The UK has told a man of age 90, developing dementia, that he has to go to the US before he can apply for a visa to live with his British wife. If he went to the US, he might not be competent to apply for the visa; supposing he did so, he might not live long enough as a homeless person to see the answer to the application.

The many cruel immigration decisions coming from the UK vary in their details, but they all embody a basic attitude of rigidity even to the point of cruelty. That attitude is no accident; it has been instilled somehow.