Boarding school bluff

In bygone days, harassed parents used to threaten their offspring with boarding school as the ultimate Dickensian punishment for persistent misbehaviour.

- Jane Clifton

Children did not then know that few parents could remotely afford to banish them to this terrifying gulag - or that for some, boarding school would be a thrilling improvement on the status quo.

Since the advent of Google, no parent has been able to work this bluff, but it remains a reasonable metaphor for the UK's immigration struggles.

For a couple of years, the government has been threatening illegal immigrants with Rwanda. Arrive in your leaky boats or stifling lorries, or rip up your passport at Heathrow, and you'll be bounced to the central African country, where you may settle and rebuild your lives.

This threat is now a promise. Parliament has finally enacted the Rwandan deportation law - a huge relief for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who unwillingly copped this passthe-parcel policy after Britain's successive leadership failures and was half-expecting to lose the vote. It's become his flagship issue against his own inclinations, yet he's been forced to throw everything at it.

He stared down a revolt in his own party - though more opponents wanted a tougher regime than opposed it altogether.