What do you do when your Government has absolutely nothing to boast about after well over a decade in office?
For Rishi Sunak the answer has been to appeal to the absolute worst instincts of those still clinging to his sinking ship.
Whether its telling desperate refugees to “f*** off back to France”, forcing the same people into over-crowded and disease-ridden prison barges, painting over children’s murals in asylum centres, or threatening to join Russia and Belarus outside the ECHR, Sunak’s Government is increasingly engaging in what can best be described as the politics of “vice-signalling”.
This strategy, which involves convincing the electorate that you will be as horrible as possible to the most marginalised people in society, while indulging the most selfish of instincts of everyone else, continues this morning as Sunak instead turns his attentions to trans people.
Here’s what has just been announced and what it really tells us about the Prime Minister’s increasingly desperate Government.