Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 Twitter profile

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Rajiv Shah

4 days

Assisted Suicide Falconer Bill has two key safeguards: (1) person (P) must freely choose, and (2) P must be terminally ill Unfortunately, we know that the procedures proposed to check that those are met cannot succeed in doing so, i.e. Bill fails on its own terms Receipts 🧵

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

What's striking about this is that the justification is not paternalism ('banned for your own good') but is instead about protecting the NHS. That's a subtle - and dangerous - shift from thinking humans are of ultimate value to thinking an institution is.

Politics UK

@PolitlcsUK

2 months

🚨 WATCH: Keir Starmer confirms he's considering banning smoking in some outside areas "My starting point on this is to remind everyone that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking. That's a preventable death... so yes, we are going to take decisions"

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

Since we've been treated to a grotesque celebration of Marie-Antoinette's execution, here is her last letter - written at 4.30 am on the day she was guillotined. It is a remarkable and telling letter from a very misunderstood and maligned woman

Jack Yeo

@jackryeo

3 months

A picture of contrasting attitudes to the monarchy. #Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

That's not quite right. Under the Refugee Convention serious criminals can be deported back to their country of origin even if that country is unsafe. By contrast under the ECHR, criminality is not an exception to the principle of non-refoulement. 🧵

Dominic Grieve

@dominicgrieve_

15 days

I now want to look in more detail at Jenrick's nasty propaganda video. It starts with a few examples of cases to make people angry. But those examples are in fact irrelevant to the case he is trying to make. Jenrick has been an Immigration minister. He must know that the main

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Dan is completely right but there is something deeply wrong in SW1 which means those campaigns and others similar to it (e.g. we need a new criminal offence of x) are incentivised even though everyone knows it is bad policy Thread on poor incentives in SW1 👇

Dan Neidle

@DanNeidle

2 months

The campaign to abolish VAT on suncreen ignores a pile of evidence that cutting VAT on specific products doesn't reduce the price of those products. It just puts more £ in the hands of retailers and suppliers.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

Her last message to her children

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

Given the ICJ ignored the Monetary Gold principle and used the advisory opinion procedure to circumvent jurisdictional rules, then yes the UK should ignore it. Commitment to a rules based order cuts both ways

Henry Mance

@henrymance

13 days

@JimmySecUK Is your view that the UK should have ignored the ICJ ruling that its rule of the Chagos Islands was illegal (and the subsequent UN vote calling on it to vacate)?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

Seeking to leave the ECHR and replace it with a British Bill of Rights is a big mistake Human rights law is problematic because it gives judges the power to decide what should be questions of political morality A British Bill of Rights would lead to the same problems 🧵

Kate McCann

@KateEMcCann

13 days

Feels like Jenrick is playing to his audience here with some big hitting Tory values chat. Cleverly seemed keener on tough love. Jenrick bill of rights etc wins over Tories but… they’re already paying to be here. Party has a lot of ground to make up if it’s to win again w public

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

PM is more interested in the 'upstream' deals Italy (and EU) have struck with Libya and Syria. This is startling. If you care about the refugees, those arrangements are far worse than the Rwanda deal. That these are seen as 'grown-up' is pure vibes over substance 🧵

Steven Swinford

@Steven_Swinford

1 month

Labour is looking at Italy's migration deal with Albania, under which it will send migrants to Tirana while their claims are being processed David Lammy tells @bbclaurak : 'Because it has reduced the numbers we are interested in discussing with Albania the schemes that they have

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

7 days

I'm not sure that Cameron did reach that view but it is absolutely outrageous that officials are briefing the press or telling their new political masters what ministers in a previous administration thought so that they can brief the press

Tony Diver

@Tony_Diver

7 days

Officials in FCDO said Cameron took an unusually deep interest in Chagos, and came to the view that some deal would have to be struck. But it was kicked into the long grass pre-election, amid concerns about optics and hope a solution could be found with UK sovereignty intact.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

