Those British Values at work again

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It turns out that the cartoons on the wall of the detention centre in Kent which a minister ordered removed were originally installed by contracted support workers. The ministry has stated that the artwork was ‘unapproved’, a statement which at the least raises questions over the extent to which the daily activity at the detention centre requires detailed ministerial involvement in all decision-making. It’s arguable that making ministers take difficult decisions on the colour schemes at various buildings might be better than allowing them to spend their time taking more serious decisions, but a system which requires reference up to ministerial level for decisions on decor is a system which is essentially broken.

Many people, including a number of Tories, have expressed their outrage at the removal of the cartoons as a petty and cruel action directed at the children, but they’re missing the point. The real target of the decision isn’t the children, but the staff. As history teaches us, effective and efficient operation of detention centres requires the staff to distance themselves from their charges; to treat them as numbers not people. In this specific case, it requires them to look at vulnerable children and see only undesirable aliens; treating vulnerable children as though they are vulnerable children impedes their ability to do that. Bear in mind that the logical and necessary outcome of current government policy is that the staff will be required, by law, to be willing and able to forcibly place those children on a bus, and then forcibly remove them from the bus to an aeroplane, using whatever physical restraints are necessary in the process. That requires a degree of detachment, not to say brutality, on the part of the staff which needs to be inculcated and maintained. Drab paintwork is just a small part of creating a culture and an attitude which enables that.

The real shame which we should feel here isn’t about the painting over of a few cartoon characters, but about the policy and its implications. To the extent that government ministers will feel any regret, it’s about the decision being made public, not about the decision itself; the policy is one that they are still pursuing with gusto, knowing and understanding the implications in terms of the physical removal of those children. The values of a country which can treat children in this way are alien to me, and the enthusiasm with which so many support the policy of deportation aggravates that alienation. These are British values of which I want no part.