Simon Cox
@SimonFRCox
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migration & equality, law & politics | barrister | cis he/him | @DoughtyStImm @ukraine_advice ex @osfjustice | my views obvs not doughty st | profil pic A.Wiard
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Joined January 2013
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Calling Ukrainians arriving at UK borders without a long-term UK visa! If you have any problems at immigration control, and you don’t have/ can’t get a lawyer, my DMs are open this weekend. Me & colleagues will find you a lawyer to help you stay in the UK til it’s safe to leave.
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An island ruled by British schoolboys who turn on each other, run short of food, kill the vulnerable and have to be rescued
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Oscar Schindler was a human smuggler and a document forger.
Under British law - then and now - the steps he took to rescue Jews from the Holocaust count as crimes.
Please ponder before you use *laws* on human smuggling as a *moral* benchmark.
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I’m a human rights lawyer, and I represented 42 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers challenging the Greek Gov in the European Court for refusing to punish the farmers who exploited them.
And I am not alone 🧵 +
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Andrea Leadsom was a member of the UK Government that voted for Tusk to be President of the EU Council, on both 1 December 2014 & 9 March 2017.
#StopFakeNews
Andrea Leadsom just said "No one in the UK voted for Donald Tusk". He was voted in in 2017 by 27 out of 28 votes. The dissenter was Poland. So someone in the UK must have voted for him. Once again
@bbcnews
failing to hold Brexity politicians to account.
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Hitler *was* opposed with reason & evidence. He still took power. He didn’t do that by winning most votes or seats. He did it through using speech & force to build hate among his supporters and fear among his opponents. That’s why we no-platform Nazis.
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EU citizens denied a right to vote because your Euro Parliament form hasn't been processed -ask for the register to be corrected TODAY so you can vote.
Returning officers can correct the register of voters down to 9 pm tonight!
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Peter Hitchens was 14 when Black men got the legal right to be served in a British pub. And 31 when women did.
Peter Hitchens was on earlier, saying the Britain of his youth was pretty free compared to now (I paraphrase). He was born in 1951. State run theatre censorship ended in 1968. Just to be gay was imprisonable until then, being able to speak freely about it took a whole lot longer.
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Journalists! Refugees are people.
Not water.
People DON’T “flow”, “flood” or “swamp”.
People “move”, “walk”, “ride”, “run” and “flee”.
Europe *braces itself* for flood of both ISIS suspects and Syrian refugees through Turkey 😅
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When reading about asylum-seekers in barracks, please remember: UK Gov made it a criminal offence for asylum-seekers to try and support themselves by working.
The state forces them to be destitute, or seek Home Office accommodation. +
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When I tweeted this, I didn’t know about 7 Sep knife attack on immigration lawyers’ receptionist.
But Patel did.
My opinion: Patel doesn’t care if immigration lawyers - or staff who work with us - get murdered. She will have been warned of the risks - she deliberately chooses to take them.
While Lord Chancellor, Attorney-General & Solicitor-General are silent.
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Farage tells even bigger lies than Enoch Powell, like “Whole streets in Oldham of people who have lived in my country for over 30 years who don’t speak a word of English” Which whole street?
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Whoever thinks it’s clever to say “but Cummings son is autistic” doesn’t get the national mood.
1% are on autistic spectrum. 100,000 UK school age children.
100,000 families trying to follow advice to keep us all safe. Not travelling. Not seeing relatives.
Many now angry.
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Bristol: no broken bones, no punctured lung. Why did police invent injuries?
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Dr Zahid Chauhan is perfect here. Calm, clear, specific, expert answers to every angry hyperbolic question. One of thousands who so rarely get heard.
Absolute kudos to this doctor who prioritised homeless people for vaccinations, because they are highly vulnerable.
And kudos again to him taking it as a “badge of pride” and says he is supporting the voiceless even when others complain.
