Rhodes on people-smuggling, the perils of Rwanda and the outspoken prince who may become a silent king

I don't know if anyone is taking bets on the number of illegal immigrants who will be deported to Rwanda but I might risk a fiver on a nice round zero.

For a start, the Government's scheme will be instantly challenged in the courts under human rights legislation. If it crosses that hurdle (and it probably won't), the scheme will face a revolt in the Civil Service.

Next, the obvious problem, seen in so many other airborne deportations, namely, how do you get 200 unwilling and muscular young men on an aircraft they do not wish to board? What if the other passengers revolt? What if the pilot and crew declare the situation unsafe and refuse to fly?

And even if one or more migrants are eventually transported to the steamy and unpredictable tropics, who stands up in Parliament to defend the indefensible when the first migrant dies of malaria?

And yet we have a problem. Many of the folk scrambling up the beaches near Dover do not look like family groups fleeing persecution. They are young, fit single men of military age and they arrive in their tens of thousands.

There are times when only the words of King Edward VIII, on a visit to the depressed Welsh valleys in 1936, will do. Like all the best political quotes it is usually misquoted. What the King said was: “Something should be done to get them (the redundant men) at work again.” The words that have echoed down history are: “Something must be done.”

Similarly, something must be done about the Channel people-smuggling trade. But if sending migrants to Rwanda is the answer, I'm Ramsey MacDonald.

It was MacDonald who spoke for the Establishment in condemning the King's 1936 outburst. He declared: “These escapades should be limited. They are an invasion into the field of politics and should be watched constitutionally."

And I dare say we'd hear much the same from politicians if the current Prince of Wales, when he becomes King, dares utter a single politically controversial word. If Charles were to say “Something must be done” about migrants, he'd probably be informed that something must be done about the monarchy. He may wish to become a campaigning king but he'll probably end up as a silent one.