UK Government's proposal for asylum seekers is a bad idea...

Trust me, I know, says former secretary of state for Wales Simon Hart

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The Home Office's decision to use Penally Army training camp in Pembrokeshire as an asylum centre caused disruption

(Matthew Horwood)

LAST week the Home Office's competence was under scrutiny yet again, with calls for radical changes on the back of claims that its handling of the migrant crisis is no longer fit for purpose.

The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, was out on thae airwaves addressing the claims. She acknowledged the department has a range of issues, and tried to reassure the public that she was getting a grip of things.

As a new Home Secretary, that could be quite believable. Yet in the very same week, across the very same days, the Home Secretary's department was pushing out the news that they are willfully repeating history and making the mistakes of the past.

The government's plan to move asylum seekers and migrants from hotels to military bases may sound like a solution, but it's not. You're simply moving the problem around the chessboard.

I should know.

It was September 2020 when a senior official at my local council in west Wales rang me.

"Is it true that the Home Office are about to house asylum seekers at Penally?"

Penally, by the way, is a crumbling army base, made up of an array of Nissan huts and normally used for low-level reservist or cadet activity.

Its only redeeming feature was its proximity to the coastal holiday town of Tenby and a limitless selection of golden local beaches.

"Of course not" I replied, "I've seen both the home secretary and defence secretary at Cabinet this week and neither of them mentioned it."