Barnier proposed that France should ignore final judgments of the ECHR in migration matters (which would be both illegal and fatal to the ECHR) The inability of UK commentators to grasp just how right-wing he is shows how Brexit clouds everything

Presidential candidate Barnier wants to limit role of European courts

www.euractiv.com

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

@alexhallhall How does that fit with the right to self determination of the Chagossians (including those Chagossians who do not have Mauritian citizenship)?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

It's a great delight to see the Lord Chancellor celebrate our traditions Far too many people on the left have a (performative?) dislike of tradition, great to see @ShabanaMahmood stand proudly for tradition

Shabana Mahmood MP

@ShabanaMahmood

13 days

Honoured to wear the traditional attire at the Opening of the Legal Year. Each piece has a unique story behind it. And the wig? Well it's certainly one way to look taller!

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

Civilised nations agreed in the torture convention not to deport people to places where they may be tortured. But the ECHR goes much further and prevents us from deporting someone to a country whether they might get slapped just once by the police Receipts in 🧵

Dominic Grieve

@dominicgrieve_

15 days

Jenrick also claims that the ECHR allows terrorists to be on our streets. As I can think of no reason why a person suspected of terrorism can't be arrested and tried, I think he must be referring here to issues with deporting foreigners convicted of terrorism offences after their

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

And for completeness the last will and testament of Louis XVI

The Last Will and Testament of Louis XVI

January 21 marked the anniversary of the regicide of Louis XVI, King of France, by the revolutionary authorities. Here is his last will and testament, written a month previous on Christmas Day. In...

www.andrewcusack.com

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

I haven't worked on tax policy but on legal issues government is constantly facing demands to make this or that a criminal offence. In most cases, these things were already crimes or if they were not there are good reasons for this. So the correct policy response is to say no

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

The mad thing is that everyone in SW1 knows that this is bad policy but everyone is incentivised to let it happen. That means the problem is a system wide issue

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

What could have been

Jessica Simor KC

@JMPSimor

2 months

Pass a short Bill closing Twitter down in the U.K. @Keir_Starmer ? There is more than enough reason to do so. One of the richest men in the world is using his platform to cause serious harm - putting lives & communities at risk. @YvetteCooperMP @lisanandy

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

7 days

What's even more striking than that stat is how little policy discussion there is about it We are v focused on disproportionate rep of (say) private school kids in Oxbridge But - anecdotally - v high number (>> 50%) of people in my year in Cambridge came from intact homes

Freya India

@freyaindiaa

7 days

By age 14, nearly half of first-born children in the UK no longer live with both their mother and father. We shattered the foundations children depended on and now we wonder why a generation is falling apart. Welcome to the age of abandonment.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

It beggars belief that the UK-Rwanda deal is seen - especially by a certain type of Centrist commentator - as the height of all evil but upstream deals/'smashing the gangs' is seen as clever/sensible/grown-up. Total vibes over substance

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

11 days

This isn't the own the spads briefing @PippaCrerar think it is After 11 rounds of talk Tory ministers were still not persuaded that there was a good deal to be done, but Labour thought there was in 2 rounds That rather suggests that Labour ministers didn't negotiate hard

Pippa Crerar

@PippaCrerar

11 days

🌏Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game... There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under Tory govt who started process. So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

In the old COVID slogan, the NHS's value was instrumental and the ultimate goal was saving human lives Starmer here - with the exception of the very beginning of the clip - seems to erase that last step, thereby elevating the NHS as being valuable for its own sake.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

I'm struggling to follow here. A hypothetical vote this/next year would settle the matter (of assisted suicide) for a generation but an actual vote 9 years ago didn't settle it for a generation?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

5 days

Under the Spad contract, SG has no entitlement to severance pay. If they want to give her more, this would require a Ministerial Direction from the PM, and this would be made public Q is whether Starmer wants to pay the political cost Receipts below 🧵

Guido Fawkes

@GuidoFawkes

5 days

Sue Gray Causes Chaos in Downing Street in Battle for Massive Severance Payout and Salary

