Econ_May_05

56 Britain

The Economist

May 5th 2018

AJID JAVID belongs to a tribe that is millions-strong in Ameri-

ca but vanishingly small in Britain: devotees of the libertarian

philosopher-cum-novelist Ayn Rand. Twice a year Mr Javid

makes a point of reading the courtroom scene in “The Fountain-

head”, inwhich the hero proclaims that hewould rather go to pri-

son thanbowdownbefore thewill ofthe crowd. The great theme

of Rand’s writings is the ability of heroic individuals to bend the

arc of history to their will. Mr Javid will need plenty of the Ran-

dian spirit if he is tomake a success of his newportfolio.

The home secretary’s immediate task is to contain the panic

over the Windrush scandal, in which thousands of Caribbean

Britons were misidentified as illegal immigrants. His long-term

job is to tackle two festering problems. The first of those is the

chronic lack of order in the Home Office. Mr Javid has to “get a

grip”, as Tories love to put it. His new department has a justified

reputation as the graveyard of government ministers and their

agendas. It is a sprawling empire in which thousands of officials

administer often contradictory policies that can deprive people

of their liberty or their right to stay in the country. The Home Of-

fice is currently grappling with the trickiest problem in its recent

history: designing a new immigration system for a Brexited Brit-

ain, while at the same time dealingwith the consequences ofBrit-

ain’s biggest-everwave of immigration.

The second festering problem is the public’s lack of faith in

Britain’s immigration system. Restoring it will involve striking a

delicate balance between compassion and control. Mr Javid

needs to reassure those who have been disconcerted by the gov-

ernment’s “hostile environment” policy—not just members of

the Windrush generation but also

nationals and other legal

residents—that they have nothing to worry about. But he also

needs to reassure themajorityofBritonswho thinkthat immigra-

tion is too high and that illegal migrants represent a serious pro-

blem. He got offtoa good start,with two feistyappearances in the

House of Commons, disowning the noxious phrase “hostile en-

vironment”, outliningmeasures to safeguardWindrushmigrants

from further injustice and promising themcompensation.

These tasks would probably overwhelm even Rand’s hero,

Howard Roark. But Mr Javid nevertheless enjoys a couple of im-

portant advantages. One is his background. He is the first Muslim

to hold one of Britain’s great offices of state. His father arrived in

Britain fromPakistan in1961with £1inhis pocket andmade his liv-

ing as a bus driver while his mother ran a shop. Mr Javid demon-

strated that Labour doesn’t have a monopoly on anger over

Windrush by telling the

Sunday Telegraph

on April 29th (before

getting his new job) that “that could be my mum…my dad…my

uncle…it could beme.”

His other advantage is his distance from the prime minister.

Ms Rudd never really freed herself from her predecessor’s shad-

owbecause she tookover at theHomeOfficewhenMrsMaywas

in her pomp as prime minister. Mr Javid is taking over at a time

when Mrs May is weak—and weak precisely because of policies

that she pioneered as home secretary. Mr Javid also has a history

of poor relations with his boss. He was one of the most briefed-

against ministers when Mrs May was riding high, and one of the

most brutal critics of her Downing Street operation after the elec-

tion debacle. He belongs to a very different Conservative tradi-

tion. Mrs May is a 1950s Tory who hankers after a more homoge-

nous Britain. Mr Javid is a 1980s Tory who has a portrait of

Margaret Thatcher hanging in his office.

This could be a recipe for a fractious relationship at the heart

of government. Mrs May is as proud as she is rigid, and still likes

to start her sentences with the phrase: “When I was home secre-

tary”. But it could be a chance to forge a more realistic immigra-

tionpolicy.Mr

Javidneeds to start bypersuadinghis boss to aban-

don her fixation with including students in migration figures. He

then needs to go on to change the logic of immigration thinking:

forget about the arbitrary targets, like reducing net inflows to the

tens of thousands, and focus instead on the country’s long-term

needs, particularly when it comes to recruiting highly skilled

workers, who can boost productivity, andwillinghandswho can

make up labour shortages in the health service, care homes and

the building trade. That iswhat voters tell pollsters theywant. Mr

Javid’s job is to bring policy in line.

Sajid shrugged

His promotionbrings significant problemswith it. Inhis previous

job as secretary for local government he spent two years tackling

the severe shortage of housing that is putting home ownership

beyond the reach of a generation of Britons. His successor, James

Brokenshire, will take time to master his brief and get the mea-

sure of the vested interests that have run riot in this area. Mean-

while, Mr Javidwill significantly shift the balance of power at the

top of the government in a Eurosceptic direction, asMs Rudd’s re-

placement in the Brexit inner cabinet. Though he supported Re-

main in the referendum, he did somore to suckup toDavidCam-

eron than out of any conviction. He likes the idea of a small-state,

light-regulation Britain forging its own Randian future. Brexiteers

are crowing about his intervention on May 2nd against Mrs

May’s proposed “customs partnership” with the

The Javid package might not sound like an overwhelmingly

attractive one.MrsMay is exchanging the likelihoodof regression

in housing and

dealmaking for the mere possibility of pro-

gress at the Home Office. But she has probably chosen the right

man for the urgent job of preventing the Windrush scandal from

consuming her government. In fairy tales told by libertarian phi-

losophers, fire-breathing heroes come along and solve human-

ity’s problems. In Mrs May’s all-too-real world, flawed individ-

uals stagger from crisis to crisis in a desperate attempt to stave off

complete disaster.

“That could be me”

Britain’s newhome secretaryconfronts a formidable list of challenges

Bagehot

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