New Home Secretary, Theresa May, is clearly elated to have been promoted and will now get to grips with the most progressive agenda in the new Liberal Conservative coalition. On entering the monolith of the Home Office, she immediately declared the scrapping of ID Cards and elections for police chiefs.
There will no doubt be plenty of time for old-fashioned, deeply Conservative policies to come. But by far the most welcome change this week was immigration Minister Damian Green's commitment to cease the incarceration of all children at the immigration detention centre at Yarl's Wood.
If ever there was a symptom of how illiberal Labour's policies had become, it was the sight of pig-headed Phil Woolas fobbing of any critisism of effectively imprisoning 1,000 children every year. He even dismissed, out of hand, the experience would be in the least harmful to the children. Even a pretty right-wing Conservative, like Green can see the moral principle and has overturned this outrage.
Green will, of course, be introducing caps on non-EU immigration which will lead to much distress in itself. He will need the co-operation of his civil servants including Perm Sec David 'Smiling Assassin' Normington. It is slightly ironic it was Normington's panic over leaks last year which led to Green's arrest and a few hours in jug. The Tories would be well advised to push Normington out.
In the meantime, Green and May should be allowed more than a modicum of praise for ceasing the physical and psychological damage to hundreds of children in the name of a "fair" immigration policy.
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