ANOTHER week, another radicalised terrorist etching a message of hate into the bullet casing.
When the latest American shooter opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement centre in Dallas, the online Left were quick to delight in the chance to scream that political violence was an across-the-aisle issue.
They salivated at settling scores after attempting to distance their ideology from the killer of Charlie Kirk.
Yet before too long it emerged the attacker was one of theirs, as his manifesto attacking ICE for policing illegal migration was found scratched into the very lead they used to take two lives.
As the much-maligned but increasingly successful Homeland Security boss Kristi Noem warned, the far left need to know their rhetoric about ICE has consequences.
Perhaps comparing hard-working border officials to the Gestapo isn’t as funny or helpful as they think.
Meanwhile in Nevada, a bomb was left at a Fox News outlet, and federal buildings were smashed up in Oregon.
‘Suicidal path’
And that’s just this week. While the UK has plenty to learn from the US on border control, our issues on free speech somewhat pale in comparison to the land where just a few weeks ago Charlie Kirk was cancelled permanently.
As Boris Johnson said on my show this week: “I’ve had enough of lectures from the United States about free speech. OK, OK, I think we’ve got a problem in the UK.
“I think some of these people have been jailed for tweets? It’s mad and we shouldn’t be doing it.
“But, you know, I think some good friends of the UK, JD Vance for example, are inviting us to look at the mote in our own eye without looking at the beam in their own, as the Bible says.”
A markedly more forthright tone than that taken by Sir Keir Starmer at last week’s relatively calm state visit by President Trump, where the pair kept it cordial.
But free from the shackles of being a royal guest, the Don was far punchier on Britain at his iconic, if explosive, speech to the United Nations, were he warned the UK was on a “suicidal path”.
And so it fell to BoJo to speak once more for England: “You know, whatever you may say about our country, we don’t have people who advocate free speech being shot.”
A fair point, but just as I was getting out my little Union Jack to wave, Britain once again turns down another authoritarian path.
On the steps of No10 Sir Keir vowed to “end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives and unite our country”.
I can’t think of a single policy better designed to break all three of those pledges than mandatory ID cards by 2029 to stop the boats.
As the PM optimistically declared: “You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”
Yeah right. We already have National Insurance numbers for this very purpose, yet the black market thrives with greedy bosses turning a blind eye to illegal workers.
The French have been screaming for years for Britain to make illegal work tougher, comparing our benefits handouts and black market to the golden city of El Dorado, and a massive pull for migrants to cross their own country to break into Britain.
I have to say I am a little torn. Every libertarian instinct makes my eye twitch at the prospect.
Government and data are not natural bed fellows, especially in a world of hackers and hostile states aching to sow chaos across the West.
Yet it is absurd that in this century you still have to cart around a utility bill every time you want to open a credit line or bank account or change your mobile phone contract.
And this is not the giant Big Brother database envisaged by Tony Blair, in the first decades of this century, that was rightly defeated by the grassroots NO2ID campaign.
As the tech writer Lawrence Lundy-Bryan put it yesterday: “The model was a central database of every citizen, accessible across departments. A honeypot for abuse, leaks and scope creep.”
The encrypted data of the new digital verification app would be held on your phone or shared by individual departments such as the DVLA and dreaded taxman.
As veteran US immigration officer Art Del Cueto — who patrolled the Mexican border for 21 years and is no lefty pinko — told the show this week: “The same people that are complaining about giving their information so the government can know who they are, are the ones that are putting all their information out on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Come on, guys.”
Radical thinking
And as Lundy-Bryan mused, how many dodgy landlords and nightclub bouncers right now are sitting with a scan of your passport in their systems?
Are they really more secure than the DWP or NHS? And as Tony Smith, the former boss of Border Force, told me: “It’s really hard to change your face and your finger.
“You can change your name and pick someone else’s name, nationality and age at the drop of a hat.”
Given border experts are crying out for more tools in their armoury, are they not worth a hearing?
Del Cueto says the entire US has been turned against welcoming illegal migrants, and it’s working.
A marked contrast to the UK, where the Home Office roll out the red carpet and the courts hinder deportations.
Just screaming “stop the boats” and “smash the gangs” clearly hasn’t worked.
So is it time for some radical thinking? I don’t know if ID cards are the answer, but let’s have the conversation.