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

The next right wing journo to interview her should ask @trussliz why she started such negotiations (and thereby helped deliver the 2017 and 2019 labour manifesto)

Rt Hon Grant Shapps

@grantshapps

13 days

This is absolutely appalling. Surrendering sovereignty here creates read across to other British bases. It's a weak and deeply regrettable act from this government: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

@ikeijeh Thank you! I find the 'no retribution' message from her and Louis (in his will) very striking

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

But those campaigns are often eye-catching, sound simple enough and have powerful emotional arguments behind them. This ensures that they get coverage by the media (and, quite often, that goes beyond the Lobby)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

11 days

@ArchieHall @TheEconomist Thank you for actually studying the issue and coming to your own conclusions, unlike all the Sensibles on this website who just reflectively thought it was good

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

A concrete illustration is the case of KM. He had been complicit in torture in Congo and so was denied refugee status based on Art 1F RC but because there was a real risk of ill-treatment if removed he could not be deported under ECHR/HRA

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Backbench MPs very rarely get public recognition for line by line scrutiny of Bills in Committee, but backing such a campaign (and leading it in Parliament) gives them such coverage. So they, perfectly rationally, do that (even if privately they know things are not so simple)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

And so govt, perfectly rationally, decides it is not worth spending political capital opposing the campaign and agrees to it. And that's how we end up with duplicate/redundant criminal offences or changes to VAT that do not benefit consumers

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

These exceptions were added to the Refugee Convention because their drafters understood that rights came with responsibilities and that the legitimacy of the international refugee protection system would be undermined if refugees could commit serious crimes and not be deported

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

Another exclusion under the RC applies to those who have committed war crimes/crimes against humanity abroad. Even where that applies the ECHR does not allow for those people to be removed

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

From a moral point of view I completely get the case for returning it to the Chagossians but that's not what the ICJ said, their reasoning is inconsistent with the notion of the Chagossians as a distinct people and Mauritius has throughout shown callous disregard for them

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

This wide interpretation by the Strasbourg Court undermines that legitimacy and is also wrong in law Strasbourg has recognised (in the Hassan case that @dominicgrieve_ cited) that it needs to interpret the ECHR in harmony with other parts of international law.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

The reality of this externalisation of border control is that those countries do the (dirty) work of Western states without the safeguards that would be expected by the West. It is not surprising that there are multiple (credible) allegations of breaches of human rights

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

But going back to the point Jenrick made in the video, it does mean that leaving the ECHR whilst remaining in the Refugee and Torture Conventions would mean being able to deport serious criminals which we cannot totally deport

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

@yuanyi_z Still my Queen

Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

Since we've been treated to a grotesque celebration of Marie-Antoinette's execution, here is her last letter - written at 4.30 am on the day she was guillotined. It is a remarkable and telling letter from a very misunderstood and maligned woman

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

As @Madz_Grant observed last week, this view of the NHS as in itself sacred has serious implications for debates on assisted suicide and as this shows it's not just for assisted suicide that this has implications

Assisted suicide and the NHS are a truly toxic mix

People are right to fear the elderly may face pressure to end their lives to reduce pressure on the service

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

As Professor @JTasioulas said we need to rescue human rights from human rights law, and we do not do that by setting up a new Bill of Rights. As @michaelpforan said, that does not mean that no new legislation might be required (on the contrary)

Dr Michael Foran

@michaelpforan

15 days

We don’t need a Bill of Rights, we need a Privacy Act, a Freedom of Expression Act, a Family Life Act, a Freedom on Belief Act and so on. Somewhere where Parliament does the work of legislating on these issues concretely, rather than passing the responsibility to courts.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

(This is not a criticism of Italy. They would rather do those patrols/pushbacks themselves but cannot because of the Strasbourg Court decision in Hirsi) The consequence of that decision is simply externalisation of the problem without safeguards)

