Striking over the Rwanda policy isn't the answer

There is no doubt that the Illegal Migration Bill, if passed, will impose a considerable moral burden on at least some of the civil servants who will be tasked with its implementation.

Deporting genuine refugees to Rwanda or elsewhere is, as has been widely acknowledged, hardly a welcome solution for anyone concerned, even if it were a practical and effective one – which is doubtful.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is well placed to judge such ethical dilemmas, remarked a few weeks ago that he finds the bill “morally unacceptable”, saying that it “fails to live up to our history, our moral responsibility and our political and international interests”.

So it is entirely understandable that some members of the civil servants’ trade union, the PCS, may feel driven to take industrial action in an effort to block, or at least stymie, the bill’s provisions should it become law – though there is already determined and principled resistance in the House of Lords and the legal system to its most repulsive aspects.