Yes, the Tories’ migration bill is bad – but the lack of Commons scrutiny is more disturbing still | Martin Kettle

Despite their best efforts, rebel MPs couldn’t muster enough opposition to the government’s plan – nor even much interest in it

An observant visitor from another world would surely find today’s Britain a troubled place, facing historic difficulties – inflation, war, inequality, its unsure place in the world, climate breakdown. But they might struggle to learn it from much of the country’s media, which is seemingly more interested in allegations against TV presenters than in illuminating the country’s much larger problems.

The visitor would have witnessed a dimension of this national disjunction if they had sat in the House of Commons gallery on Tuesday to hear MPs debating the latest stages of the government’s illegal migration bill. Here, after all, was indubitably a debate on an important problem. Migration policy is not working well, is in need of fresh and coherent approaches, and is causing concern to many. In short, it is a classic example of the many ways in which ours is a country – and a continent – no longer at ease with itself.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

This article was amended on 13 July 2023 to remove an erroneous assertion that Tim Loughton was chair of the home affairs select committee

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