Case of Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

In all those cases government (at both official and political levels) knows that there is no need to change the law but refusing outright will lead to negative headlines so they tend not to say no outright (it tends to be 'this is a very important issue and we will study it')

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

This is a treaty that was signed by all the ECHR member states. It is wholly wrong for Strasbourg to then interpret Article 3 of the ECHR as offering more protection than what States themselves decided to settle on in the Refugee and Torture Conventions

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

This is known as the lex specialis principle. Both the ECHR and the Refugee Convention were drafted at the same time and RC is therefore the lex specialis. It is wrong of Strasbourg to interpret the ECHR in a way which negates the careful balance that the RC struck

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

First up, that living instrument doctrine everyone on the right hates. Guess who invented it? Not the Strasbourg Court but our very own Law Lords all the way back in 1929 in a case called Edwards v AG of Canada (the Law Lords were the ultimate court of appeal)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

@alexhallhall He does. What evidence do you have that he doesn't?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Striking illustration by @POLITICOEurope today of how the Lobby sees UK politics as the minor league to the US London Playbook leads with the DNC (whilst putting the rise of the energy cap much further down) whilst Brussels and Paris ones focus on what they are meant to cover

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Before the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 the PM consulted the LCJ on who should be appointed Lord Chancellor. Contrast with the position now. A real sign of what we've lost

Jason Loch 🏳️‍🌈

@JasonLoch

2 months

In February 1984, the Cabinet Secretary met with the Lord Chief Justice to discuss potential successors should Lord Hailsham of St. Marylebone step down as Lord Chancellor. He summarized the LCJ's views in this memo for the PM's Principal Private Secretary. 1/3

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Then said backbench MP attempts to add this as an amendment to a Bill which then needs to be voted on. The government knows that they can whip to vote it down but that makes them look bad and it means all govt MPs will get angry emails from constituents

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

Recall how the big issue of the Rwanda saga was non-refoulement (not sending people back to a country where they are at risk of persecution) and the Supreme Court felt that the UK-Rwanda agreement did not have adequate safeguards against the risk of Rwanda refouling migrants

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

Issue with HR law is that by asking judges to interpret vaguely worded provisions expressed in moral terms, it is necessarily inviting judges to decide what their understanding of those concepts are and it's hard to do that w/o letting one's own views in

Philip Murray

@philipmurraylaw

16 days

I'm on the more sceptical side when it comes to the ECHR. This isn't because I don't think the rights it enshrines are important, or because I'm against pan-European rights protection, but because I think its method for protecting rights sits uneasily with common law tradition.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

Call for a British Bill of Rights is a policy by slogan which should be confined to the 2010-2024 era. Leadership contenders should not call for it and party members should not clap when it is proposed

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

But could we avoid those problems by drafting the new Bill of Rights very carefully? I'm sceptical. Judicial activism is a feature of all human rights instruments everywhere in the world (and frankly the Strasbourg Court is the least bad)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

But the Italy-Libya deal has none at all (other than vague boilerplates about international law/human rights) Neither does the EU-Tunisia one:

Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic and global partnership between the European Union and...

Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic and global partnership between: the Republic of Tunisia, hereinafter referred to individually as ‘Tunisia', and the European Union, represented by the Europe

ec.europa.eu

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

In Hassan, the ECtHR applied the principle of lex specialis to row back on some of its previous case-law. It should do the same here: allowing States to deport terrorists/serious criminals to their country of origin even if unsafe (unless they face a risk of actual torture)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

The gist of all those deals is that Western countries/EU give Libya, Syria, Tunisia, etc... money so that they prevent migrants from setting off to Europe. Understandably those countries do not want those migrants to stay there so they seek to in turn send them back

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

Meanwhile the new French interior minister is moving in the same sort of direction

Bruno Retailleau

@BrunoRetailleau

16 days

Sur les OQTF, on ira au maximum mais ce n'est pas suffisant : Tant qu'on n'aura pas réglé le problème du renvoi dans le pays d'origine, on ne réglera rien

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

This was despite the fact the MOU had safeguards against non-refoulement and the subsequent UK-Rwanda treaty had even more safeguards

UK-Rwanda treaty: provision of an asylum partnership (accessible)

www.gov.uk

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

Our courts have used that principle to interpret the bill of rights of Caribbean countries in a progressive direction, particularly in death penalty cases. So much so that Lord Hope accused his fellow judges of just imposing their personal views

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Assuming this isn't just a fluke/misspeaking, this shift is far more significant than yet another liberty v parternalism debate (at least both sides of that debate recognised who was of ultimate value!)

