Thread by @StefSimanowitz

“A big step towards authoritarianism” @GeorgeMonbiot

The govt are excluding debate on new anti-protest laws

The entire Lords committee stage debate on new clauses was crammed into one late night

The Commons have been excluded & the Lords marginalised

“This is proper police state stuff”

Priti Patel shoved 18 extra pages into the #PolicingBill after it had passed through the Commons & the Lords in a ploy to avoid effective parliamentary scrutiny

@GeorgeMonbiot decries the lack of media & public outcry. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The deeply-authoritarian #PolicingBill hands police vast new powers to fine, remove or arrest ordinary people who simply wish to peacefully protest

@Femi_Sorry explains👇

@pritipatel’s new amendments contain new powers to ban named people from protesting

Power is drifting away from parliament

Bills are drafted in outline, with the important detail left to secondary legislation

Henry VIII powers let ministers repeal or amend acts

Whitehall using guidance & protocols as a form of “disguised legislation”
ft.com/content/36091d…

Last week, the govt slipped a series of terrifying amendments into the #PolicingBill

The already amounted to the most oppressive legislation by a UK govt since the end of the WWII

The new amendments put us well along path to dictatorship. @GeorgeMonbiot theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Today the House Of Lords is looking at the #PolicingBill's attack on Gypsies and Travellers.

This Bill is a threat to their way of life & must be stopped. (video via @libertyhq) #PoliceBill #ThisIsNotADrill #BorisJohnson #PritiPatel @GeorgeMonbiot

Why should there be the need for a Green MEP to urge the @UKLabour to urge Labour Lords to vote down the draconian #PolicingBill tonight?

If any urging is really needed, surely it should be done by @Keir_Starmer, his Cabinet, @labourwhips & all Labour MPs

Today, @DominicRaab is outlining his plan to overhaul the Human Rights Act

This is just another dimension of the blatant, unashamed power grab from a govt that wants to put themselves above the law

This THREAD👇explains why the #HumanRightsAct matters.

Last year Tony Blair’s ex-Chief of staff, Jonathan Powell – someone who knows all about political skulduggery – wrote:

“This looks like the beginning of a rolling coup. It starts with the civil service then moves on to the judiciary & the media”

A very British, right-wing coup!

In the 1940s In the aftermath of WWII, Churchill helped draft a ‘European Convention on Human Right’ to promote democracy &?the rule of law

The Human Rights Act incorporated the ECHR into UK law

Here @SirPatStew explains what the Act has ever done for us

Human rights are not sweets in a sweet shop for Ministers to pick & choose from

It took ordinary people a very long time to win these rights - we must not let politicians take them away with the stroke of a pen
@AmnestyUK/@amnesty respond to @DominicRaab
amnesty.org.uk/press-releases…

“The #NationalityandBordersBill reinstates insidious normative expectations that Black & brown people must watch what they say, how we behave. We must be compliant as the State may decide our country is no longer our country” @KGuilaine in @WritersofColour mediadiversified.org/2021/12/13/the…

Top immigration lawyers examined the #AntiRefugeeBill for @FreefromTorture

They found that it breached intn’l human rights in 10 ways & concluded that it is “the biggest legal assault on intn’l refugee law ever seen in the UK.” #NationalityandBordersBill

And so by malice, stealth & brutishness a pattern is set

Less & less transparency

Less & less scrutiny

Less & less accountability

Until they’re entirely unleashed to bundle aside the truth & speak only their truths

It may look bleak, & it is, but...

That favourite hypotheical: "What would I have done in 1930's Germany, to fight the rise of fascism?", is no longer a hypothetical

So, what will you do?

If you are free tomorrow, come to Downing St, 1.30pm👇#NationalityAndBordersBill #PoliceBill #ThisIsNotADrill #BorisJohnson

The head of @AmnestyUK writes that when he took the job earlier this year he’d assumed his work would be heavily focused on int’l crises

Instead, much of his time has been spent on fighting the systematic dismantling of human rights protections in the UK.
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.inde…

By contrast, I moved position in @amnesty 5 years ago from working on countries all around the world to focusing on Europe, because I was worried about the dangerous & systematic rise of the far-right

Toxic far-right narratives have been increasingly mainstreamed across Europe.

There's a passage in an Ernest Hemingway's novel in which a character is asked how he went bankrupt.

