The more it attempts to show the right that it means business on this issue, the more the right senses blood. Last Friday the Daily Mail sang the praises of Mr Duncan Smith and condemned the Government for making empty gestures in tackling asylum. The one way the Government should not respond to such provocation is to make more empty gestures.There is another option, which is to attempt to explain what is really happening. The number of asylum-seekers entering the EU has halved over the past decade. Those that manage to make it into Britain carry out the worst-paid and least-fulfilling jobs. There are immense pressures in parts of the country where public services are ill-equipped to serve the indigenous population, let alone newcomers.Tackling these pressures requires resources, sensitivity, patience and Europe-wide co-ordination There are no easy headlines in this story.

Unfortunately, the story has become one about easy headlines More from Steve Richards. The big question on everyone's lips at the moment is "why did she do it?". Madonna's West End stage debut last Thursday evening marked one of her weirdest career decisions yet. Cue tumultuous applause and cheers. Not for her the everyday challenge of learning a new language or painting watercolours.

Mind you, what thrills are left? Madonna's honed her body to perfection; how many 40-year- olds can match those rock-hard upper arms?She's got a very attractive, nice husband and two children Put her on a concert stage and she trounces Kylie any day. So why did Madonna sign up for a second-rate play that would involve her learning thousands of lines, complicated manoeuvres, a couple of tacky sex scenes and a supporting cast who would (without having to try too hard) upstage her just by their ability to project beyond row J of the stalls?Madonna is ludicrously exposed as the central character, a scheming art dealer She has to utter the lines that start and end the evening. She has to wave a large floppy black dildo about and pretend to enthuse about sex with a scraggy millionairess. At the end, I breathed a sigh of relief that she got through without disgracing herself In fact, given her limitations, Madonna did amazingly well.