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

It is true that in the 1980s the Torture Convention laid down an absolute non-refoulement rule but it limited it only to torture and not other forms of ill-treatment.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

7 days

Under the Cabinet Manual ministers cannot see papers from previous admin of a different political party. There's an exception for legal and diplomatic matters, but that's to ensure continuity not to engage in political briefings

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

@DCBMEP Fake news, this isn't the DNC

boo-trick boo-tnoir

@patrickcotnoir

2 months

I went to my first WNBA game last night. former UK prime minister rishi sunak and robin thicke were there. It was very weird.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

It's fascinating to note that @jdportes and @anandMenon1 think there might be a case to reform the Refugee Convention. That seems like a real Overton Window shift Fwiw, I'm sceptical that reform of it is possible let alone necessary or desirable Thread

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

This is disappointing Saini J's discussion of jury equity was - to put it gently - in need of clarification by an appellate court @robertcourts was right to bring the case and to appeal it, but his successor is clearly entitled to drop the case Elections have consequences

Paul Powlesland

@paulpowlesland

2 months

Great news both for Trudi & for peaceful climate protesters: the government have dropped their appeal against the High Court decision vindicating her right to stand outside court with a sign informing jurors that they have an absolute right to acquit a Defendant on their

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

Do we really think that it is realistic to think that in 2029 we would be able to draft a more conservative document than we did in 1951? If the project didn't work in 1951, it's unlikely to work today

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

13 days

And secondly, do we really think that politically such a document could be drafted? As @MarcoLDuranti has shown the ECHR was intended to be a conservative document to protect us against socialist/progressives and look how it has turned out

Human Rights Here

@HumanRightsHere

5 months

New post and new blog series! 💻 Behind the Scenes of the ECtHR's practice. In this blog post Alina Piekuszewski and Paula Wagner interview Dr. @MarcoLDuranti about the historic background and foundation of the European Court of Human Rights. #ECtHR #ECHR

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

As far as I can tell this is the second head of an independent Arms Length Body that Labour ministers are 'pushing' since the election (the other is James Wharton at the Office for Students)

PA Media

@PA

3 months

#Breaking Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Criminal Cases Review Commission chairwoman Helen Pitcher is “unfit to fulfil her duties” and she is seeking her “removal from that position” after failings in the Andrew Malkinson case

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

@doctorjeangray There's a discussion about this here Her sister in law (to whom she wrote this letter) has an active cause for beatification

Recognition by the Church of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

I know that this subject has been raised in your wonderful site. But I think that it is a pity that Louis and Marie Antoinette, if not canonized or beatified,

teaattrianon.forumotion.com

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

7 days

I hope and trust that the @instituteforgov will condemn this @WhitehallWatch_

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

20 days

Interesting comment by the Deputy A-G of Singapore on this situation and the read across to the UK (though as he fairly points out part of the Singapore package is much higher salaries for public servants)

Ed West

@edwest

21 days

The transport minister of Singapore is paid £800,000 a year, because LKY thought he wouldn't get talented people into government otherwise, and didn't want politicians captured by corporate interests. The converse of that deal is zero tolerance for bribery

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

This is an odd letter 1) It's not the first time a conscience issue comes up but no such letter has been issued before (tmk) 2) Since it is a conscience issue on which govt is neutral there's no need to set aside collective responsibility - CR simply doesn't arise

