Political Observer explores The Current Colvile Methodology!
Jan 26, 2025
It takes a great deal of patience to find the central concern of Robert Colvile latest essay, hidden in the Tory Weeds, his retorical speciality:
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On migration and race in particular, the state has long been similarly reluctant to publicise, or even collect, data that might prove awkward.
Recently a report commissioned by Thames Water became public. It estimated — based on water usage, plus 2017-era migration surveys by Pew Research — that there were between 390,355 and 585,533 illegal migrants in London. But the company had kept the report private. And remarkably the government produces no official estimates of its own — partly because of the decision under a certain Tony Blair to abolish exit checks at the borders.
It’s not just about the number of illegal migrants. We don’t have good data on what nationalities are filling our prisons, or what crimes they committed. Or who is getting national insurance numbers. Or how much they are earning. Sometimes this “data desert” is a result of deliberate obstruction. Sunday Times journalists investigating the infected blood scandal, or the Horizon debacle, can testify to the levels of obfuscation of which the state is capable. Sometimes the explanation is a species of thoughtlessness. We don’t get data on the nationality of criminals, but the police are supposed to record their ethnicity. Yet as the Tory MP Neil O’Brien has pointed out, many officers have stopped doing so, making the statistics worthless.
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The reader must give Mr. Colevile credit for this opening gambit, featuring Tony Blair! Colvile on Blair breaks new ground, or just resembles political oportunism: Blair’s quote ‘I quake at the imbecility of it’ is Blair in the confessional? Colvile’s readerships blood quickins!
What was Tony Blair’s worst mistake? I imagine you’ll all have a view. But the man himself offers a surprising nomination. In the middle of his autobiography he breaks off for a page-long rant about the Freedom of Information Act. “You idiot,” he berates himself. “You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it.”
Blair’s argument is that journalists’ use of his new law to expose the government’s secrets prevented ministers and officials from having honest conversations. Its remit, he argues, strayed “far beyond what it was sensible to disclose”.
Editor: The end of Colevil’s intervention does not quite match it’s beginning, I’ll end my comment here!
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