over hearts and minds.
At some point in this relentlessly bad news cycle, Tory MPs have to say enough is enough.
This Prime Minister should be made an offer he cannot refuse.
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