Politics UK

@PolitlcsUK

12 days

🚨 NEW: Cabinet collective responsibility has been waived for the Assisted Dying Bill [ @JackElsom ]

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

29 days

If you want a vivid illustration see this video of the SeaWatch incident in which the Libyan coast guard appears to be flogging migrants and in which several migrants died

Mare Clausum: The Sea Watch vs Libyan Coast Guard Case

www.youtube.com

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

@davidtorrance Am I right in reading this as not even having exceptions for the Earl Marshall and Lord Great Chamberlain?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

In 90% of cases whipping doesn't change things (ie MPs from govt party would vote that way even if it was a free vote) but in 10% of cases whipping is genuinely coercive - and that has a cost. Govt will have reduced political capital with those MPs and that will weaken it 🧵

Lewis Goodall

@lewis_goodall

1 month

Am told there were several Labour MPs in tears in the voting lobbies when voting for the winter fuel changes this afternoon.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

The previous SoS for Education applied to intervene in support of Clare Page. It will be interesting to see what stance the new government takes In particular, will they stick with what the Tory govt has said about the public interest and contract/copyright law? 🧵👇

Clare Page : No Secret Lessons

@NoSecretLessons

1 month

Dear Supporters, My transparency in schools case is about to be heard in the Upper Tribunal court on 16th/17th Sept. Please read this update and support this crucial case if you can and/or share to others who agree transparency in schools is essential.🙏

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

12 days

@edrennie77 No, I rather suspect that this has the effect of muzzling the two SoS who actually own (to use Whitehall lingo) that policy: @ShabanaMahmood and @wesstreeting

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

The Adam Swift Bedtime Stories Are Unfair discourse has been great at sorting between those who are (only?) performatively right wing and those who actually think about what conservatism means Compare this reaction below with this by @HCH_Hill

Should we ban bedtime stories?

How many times have you heard someone on the Right talk glibly about ‘equality of opportunity’? And how many times do you think they have stopped to consider what that phrase actually implies?...

capx.co

Iain Dale

@IainDale

1 month

Message to the Minister for Universities (whoever that may be!). Get rid of this numpty professor now. Jesus wept. Whatever next.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

7 days

Fallacy to assume that left wing views on foreign policy equate to left wing views on domestic policy Ethnic minority/recent immigrants parents tend to be very aspirational and so want to send their kids to private schools (even if they can't afford it)

Josh Self

@Josh_Self_

7 days

NEW: Four out of five members of the new Independent Alliance group voted *in favour* of retaining VAT tax breaks for private schools Jeremy Corbyn was the only member of the anti-war, anti-austerity caucus not to vote for the Conservative motion this afternoon

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

Very sorry Sir @RobertBuckland has lost his seat. He was very fine Lord Chancellor, one who appreciated the importance of the dignified aspects of the constitution. I'm forever grateful for having had the opportunity to be one of his special advisers

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

This isn't a comment for or against Barnier but it is a comment on the parochialism of the UK politico(legal)-media class, with a few notable exceptions e.g. @youngvulgarian

Marie Le Conte

@youngvulgarian

1 month

fair to say I'm not thrilled by Barnier's appointment

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

@yuanyi_z It's interesting that they featured Olympe de Gouges in the ceremony - she was an opponent of the execution of Louis XVI and she's featured at the Chapelle Expiatoire

Olympe de Gouges - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

Meanwhile in Britain, the Sensibles are all tweeting about how it is a wonderful choice (the same people who said the previous UK govt was a threat to the rule of law) and Brexiteers are frothing with anger over the Brexit negotiations

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

@jessicaelgot Labour Chancellor tells Labour MPs that they must have a principled objection universal benefits is quite something

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

@adamrichardlimb . @DanNeidle has various examples here and in subsequent tweets

Dan Neidle

@DanNeidle

2 months

When VAT on tampons was abolished, the price of tampons didn't change:

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

So the vote today was not futile - by calling it the Official Opposition forced the govt to decide whether it wanted to spend political capital on it and they decided to do so, and this will reduce the govt's margin of manoeuvre in the future

