Anyone with a cat for sale?

A Bolivian immigrant about to be deported has won the right to stay because he and his girlfriend have bought a pet cat.

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has ruled so. An appeal was lodged by the Home Office, but it was rejected. The cat, purchased by the couple, was one of the pieces of evidence that they had built a stable relationship in this country.

Sending him back to Bolivia would apparently breach his human rights to a "private and family life".

Where will it end? Will other immigrants due to be excluded make sure that they have a cat, or a dog, or a budgerigar? And if we have a right to a family life, could ordinary prisoners find right to appeal?

It seems that the cat is here a red herring. The real problem is, yet again, the human rights block on our behaving decently bu firmly with people who have no right to be here.