The Prime Minister was due to meet with his counterpart this week but cancelled the meeting at short notice because Kyriakos Mitsotakis had mentioned the question of the “Elgin Marbles”. Apologists have been claiming that Britain obtained them legally. According to the Conservative apologists, it appears that in this case, like the laws of the Medes and the Persians, such laws cannot be changed.

Consider then the same Government’s efforts to deport refugees to Rwanda. Multiple courts in the UK have declared this unlawful and the suggestion is that the Government is going to seek to change the law. Does this mean that we value lumps of rock as being of more value than living and breathing humans who make the claim that they are fleeing under the duress of being at risk of life and limb in their countries of origin?

In the not too distant past, Mr Sunak apparently had problems using a chip and pin card. Perhaps he is also unaware that we can now digitally scan artefacts in 3D and produce highly accurate copies? Given that the majority of the British people will never be allowed to lay their hands on the marble sculptures that were created in Ancient Greece, what would be the problem with putting recreated pieces on display and shipping the originals back to the nation that has at least some degree of ancient historical claim on them? Indeed, there could be benefits. We could print perfect new copies from the digital files every few years and allow people to reach a greater appreciation of the originals by touching the facsimiles.

Or, if our laws are really that precious, then perhaps the Conservative Party could attempt to live up to the generally accepted meaning of ‘conservative’ and instead honour the laws which protect living, breathing people who claim desperate need? Instead of whistle-blowing rhetoric we could do with competent ministers who can reduce the processing queues rather than seek to increase their column inches in the tabloid newspapers.

I feel a letter to my MP coming on and I think I will copy in the prospective Labour party candidate for the constituency for good measure. This is a pair of issues that are international in perspective but both touch deeply on a locality that boasts Loughborough as a town of sanctuary and, like the rest of the UK, relies on the rule of law.