A short thread on why I am dubious that the government can lawfully impose charges on travellers entering the UK for quarantine and testing (proposed at £1,750 and £210)

1/

Here is the terms of reference and panel for the "Independent Review of the Human Rights Act"

Some initial thoughts

Terms of reference:

- Entirely expected that the "take into account" duty, which has been interpreted by the UK courts as a duty to follow the European Court of Human Rights where it has clearly and constantly taken a particular line, is under review...

"The impact of the HRA on the relationship between the judiciary, executive and Parliament, and whether domestic courts are being unduly drawn into areas of policy"

This is such a diffuse and difficult question to answer and ultimately depends on your definition of "policy"...

The framing of the question gives lie to this being a neutral 20-year "review". It's not, because the government plainly wants the outcome to be a finding that the HRA has led to courts "unduly" being drawn into areas of "policy"

There will be certain members of the panel, e.g. Sir Stephen Laws of the Judicial Power Project, who will argue strongly that the HRA has led to courts being "unduly" drawn into areas of policy.

🚨The new lockdown regulations are here: coming into force on Thursday

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020

Analysis below as I read them (thread)

https://t.co/adPk9PsE0j

32 pages, 13,891 words...

As expected, "No person may leave or be outside of the place where they are living without reasonable excuse" - back to the language of the Mar 2020 regulations

Again, there is a *non-exhaustive* list (because: "include") of reasonable excuses, now referred to as "exceptions"

What are the exceptions? There are many. There are 13 listed, but a number have sub-categories of exception, particularly Exception 1 (leaving home necessary for certain purposes). Here they are, except I can't fit them into four screen grabs!

Here's number 5

You might notice that these are many more than in the first lockdown [screen shot from first lockdown regs below] - though some have made a reappearance. Basically this is a more detailed and complex set of reasons for people to not stay at home.

A short personal reflection on what happened yesterday.

I wanted to wait a bit before saying this as I think yesterday was for those who experienced the sharpest end of the disastrous breakdown between the Labour Party and Jewish people during the past 5 years.

I started talking about Labour antisemitism here in 2017 I think. My key aim was to try and act as a bridge between the left of the Jewish community and the left of the Labour Party. I used my platform on social media to do it and quite quickly I developed some back channels...

... to who I thought were sensible people in Jeremy Corbyn's office and Momentum. I kept those channels going for quite a long time. I found this paragraph from emails I exchanged in Spring 2018 with Laura Murray in Corbyn's office. It now seems quite prescient.

As I delved more into the issues and heard, privately, what was going on in the movement itself, I slowly and regrettably came to the conclusion that the issue was so serious it needed an "independent body" to come in. It was in Autumn 2018 that @antisemitism approached me...

... to assist in making a submission to the @EHRC to try and persuade them to enter the fray. I was skeptical, given the the UK's human rights organisations had stayed almost entirely silent (to this day, to their shame) on the issue, though I knew it was utterly necessary...

This is a thread on human rights and the Coronavirus.

It will be a mixture of discussion, ideas and links and I will try to keep adding to it as things progress (THREAD)

I have been thinking about how human rights values and laws can help us traverse the next few months of deep crisis - across the planet.

We could 'suspend' or ignore human rights as a 'peace time nicety' as has happened in the past.

But to do so would be a huge error /1

As a preliminary, it is really, really important to understand that looking at the potential response to Coronavirus through a human rights lens does not generate any easy answers. I’m not going to offer any. /2

Another preliminary: as with response to terrorism (there are similarities here) it is natural that when people are frightened, critical voices raising ‘niceties’ like individual rights are seen as annoying and beside the point. They. Are. Not. We know that from history. /3

What can human rights offer? Well, for one thing this is exactly the kind of crisis which the modern human rights system was designed for.

I’m going to start with the general and then move onto the specific /4

🚨The new lockdown regulations are here: coming into force on Thursday

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020

Analysis below as I read them (thread)

https://t.co/adPk9PsE0j

32 pages, 13,891 words...

As expected, "No person may leave or be outside of the place where they are living without reasonable excuse" - back to the language of the Mar 2020 regulations

Again, there is a *non-exhaustive* list (because: "include") of reasonable excuses, now referred to as "exceptions"

What are the exceptions? There are many. There are 13 listed, but a number have sub-categories of exception, particularly Exception 1 (leaving home necessary for certain purposes). Here they are, except I can't fit them into four screen grabs!

Here's number 5

You might notice that these are many more than in the first lockdown [screen shot from first lockdown regs below] - though some have made a reappearance. Basically this is a more detailed and complex set of reasons for people to not stay at home.

If anyone's thinking to spend the weekend fantasising about a left split from Labour, here's an updated summary of why it's crazy ... 1/ Labour is the only route to a left government in Britain. Even Podemos ended up in power as junior partners to PSOE...

2/ 56% support for Scottish independence and Labour on 13% in Holyrood polls mean 2024 is the last chance saloon. If Scotland is out of the UK there'll have to be something akin to the US Democrats, or Popular Front in 36 - until the demographics change

3/ The culture/values conflict is unavoidable and will be intensified inside any left party. Trans rights, migration, Brexit - all the issues that divide the Labour left would divide anything to the left of it: so then there'd be two left alternatives...

4/ What we need is an organised left alliance in the Labour Party - bigger than the SCG and Momentum and based around policy and activism... instead we get the self-defeating project of disaffiliating Unite slice by slice...

5/ The scale of the Covid and climate crises mean even traditional social-democrats are having to re-think - just as French liberals did in the 1930s. That means an anti-capitalist left in Labour has to engage constructively...

1/8 Britain is in almost complete lockdown. Nine months since the first. Europe is closing its borders to the British. Across Europe the pandemic is worsening. The US has over 300,000 dead. Far from getting better, the situation in the West is getting worse. The West has failed.

2/8 At what point will the West wake up to the fact this is an historic crisis of Western government, society and culture? Without a vaccine, the West has shown that it cannot deal with the virus. It has been forced to admit defeat and live with it. And it is losing the battle.

3/8 The West likes to think it is cosmopolitan. Wrong. It is increasingly provincial in its mentality. East Asian societies have conquered Covid-19. We barely even acknowledge the fact. We desperately try to ignore that China has succeeded where we have catastrophically failed.

4/8 If the West was cosmopolitan it would seek to learn from East Asia, ask why it is successful. Yet the worse things get, the less curious the West has become about East Asia. This is the story of the West as a failing, self-absorbed, inward-looking culture and civilization.

5/8 The success of East Asia, with China at its heart, has many explanations including: 1. Competent and strategic government; 2. Great respect amongst the people for government and authority; 3. A deep commitment to society and social bonds rather than selfish individualism.

1/ Today’s Spending Review delivers on the priorities of the British people.

This thread covers 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 from Departments across Government. #SR20

2/ This Spending Review delivers a historically high @UKHomeOffice budget which will help them to keep people safe and deliver new border and immigration arrangements. #SR20

3/ We’re providing over £76 billion for @educationgovuk to meet the government’s commitment to level up education standards across the country and drive economic growth through improving the skills pipeline; levelling up productivity and supporting people into work. #SR20

4/ We will enable @DWP to deliver efficient frontline services and ensure that support is targeted where it's needed most.

The new 3-year long £2.9 billion Restart programme will provide intensive, tailored support to over 1million unemployed people and help them find work #SR20

5/ @DCMS will increase economic growth and productivity through improved digital connectivity and data infrastructure.

We'll grow and evolve our sectors particularly those most affected by Covid-19 which include culture, sport, civil society and the creative industries. #SR20