OPINION – JUDY FINNIGAN: With hundreds of men, women and children crammed on board, the English Channel is more dangerous than ever
Home Secretary Chris Philp should have been more worried about migrant boats than distant gun shots, writes Judy Finnegan (Image: PA)
The English Channel is turning into quite the shooting gallery, isn’t it? Hard on the heels of a Russian warship loosing off its guns close to Plymouth, this week shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp was startled by a rapid fusillade from a nearby French naval vessel as he bobbed about on a boat two miles off the French coast near Cap Grinez.
It wasn’t quite the boom of cannon. This was a French officer ‘test-firing’ his sidearm: 17 ‘crack-crack-cracks’ clearly audible as Philp recorded a BBC TV interview about the latest wave of small boats bringing illegal immigrants to England. He took it extremely personally. “It was a deliberate attempt to intimidate me,” he complained to anyone who’d listen afterwards.
Nonsense, was the dismissive French response. You could almost see the Gallic shrug of contempt as a naval spokesman said all test firing protocols and warnings had been followed to the letter. I must say, I find it hard to imagine someone on the bridge of the French warship staring at the other boat (several hundred yards away) through binoculars and exclaiming: “Zut alors! Mon dieu! C’est Msr. Philp, le ‘shadow’ secretaire de maison! TIRER!!!”
I mean, really. What Mr Philp should have got worked up about – and to be fair, did, once he’d told his exciting story to everyone who’d listen – was not so much the pop-pop of a distant pistol but the putt-putt of yet another incoming rubber boat laden with would-be asylum seekers.
More than 700 migrants are thought to have tracked across the Channel the day after Mr Philp’s brush with the French navy. And that, just 24 hours after Andy Burnham claimed the plan to stop the small boats “is working”.
Perhaps he’s technically and literally correct – one of the boats this week was huge, the largest yet, hundreds of men women and children crammed on board. Not a small boat by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe the time’s come for Burnham to pledge to stop the BIG boats. He really must keep up.
Zendaya and Tom are a class act
Tom Holland and Zendaya on red carpet for Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiere in London this week (Image: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty)
Absolutely loved Zendaya’s ‘Spidey’ outfit at the London premiere of the latest Spiderman movie. Zendaya really knows how to do subtle. Blink and you’d miss the golden spider brooch (inset) pinned to her back. And a closer look at her gorgeous Tamara Ralph dress revealed that its parallel silvery lines were in fact a sequin cobweb design. Husband Tom Holland, the film’s lead, wore a tailored dark suit with a spider web tie. This couple are a class act.
Who will Kemi convert next?
There’s no doubt that Kemi Badenoch is starting to reach parts other Conservative leaders never did. This week it emerged that Dame Maureen Lipman, a staunch Labour supporter for five decades until she became disenchanted during the Ed Miliband leadership, might become a first-time Tory voter. Why? Kemi.
“She speaks beautifully,” Maureen says. “She’s attractive, she’s thoughtful, she’s intelligent… I like her. I’d have to think carefully with my pencil hovering over a blue thing. But I really like her.” Who will Kemi convert next? George Galloway? Jeremy Corbyn? (Oh, c’mon. A woman can dream, can’t she?)