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My opinion: Patel doesn’t care if immigration lawyers - or staff who work with us - get murdered. She will have been warned of the risks - she deliberately chooses to take them.
While Lord Chancellor, Attorney-General & Solicitor-General are silent.
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Brits protest as Spain requires €21K minimum income for new retirement visas.
What’s the UK equivalent? There isn’t one. EU citizens have *no* option of retiring to U.K.
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I hope UK immigration officials will show you the kindness and solidarity you deserve. I know many will. My tweet is just in case.
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Dawn Butler did the right thing. But so did the Speaker by suspending her from Parliament for calling Boris Johnson a liar - and not suspending Johnson. Let me explain (pls don’t reply unless you read the thread) 1/12
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Government Minister “Parliament should not be able to control its own proceedings. Parliament should not be able to pass a law.”
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N Ireland: We vote ‘No’ to Brexit
DUP: It’s not up to N Ireland - UK Parliament decides
UK Parliament: Irish Sea Border
DUP: that’s illegal!
Court: It’s not up to N Ireland - UK Parliament decides.
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The only way British MPs could require France to do this is by rejoining the EU.
France should be required to take migrants turned back at sea, say MPs, after more than 700 successfully crossed the Channel in five days.
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Calling Ukrainians and their family in UK! We now have a special website to access free immigration advice on how to stay legally in UK or reach UK: 🧵with more info and background
Calling Ukrainians arriving at UK borders without a long-term UK visa! If you have any problems at immigration control, and you don’t have/ can’t get a lawyer, my DMs are open this weekend. Me & colleagues will find you a lawyer to help you stay in the UK til it’s safe to leave.
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Good news - v misleading headline. Concession only applies to small group of interpreters & contractors “who have already been through UK checks” meaning they applied months or years ago.
🚨 BREAKING: The UK will waive border rules to allow Afghan asylum seekers to flee the Taliban to Britain without a passport
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Her parents & all four grandparents are British citizens by birth, but Priti Patel’s immigration rules say 2 year old should be deported
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Electoral commission advice to polling station staff is clear - if the form has been received, then the register should be corrected by 9 pm and the voter allowed to vote by 10 pm:
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Very normal: A government source accused Fire Brigades Union of a "betrayal of our country and the British people" for raising fire safety concerns. Ht
@lomelindi12
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Saying “mass murder of Muslim is inevitable unless Muslim minorities are expelled” is genocidal. No broadcaster should publish this as a “perspective”.
On the night of the Christchurch pogrom
@BBCNewsnight
broadcast claims that more pogroms are inevitable because non-Muslims are incapable of living peacably with Muslims.
Demand no platform for racist legitimation of terrorism!
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3000 people - in one day - is <500 people per hour. Brockwell Park is easily large enough. Sunbathing more than a few meters from others is no risk of contagion. Sitting in households isn’t either.
If stay_at_home breaks down it’ll be because of unreasonable actions like this.
Despite clear advice, over 3000 people spent today in Brockwell Park, many of them sunbathing or in large groups. This is unacceptable. Unfortunately, the actions of a minority now means that, following police advice, Brockwell Park will be closed tomorrow.
#StayHome
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This is spectacularly ignorant.
@FraserNelson
hasn’t even bothered to read the court’s judgments. 1/
The agony of Alfie Evans’ parents was made worse by bad law. My take:-
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Sterilising poor people has been revealed as a big thing on UK right wing. It’s closely linked to racism & EURef. Thread. 1
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But human rights lawyers can’t stop human smuggling and trafficking.
These are driven by human misery and by policies to block safe routes.
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The *real* lesson of the 2015 refugee policy panic of leaders is …. 62% of Germans now say “We’ll manage” if Afghans come in larger numbers to Germany. They’re quoting Merkel from 2015.
