“No lectern, no notes, no content,” joked a few critics in response to Andy Burnham’s slightly vacuous speech in Downing Street. But Burnham did have one concrete proposal: to end rough sleeping across the United Kingdom. He had made a similar promise to end homelessness in Greater Manchester when he was elected Mayor in 2017, only to see the total almost double over his eight-year tenure. Burnham will have an even more difficult task on a national scale because almost a quarter of the homeless are foreign nationals, a figure that rises to more than half in the capital. The new Prime Minister will be like a man trying to empty a bathtub with both taps still running.

A ridiculous complaint

The new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has been attacked for his lack of military experience. It is a ridiculous complaint. We don’t restrict the post of Education Secretary to former teachers or that of Health Secretary to former doctors. In fact, it can be counter-productive to have Ministers in roles that relate to their previous professional experiences, since they may be inclined to see policies through the prism of past vested interests rather than using their objective judgment.

The worst Defence Secretary of modern times was the great wartime general Harold Alexander, who had no understanding of politics and sat almost mute in Churchill’s last Cabinet.

Urgent rethink needed!

Next week marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the international Refugee Convention. The commemoration of this landmark should be an uplifting event. But beyond the virtue-signalling ranks of the asylum industry, there will be precious little mood for celebration.

Created in the aftermath of the Second World War, the Convention was meant to be a charter to protect the vulnerable fleeing genuine persecution. But the system has become hopelessly discredited by widespread abuses, as epitomised by the anarchy of illegal migrant crossings of the English Channel, where the vast majority of the arrivals to our shores are not refugees but young men of military service age seeking a better life in Britain.

Public anger at this mess, which undermines the integrity of our borders, is compounded by a sense of injustice, because so many asylum-seekers, no matter how weak their claims, are provided with better support and accommodation by the British state than a lot of our own citizens. The Convention is an anachronism.

It was designed for a very different age, when there was no mass air travel or social media or lavish welfare. In the past, British people have always been welcoming to real victims of oppression, like Ugandan Asians escaping Idi Amin’s insane despotism.

But we cannot be the world’s shelter, taking in every case of hardship. The potential influx would be totally unsustainable, given that there are an estimated 118 million displaced people around the world and a further 840 million living in absolute poverty. An urgent rethink is vital.

Farewell to a man of profound decency

I was very saddened by the death of Kevin Keegan, the England star who was twice named European Footballer of the Year. He came across as a man of profound decency who was grateful for the fame and fortune that came his way, having been brought up in a Doncaster coal-mining family in a home without any electricity.

I was lucky enough to see him play in his final seasons in the mid-80s and he always brought a tremendous charisma and tireless energy to every appearance. I was such a fan that at one stage I even had my hair permed in his famous curly style. Fortunately, no photos survive of this stylistic crime against humanity.