Trapped in a crooked web - A home secretary resigns

Sajid Javid has been appointed British home secretary after Amber Rudd resigned after she conceded she “inadvertently” misled MPs over government targets for removing illegal migrants.

She had also been battling criticism over the Windrush scandal. She became the fifth enforced departure from Britain’s cabinet since last year’s snap general election.

Ms Rudd may be entitled to wonder why she had to leave after she “inadvertently” misled MPs when some of her

former colleagues deliberately misled the electorate over Brexit. Is it because the issue that led to her downfall — the mistreatment of Commonwealth immigrants — cuts far deeper in the British psyche than the fantasies peddled to win a leave vote? Or is a lower standard of probity acceptable when dealing with the European Union? Is this mercurial relationship with reality at the root of the when is a border not a border dilemma that casts such a shadow over this island?

Labour has made it clear it does not accept that Ms Rudd’s removal resolves the situation. They insist that ultimate responsibility rests with Ms May.

“All roads lead back to Theresa May and her tenure as home secretary,” Diane Abbott said. Should that transpire an election seems unavoidable and that those who sought British Empire II would face Brexit Vote II. Walter Scott is right again — “what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!”