*”Wir schaffen das”
80% of Germans think Afghanistan could unleash another wave of refugees heading their way like in 2015. Fascinatingly, though a clear majority - 62% still think "Wir schaffen das"
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UK human rights lawyers took the Home Office to court in hundreds of successful cases when Ministers blocked legal & safe routes from Europe for refugees with family in the UK driving them into the hands of smugglers +
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Dear UK lawyers, what is preventing you from doing Tik-Toks like this?
Too many ppl trying to rain on my parade.
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What’s happening here? Immigration law analysis THREAD (usual disclaimer - see end)> 1/
British man blocked from entering UK after holiday after Home Office revokes passport with no warning
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the problem isn’t Boris. It’s how hundreds of politicians, civil servants, police officers, the media, who claim to uphold the law and the truth watched *in silence* while hundreds of them broke the law
That system is just as open to abuse by Gove or Patel. +
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Today’s UK Gov asylum announcement. Let’s look at these proposals one-by-one in a thread 1/xx
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Official to refugee: I don’t believe you’re gay because that’s too dangerous where you come from
"... the Minister for Justice had found that: "It simply is not credible that a young man having been raised in... a restrictive environment would engage in behaviour both unacceptable and outlawed in the society in which he lives."
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1 This Home Office claim has no legal basis & opens door to fear & administrative chaos. It's foolish & should be withdrawn
@AmberRuddHR
Home Office website says EU permanent residence card "won't be valid" after Brexit. When did Parliament approve that,
@AmberRuddHR
?
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May wants huge extension of her broken, nasty & ultimately counter-productive migration enforcement regime to citizens of UK's neighbours 1/
This all looks deeply unpleasant (millions more subjected to May's 'hostile environment') and economically suicidal.
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Johnson & Patel could have waited for a ruling that their Rwanda policy is lawful and *then* booked the flight.
They’re using public money to scapegoat refugees and their defenders,
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Nazis want *debate* - to sit on the stage in public as if their ideas are legitimate. To present themselves & be accepted as reasonable.
Contesting Nazi ideas doesn’t need this debate. We discuss with children, students about Hitler without inviting a Nazi in to the class room.
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Personal announcement: I’m returning to
@DoughtyStreet
as a self-employed barrister, after 8 inspirational years at
@OSFJustice
. I’ll be lawyering on the rights of migrants, other people who need assistance & in support of those who defend our human rights.
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Belfast Agreement binds UK not to change its laws affecting cross-border issues - without cross-border agreement. Johnson’s letter ignores that.
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Greek human rights lawyers have fought for decades to create a proper asylum system in Greece, so that refugees in Greece wouldn’t have to use smugglers to get them to a country with a proper system.
They’re still fighting. +
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1986. Notorious racist Powell was no-platformed at Bristol Uni, Leeds Uni, Cardiff Uni...
2020. Political editor of *The Sunday Times* doesn’t do archives
Nothing makes me feel old more than the odd spectacle of students demanding not to be offended. When I was young universities were the greatest bastions of free speech. I suspect the young will stay green and vegan as they age but no platforming they will look back on and cringe
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Very few Ukrainians will be able to reach U.K. borders. Because Home Office won’t issue visas - and threatens airlines/coaches with fines if they let Ukrainians board without a visa.
Calling Ukrainians arriving at UK borders without a long-term UK visa! If you have any problems at immigration control, and you don’t have/ can’t get a lawyer, my DMs are open this weekend. Me & colleagues will find you a lawyer to help you stay in the UK til it’s safe to leave.
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Home Office up to tricks again? Why are schools asking for pupils to show their immigration status? That’s not a requirement to go to school in U.K.
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May's
#1
is "look like a fighter".
So winning is a problem - bc it ends the fight. We know this from her Home Office days. Thread. 1/n
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I was there. It was thousands. At a few hours notice.
Thoughts & impressions >
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best test of reliability of an expert is their insistence that they are not an expert on other things
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Home Office website says EU permanent residence card "won't be valid" after Brexit. When did Parliament approve that,
@AmberRuddHR
?
