Nigel Farage has driven poor Giles Watling mad

As Edwin Hayward observed on Twitter earlier today:

The Tories have reached the "invade France" stage of the immigration debacle, and it's only Wednesday.

He was talking about a statement that Giles Watling, the Conservative MP for Clacton, places on his website today:

Giles Watling MP is backing stronger borders and an end to illegal migration. Giles is set to back the Government on the Rwanda Bill again this week to deport illegal entrants but warns that the legislation does not go far enough - and will not ultimately succeed in full.  He believes that we must stay focussed on the mission, which is to bring the evil cross-channel trade in human misery to an end.

Mr Watling said: 

"It is undeniable that we need to police our borders and strengthen them. Fundamentally, it is perfectly acceptable that those who are not here legally should be deported to have their cases assessed – we cannot reward those who break the rules and I welcome the Government finally getting to grips with this issue.

"However, and despite intense lobbying from colleagues of mine on both sides of the party, I am afraid I simply could not support any amendments to this Bill. This is not because I did not agree with them in principle, but simply because I do not believe that this Bill goes far enough – even with the proposed amendments, should they have passed.

"The Home Office has demonstrated time and again that it is either unwilling or unable to grapple with the scale of the challenge facing it, and to that extent I believe it is time that it is relieved of the responsibility of policing our borders and instead the issue is handed to the Ministry of Defence.  This is after all a defence of the realm matter and we need British boots on the ground.

"Our borders must be stronger, and in order to achieve that we must explore negotiating with our continental neighbours, pointing out that they would regain control of their overrun towns from Dunkirk to Boulogne if they allow that, in addition to the people we already have in their command and control centres, we put British boots on the ground in Northern France to assist their efforts.

"This is a relatively small piece of coastline with only a few practical places to launch these boats.  We have drone technology and efficient armed forces. We should easily be able to stop the boats from even reaching the beaches and destroy them.  In a very short time I believe that the migration route will stop.  We will save lives, free up the French ports and stop illegal entry in this manner.

"All it requires is determination and diplomacy of the highest order."

Watling appears an amiable sort - see his recent interview with our own Jamie Stone in the John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier - and if you read beneath the bluster there is an appeal for international cooperation in there somewhere trying to get out.

So what has made him feel he has to sound as though he wants to invade France?

Here's what:

A new poll suggests Nigel Farage could comfortably win a seat in a constituency formerly held by UKIP, beating the incumbent Tory MP for Clacton by ten percentage points.

The 'Honorary President' of Reform UK polled at 37 per cent of the vote in the Essex town, based on a Survation survey of 509 people conducted through the week.

The Tories were only marginally more attractive to voters than Labour, which received 23 per cent. Six per cent would have voted Lib Dem and eight per cent other parties.

Were Mr Farage attempt to unsettle Giles Watling MP from the seat he has held since 2017, it would be his eighth attempt to become an MP.

Poor Watling. Driven mad by Nigel Farage.

There is another possible explanation: have a look at the video above. Because the very Sixties small boy in it is... Giles Watling.

He played John Gregson's younger son in the police series Gideon's Way. And this clip comes from one of the better episodes, The 'V' Men.

The orator the young Watling was listening to was Sir Arthur Vane, leader of a far-right party called The Victory Movement. Could it be that he was more affected by it than anyone realised? 1964, after all, before anyone thought of safeguarding for child actors.

If so, it would be an irony, because Gregson's George Gideon, like his creator John Creasy, was a liberal. He manages to find out who planted a bomb outside Vane's flat, while maintaining the peace between the Movement and left-wing demonstrators.

All this despite having Allan Cuthbertson, whose very looks screamed "ex-colonial police office who believes in crowd control by violence", wished upon him by the top brass.

But I blame Nigel not Sir Arthur Vane.