Instead of fixing the broken system, she is pressing ahead with damaging plans that will create more chaos.
No amount of tough talk and bluster from the Home Secretary can hide the fact that she has utterly failed to get a grip on the UK's broken immigration system.
Years of Home Office failure, coupled with hostile policies and rhetoric from successive Conservative Home Secretaries, have shattered public confidence.
Instead of fixing the broken system, Priti Patel is pressing ahead with damaging plans that will create more chaos and make it harder for British employers to recruit the workers they need.
She talks about a new 'digital border', but apparently forgot to mention that the existing project is years behind schedule and more than £170 million over budget.
And she is refusing to provide safe and legal routes for vulnerable refugees to come to the UK, even as she invokes our proud tradition of offering sanctuary to those in need.
Priti Patel has been talking tough about immigration for ages, while failing miserably to make the system fairer or more effective.
As she said today: enough is enough.
We're liberal, progressive, and internationalist. Our values have put us on the right side of history: From leading the fight against the Iraq war and tripling renewable energy production, to legalising same-sex marriage and fighting Brexit every step of the way. If you share our values and want to turn that into making a real difference, join us today - https://www.libdems.org.uk/joining-us
New statistics show that renewable energy generation growth has slowed significantly in the last year, despite promises from the Conservatives to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and to make Britain the "Saudi Arabia of wind energy."
Offshore wind generation capacity grew by just 4% in 2020, compared to 20% the previous year.
Last week, the High Court ruled that the Government acted unlawfully over their awarding of a £560,000 Covid contract. After the verdict, Liberal Democrats Spokesperson for Home Affairs Alistair Carmichael MP said:
"Today's ruling should be a wake-up call. This is yet another example of the cronyism at the heart of this Conservative Government. While the Liberal Democrats were fighting for the three million people who have been excluded from government support, they were focusing on enriching their mates.
"It's little wonder the Conservatives are so keen on weakening the courts and restricting judicial review, given how often their Ministers are found to have acted unlawfully.
"This unapologetic cronyism shows that this Government is not fit to Govern."
The Conservatives long delayed Environment Bill will face amendments from the Liberal Democrats to protect green spaces and wildlife after falling short on local environment protections.
The Lib Dems have accused the Government of 'outright hypocrisy' after proposing a mass change to planning law which would allow developers to cause damage to nature habitats alongside the Environment Bill being debated today. The Bill would deny Councils the ability to block new developments for environmental reasons.
Christine Jardine reflects on the ongoing struggles for the LGBTQ community on IDAHOT
In the midst of the Covid 19 crisis it is easy to think it is the only issue in town. But there is another issue that as Liberals we should not need reminding of.
One aspect of it was highlighted to me this week when a friend told me that he cannot give blood.
My friend would like to help by providing blood from which plasma could be used in the fight against COVID-19 but regardless of how rare his blood group might be, of how healthy he is, he cannot donate because he is gay.
I was stunned.
We must surely recognise that there are still elements of our lives which label and marginalise the LGBTQ community
So I checked and, to be fair, the NHS site says all men must wait 3 months after having sex with another man before donating. It doesn't claim to be a ban, and says it is regardless of sexuality. But the reality is that as someone in a long term committed single-sex relationship that almost automatically excludes him.
And it is not the only example.
More than once in the past three yearsI have pressed the Government to fulfill the promise of its LGBT action plan and ban gay conversion therapy.
Today is International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.
I would not suggest for a minute that safeguards to ensure donated blood is healthy is by its nature homophobic. I cannot say the same about the lack of a ban on gay conversion therapy.
We must surely recognise that there are still elements of our lives which label and marginalise the LGBTQ community and that this is one of them.
As Liberals we should be aware of the danger of assuming that everybody feels equally respected and protected in the current crisis. These past two months have posed problems for us all that we never thought we would have to face, and demanded strength we did not know that we had.
But we are not there yet.
In striving to reach that moment we would do well to remember the words of US politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan:
"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."
All 64 seats on Derbyshire County Council are up for election on May 6th. At the moment Conservatives have 36 seats, Labour have 24 seats and Lib Dems have 3. There are 254 candidates competing across the 61 divisions of Derbyshire county.
In Chesterfield we currently have 1 County Council seat, that held by Barry in Stavely North and Whittington. So we have a lot to do - but what an opportunity. At the last county elections two of our candidates missed out by less than 250 votes. And 16 of the existing county councillors are not standing for re-election so the possibility of reshaping the current political balance is even greater. In Chesterfield our candidates are as follows
Councillor Glenys Falconer has been officially sworn into her extended term in office as Chesterfield's 380th Mayor, at Chesterfield Borough Council's Annual Council meeting.
Councillor Falconer - who took up the post in October 2020 - will serve as Mayor of Chesterfield until May 2022, under an extended term due to the COVID-19 crisis.
On the 21 April 2021, Her Majesty The Queen celebrated her 95th birthday. The Mayor of Chesterfield, Cllr Glenys Falconer, sent her these birthday greetings.
"On behalf of the citizens of the Borough of Chesterfield, I would like to send Your Majesty congratulations on your birthday. As you reach this milestone, we thank you for your tireless dedication to the country and Commonwealth and hope that you are able to take a moment to spend time with family and loved ones on this special day."
Urgent action is needed to save tens of thousands of lives from transport fumes and to fast-track climate-friendly transport. Liberal Democrats Leader, Ed Davey MP, argues his party's plan for massive new investment in clean air action would be a "treble dividend" for a local community's health, environment and economy.