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Covid-19 transmission is happening in call centres, building sites, detention centres. But police don’t go there - they go to the beach.
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Human rights lawyers often represent victims of trafficking without charge, or on legal aid rates at a fraction of the rates commercial cases pay. Even though these cases are often much more complex and demanding than commercial disputes.
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There is no “queue” for UK immigration. It’s a long-standing lie, invented to imply migration policy is coherent & equitable. Thread. 1/
“It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi.”
Does this mindless rhetoric ever stop?
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Many UK human rights lawyers relocated to Greece to work, often unpaid, alongside Greek human rights workers to create an effective asylum system and safe and legal routes for family reunion of refugees. +
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Marr “So we’ll stop buying their dairy products, and they’ll stop buying ours?”
Eustace: “Yes”
#Veganuary
#Milkpocalypse
Dairy farmers won’t be affected by a possible 35% tariff if there is no trade deal with the EU because "we would be applying our own tariffs on imported EU goods," says Environment Secretary George Eustice
#Marr
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Main question that Europe has about UK politics:
"Why do they *still* talk as if the world revolves around Britain?"
The only question being asked that matters in British - nay European - politics tonight: does Mrs May survive?
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EHRC’s position (ht
@guardian
) presupposes intersex people don’t exist - or that every intersex person can properly be labelled “male” or “female” +
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Irish Gov tells UK: you can't repeal the Human Rights Act, that would break Good Friday Agreement.
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These police haven’t resigned their actual jobs. They’re still drawing salary. They just ‘resigned’ the emergency team. So unlike most workers, they get to pick and choose what they do at work - and to stick up for 2 cops who almost killed a man.
Fifty-seven police officers in Buffalo, New York, have resigned from the force's emergency response team following the suspension of two officers who allegedly pushed a 75-year-old man to the ground during a protest, a source says
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Given Allison Pearson’s contradictory, incoherent and plain daft statements about Covid IMO she has no serious reputation to defend. Threatening someone’s job looks like an attempt to distract from how publicly stupid she has been.
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In 1981, UK Government abolished birth-right citizenship for children of immigrants without permanent residence.
Now there are 50,000 British-born children *in London* with no papers.
Home Office charge £1000+ for a child to become British.
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My early thoughts: Rwanda Bill would - if passed - destroy the essential function of the courts in a democracy. Parliament has no role in directing courts to assume as facts no risk of serious harm. 1/
This may be rash, but some early thoughts on the Rwanda Bill and Treaty.
tl;dr the government seems to be going for the toughest option it can which falls short of actually withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights & Refugee Convention
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So don’t criticise the Speaker. Those who oppose the liar Johnson lost the political arguments in the Tory Party and the country. The Speaker can’t change that. Only the voters can. 12/12
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@helenczerski
@KateWilliamsme
shout out to Katherine Auker. She took her slave master to court in London - and won the right to work freely. In 1690. 👇
Thank you for the excellent thread!
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Key reason 64000 asylum claims are waiting is because politicians don’t want officials granting asylum. So officials pore over cases, dragging out the process, looking for ways to refuse.
Deciding most asylum claims isn’t hard, if you’re OK with granting refugees asylum.
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at last, a Home Secretary with empathy for my immigration clients who used a false identity.
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THREAD Why *now* for an article about crooked immigration lawyers?
Rwanda policy is in crisis and Govt need to throw mud at immigration lawyers.
This is distraction and dangerous. 1/
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@Emma_Cueto
@joeyfixit
@brokeymcpoverty
the man with us said "no, that's not it" and mansplained it.
Not.
Ironically.
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29 asylum seekers died in Home Office accommodation last year, 5 times as many as those who lost their lives on Channel small boat crossings over the same period.
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Deadline is 9 pm on polling day for clerical error corrections to the register- see
@ElectoralCommUK
advice here:
The register includes whether an EU citizen has made the separate request to register to vote in the Euro Parl elections
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Johnson’s key tactic is same as May. Pretend to be thinking & talking while only running down the clock.
