{"id":657,"date":"2024-03-05T14:32:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T14:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/?p=657"},"modified":"2024-03-05T14:32:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T14:32:16","slug":"the-safety-of-rwanda-asylum-and-immigration-bill-policy-and-agenda-setting-in-the-uk-does-it-truly-represent-the-electorate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/2024\/03\/05\/the-safety-of-rwanda-asylum-and-immigration-bill-policy-and-agenda-setting-in-the-uk-does-it-truly-represent-the-electorate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: Policy and agenda setting in the UK, does it truly represent the electorate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\"Prime<\/a>\n<\/div>
copyright:https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/number10gov\/52488620393<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

–Introduction<\/span> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Policy and agenda setting in the uk uses the Westminster module to create a legislative cycle, to formulate and implement policy which is supposed to represent the United Kingdom\u2019s voter base. The question this article will aim to answer is if policy making within the UK faithfully reflects the electorate\u2019s broader opinion on policy by examining the public\u2019s opinion on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill. This bill being highly controversial within the British political atmosphere with this bill stirring the partisan waters in Westminster and\u00a0\u00a0highlights flaws in the Westminster system.\u00a0
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–Westminsters policy cycle: is it efficient?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The policy system in the Uk follows a unique structure that makes up the majoritarian Westminster agenda cycle which follows the UK\u2019s legislative process . This system is broke down into 6 different steps, starting off with agenda setting, to policy formulation, policy legitimation, policy implementation, policy evaluation and policy maintenance or termination. This system does have multiple  flaws, with the 3 most prominent being Short-termism, lack of policy knowledge and poor implementation. This is because of fundamental flaws that are attributed to the formulation of government with short-termism being contributed to constant shifts of ministers and officials moving between departments which result in them focusing on immediate results, this constant shifting can also explain a lack of policy knowledge and poor implementation of policy.( ‘Better Policy Making’, Tom Sasse)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0We can highlight this by looking at the safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill, which resulted in minster Robert Jenerick\u2019s\u00a0resignation<\/a>, he quoted \u201cBegin to deliver on the mainstream concerns of ordinary people when it comes to immigration, or face their red-hot fury at the ballot box”( BBC News, Emergency Rwanda Legislation is Doomed to Fail). This highlights the issues with the Westminster system and it\u2019s policy cycle.\u00a0
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–The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: does it represent the electorate?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This bill responds to Supreme Court\u2019s concerns around the status of the Republic of Rwanda being viewed as a safe third country , and will enable Parliament to be able to approve this status and remove persons who arrive in the United Kingdom to Rwanda.\u00a0This piece of policy will build off of the illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders act 2022 and measures set out in the new immigration plan to tackle illegal immigration in the UK, with in 2023 29,000 people arriving to the\u00a0country by small boat , as well as 44,600 in 2022. This legislation aims to resolve this problem, as well as stopping smugglers, human traffickers and negating the dangerous journey people are taking on small boats.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we view polling done by YouGov UK on The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill to understand the electorates opinion on this bill we can find flaws that the current Westminster policy making system makes when it comes to representation of the electorate. Most notable is the mostly even split between supporting the conservative government\u2019s bill and opposing it. This highlights one of the main flaws of the Majoritarian Westminster policy system when it comes to contested legislation with terms like \u2018rule of majority\u2019 being used to explain nearly half of the electorates opinion being overlooked within this system. Moreover, if we also include the portion of adults in this survey who didn\u2019t know if they supported the legislation, create\u2019s an interesting question of the legitimacy of the majority who are in support of the governments bill. Moreover, it also demonstrates how a fraction of the electorate do not properly understand government policy that has been created questioning if agenda setting from the Westminster in informing the electorate effectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Overall when reviewing the The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, we can highlight some of the issues that the Westminster agenda system currently has. The system outside of this bill is know for having flaws with short-termism and a constant shifting of ministers between departments that cause a lack of good decision making. The Rwanda policy highlights how majority rule can leave large amounts of the electorate without representation when it comes to policy making in the UK. The Bill also highlights a large portion of the electorate not knowing if they support this piece of legislation demonstrating that there is a fraction of the electorate who are not fully informed on government policy which questions if they are effectively represented.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bibliography<\/span> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sasse, Tom, and Alex Thomas (2022) ‘Better Policy Making’, Institute for Government pp.1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sobolewska, Maria and Robert Ford (2016) ‘The Politics of Immigration’, in\u00a0Heffernan,Richard, Colin Hay, Meg Russell & Philip Cowley (eds)\u00a0Developments in British politics 10<\/em>(Palgrave)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-67669609<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/legislative-process-taking-a-bill-through-parliament#:~:text=A%20bill%20is%20a%20proposed,Parliament%20can%20introduce%20a%20bill.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/the-safety-of-rwanda-asylum-and-immigration-bill-factsheets\/safety-of-rwanda-asylum-and-immigration-bill-factsheet-accessible#:~:text=The%20bill%20builds%20upon%20the,in%20accordance%20with%20the%20treaty<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/yougov.co.uk\/topics\/politics\/survey-results\/daily\/2023\/06\/30\/726e7\/1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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–Introduction Policy and agenda setting in the uk uses the Westminster module to create a legislative cycle, to formulate and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}