and i think the fact that we're still here discussing it, you know, whilst there's a record asylum backlog, while there's £8 million a day still being spent on hotels, why is the government not fixing the administrative processes? and why is it pursuing this policy, which at the end of the day is basically meaning that people who may have been trafficked here, who may be the victims of modern slavery, are going to lose the very, very slender rights that they have under the british legal system, and rights that were brought in by a previous conservative prime minister? let's use the e word for the first time — election, or by—elections, actually, given that we now know that there are two coming up — wellingborough in northamptonshire, kingswood in gloucestershire — likely to happen in the middle of next month. curiously, when i speak to folk in both the labour party and the conservative party around by—elections in a general election year, there's a sense of, "oh, well, they've got to happen". they've obviously got to happen,