Same game of chicken - with a crazier driver.
@BorisJohnson
@prospect_uk
...because Johnson says the chances of a deal are 'rising'
@michaelgove
says the EU is "shifting"...
Both plead for more time for their 'deal' strategy to work. And yet there is not substance to the 'plan' - other than 'run down the clock'. /11
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6. Corbyn's words against "importing" workers are so harmful - and hypocritical. They legitimize racism, control & more exploitation.
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“Migration Watch” the immigration don’t-think tank lying about immigration law again. +
It is illegal to come to the UK without permission (Immigration Act 1971) and to seek asylum without identity documentation (Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of claimants) Act 2004).
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“Illuminati”. That’s what UK Gov’s Leader of House of Commons Rees-Mogg just called his political opponents.
“Illuminati” is of the strongest anti-Semitic conspiracy triggers.
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Stopping deportations of people denied access to lawyers is important work. It buys time for fair hearing.
But fair hearing for what? Our laws allow deportation of people who’ve lived here for decades - even since childhood.
That needs changing.
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Regular reminder. In 1915, England took in 150,000 war refugees*. The Government didn’t call it a crisis.
*from Belgium. Little Royston became 1/4 Belgian.
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No platforming isn’t the same as state censorship.
No platform is when people with a platform choose not to allow it to be used by people pushing ideas that are beyond the bounds of legitimate debate.
Like genocide.
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UK is heading for
#Brexit
In Name Only. And maybe the slow, spasmodic death of British nationalism. Thread.
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Who guessed “UK Supreme Court” as 2020’s replacement boogeyman for EU?
BBC unquestioningly amplifies Tory leaders playing along with false Tory grassroots-online idea that Supreme Court judges have more power than Law Lords.
Where’s real journalism?
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For 100 years, Soviet/Russian interference has rightly been key concern of UK’s mainstream politicians, press & security agencies. Yet for FOUR YEARS Tories & MI6 haven’t investigated KGB meddling in a key British vote?
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The slogan “Kill The Bill” isn’t new. (The trolling / moral panic is.)
A thread.
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UK Gov and Telegraph doing a Goebbels. When a judicial review is strong, Home Office drops deportation. These get listed as “withdrawn”, not “successful”. Cases won this way - every day.
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May *wants* EU citizens fearing the Home Office. The mistake on the form. The missed deadline. The warning letter. The knock on the door 11/
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Geoffrey Cox QC MP declared before EUref that case for Leave was “overwhelming”. Private-school & Cambridge Uni educated, one of UK’s highest paid lawyers & long-standing politician.
Now he says this.
Why hasn’t he resigned as an MP, accepting that he is not up to the job?
“I just feel we have under-estimated its complexity. We are unpicking 45 years of in-depth integration. This needed to be done with very great care, in a phased and graduated way. It needs a hard-headed understanding of realities” (1/2)
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Allowing people a platform doesn’t stop them claiming they’ve been silenced.
Decriminalising hate speech wouldn’t stop fascists claiming they are victims.
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Very few Ukrainians will be able to reach U.K. borders. Because Home Office won’t issue visas - and threatens airlines/coaches with fines if they let Ukrainians board without a visa.
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UK Home Sec chooses to quote-tweet headline accusing her of torture with response “I stand by my decisions”. Deliberately signalling her support for torture - but in a thinly deniable way. Torture is illegal, but our collapsing Govt can’t control her. Ht
@LaurenHStarkey
I stand by my decisions – as well as those of my predecessors across the political divide – to strip those who pose a threat to our country of their British citizenship.
I will always put the rights of victims and their families first.
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if you’re in Central London tonight, and you don’t look white & straight - take especial care. Frustrated fascists will be looking for victims.
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I’m sorry but I’m have to say
I TOLD YOU SO
Theresa May to consider axeing Human Rights Act after Brexit, minister reveals | The Independent
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