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

3 months

@TonyDowson5 The Court of Protection really needs to stop playing God

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

@MWHoyle19 @yuanyi_z I don't think there is an original meaning to speak of. Labour Lord Chancellor and AG both warned Atlee that it was so hopelessly vague and we could not know what we were signing up for As @philipmurraylaw said the real vice is vagueness

Philip Murray

@philipmurraylaw

16 days

I'm on the more sceptical side when it comes to the ECHR. This isn't because I don't think the rights it enshrines are important, or because I'm against pan-European rights protection, but because I think its method for protecting rights sits uneasily with common law tradition.

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

The guy is so right-wing that Marine Le Pen has already come out and said he passes the first test she sets (someone who would be capable of working with the National Rally) and that she will not seek to vote down his appointment

LCI

@LCI

1 month

Michel Barnier Premier ministre : il "semble répondre au (...) critère que nous avions réclamé càd un homme qui soit respectueux des différentes forces politiques (...) Nous attendrons le discours de politique générale (...) Le RN ne participera pas à un gvt", Marine Le Pen

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

@RobertBuckland had a great plan to reverse (some of) it but sadly events intervened

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

@yuanyi_z Once again, I implore people to read some history

Conservative Human Rights Revolution: European Identity, Transnational Politics, and the Origins of...

Conservative Human Rights Revolution: European Identity, Transnational Politics, and the Origins of the European Convention

www.amazon.co.uk

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

As the UN General Assembly recognised as long ago as 1967, the only way to square the circle between respecting non-refoulement and ensuring States can deal sensibly with mass movements of people is to send them to a safe third country 6/

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

Therefore, under Strasbourg case law, showing a real risk that the police would slap you back home is enough to block a deportation and as I explained in the other thread it doesn't matter if you're a terrorist/serious criminal

Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

14 days

That's not quite right. Under the Refugee Convention serious criminals can be deported back to their country of origin even if that country is unsafe. By contrast under the ECHR, criminality is not an exception to the principle of non-refoulement. 🧵

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

Applying Semenya v Switzerland (CAS awards can be reviewed and set aside for ECHR compatibility) could Chiles argue that the 1 minute deadline is so short so as to breach her right to access courts (Art 6)?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

Far from being an elective dictatorship, the political constitution is working

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

1 month

This is something that confuses lawyers because the legal constitution is deontic (X is permitted or forbidden) whereas in the political constitution everything is permitted but with a price tag and governments have limited capital in the bank so they must decide what to spend on

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

17 days

This is a good point - imo it would be fine if Starmer said "I need White Tie to attend State Banquet for the visit of the Japanese Emperor" [which he was invited to by virtue of being LOTO] Tax treatment is a good test of whether office or personal expense

Adrian Yalland

@AdrianYalland

17 days

I cannot claim tax relief on my suits, my gown, my wig, my shirts (up to £80 a time - not through choice I add), so how can Starmer legitimately put clothes as an “office expense”?

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

I can't see how what the govt wants to say here (the buffer zone offence prohibits influencing) is consistent with the Trudy Warner case saying that holding a sign is informing and not interfering/inciting/encouraging

Home Office ‘considering banning silent prayer outside abortion clinics’

MPs voted last year to stop protests within a buffer zone of 150 metres of a clinic or hospital but legislation has not yet come into force

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

5 days

The spad contract is available on gov UK and provides only for severance payment if the appointing minister ceases to hold office or if there is a general election. Neither of those apply

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Rajiv Shah

@RajivShah90

2 months

The appeal was about the approach HK courts should take in assessing the compatibility with human rights. Lord Neuberger said the approach taken in HK was the same that the UKSC took in NI Abortion Services As they say: one man's modus ponens is another's modus tollens

Matthew Scott

@Barristerblog

2 months

With his unhappy involvement with the Post Office and his failure to follow the example of other British judges and resign from the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, Lord Neuberger's reputation is not what it could have been.

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