“Two ways,” he answers. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

It’s the same with how our democratic rights are taken from us. @PeterKGeoghegan in @openDemocracyUK
opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…

“Open confession of dictatorship is far less dangerous than sham democracy. One can defend oneself against the former; the latter is like a creeper attached to the body of a drowning man.”
WILHELM REICH

The 1933 Reichstag fire shows how quickly fascism can hijack a modern nation

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the German constitution guaranteed free speech & freedom of the press

By 1934, it was illegal to criticise the govt, even in jest

The small window where it was possible to act, was suddenly & irrevocably slammed shut newyorker.com/books/page-tur…

We know that fascism is possible because it happened before

In countries that have experienced fascism, people tend to be more alert to its growth

But the danger is that, because today’s fascists arrive in suits rather than jackboots, we won’t recognise them until it’s too late

Fascism isn’t a form of govt

It’s a collection of tactics used to convince people to surrender their freedom by handing over power

Freedom is fascism’s victim

Freedom to question
Freedom to choose
Freedom to create

Over the centuries, artists & writers have left many warnings

“Britain became afflicted by a fever dream of nationalism” @umairh

It’s clear that nationalism was deliberately stirred up, but was this a ‘mistake’ or was it part of a bigger plan?

A plan to remove regulation to allow scientific & technological ‘innovation’ without restraint.

In 2018, Liz Truss told the Koch-funded Cato Institute that “a thicket of regulation & control” is holding back business & called for a new “Anglo-American dream”

Was Brexit about deregulation?

Is the involvement of #PeterThiel’s Palantir about genomics?

#BREAKING: Today in the House of Lords will be the 2nd Reading of the shameful #NationalityAndBordersBill

This is a chance for all the problems with this proposed legislation to be laid out

66 Lords will be given just 5mins each

5mins!!! Where to begin!

Protest 1pm outside

The #NationalityAndBordersBill would a racist regime for ‘Contingent citizens’ - which isn’t controlled by rules of evidence; for 'misconduct' which is nowhere specified; which has no safeguards; & which carries the sanction of statelessness for those the Patel deems 'wrongdoers'

Our #RighttoProtest is under threat

18 pages of last-minute l amendments introduced to the #PolicingBill - designed to avoid scrutiny - are grossly undemocratic & will remove basic freedoms

But it’s not too late to stop

Great explainer by @ZackPolanski

"When the govt get things wrong, the people need step up” @natalieben

"The #PolicingBill is draconian & anti-democratic" @CarolineLucas

“Protesting for the right to protest" @GreenJennyJones

“We need @UKLabour to step up” @ZackPolanski
#PoliceCrimeBill

On Monday, the House of Lords will vote on the #PolicingBill: a brazen assault on the right to protest

This weekend, there are protests across the country

Here @labourlewis explains why the authoritarian #PCSCBill must be opposed. #RightToProtest

Today, the Lords will vote on clauses in the #PolicingBill which prohibit protest

If they amend the govt amendments, rather than just voting them down, the govt can take out those changes in the Commons, put the originals back in, & pass them into law green-party.medium.com/fighting-our-g…

“I doubt I'll have much time to sleep”

Member of the House of Lords, @GreenJennyJones, who’s been sounding the alarm over the #PolicingBill for months, just posted this photo of herself preparing to spend the night tonight at the House of Lords to oppose it. #ProtestIsNotACrime

Another step along the road to authoritarianism

Attempts to stop provisions for mandatory Voter ID just defeated

It will now be harder for already disenfranchised communities to vote - a “solution” for a non-existent problem (voter fraud) #ElectionsBill

It is not all bad news

So far tonight, the govt had suffered six defeats on the #PolicingBill in the House of Lords

Well done @GreenJennyJones, @natalieben & others who have been campaigning tirelessly for the #RightToProtest

Last night, the govt were defeated on 14 draconian amendments crow-barred into the #PolicingBill at the last minute without scrutiny

An important battle in the fight for democracy was won, but - poorly prepared for this well planned Blitzkrieg - we are losing the war #PoliceBill

The enormity of what we’re up against is sobering

It requires us to set aside our differences & come together

We can no longer expend our energies fighting among ourselves

But as the defeat of the amendments in the #PolicingBill shows, it’s not too late

Today in the Lords, the #NationalityAndBordersBill debate which seeks to take rights from refugees, is in it’s Committee Stage

There will be lots of amendments tabled to see where the Govt might be beaten in the next Stage

Here @AlfDubs explains

Ystdy, the #NationalityAndBordersBill was debated in the House of Lords

People seeking sanctuary should be given protection on basis of need, not how they arrive

You wouldn’t turn someone away from hospital b/c they arrived by car instead of an ambulance

MPs will vote on the #AntiRefugeeBill today

The #NationalityAndBordersBill violates intn’l law by penalising asylum seekers for their manner of entry

The govt have blocked an amendment which requires them to abide by the law

Summary👇by @NadiaWhittomeMP

“In short this Bill won’t work” @JCWI_UK’s @ZoeJardiniere

The #AntiRefugeeBil would mean our govt criminalising, deporting & detaining refugees

Our asylum rules should reflect public compassion & generosity #BordersBill #NationalityAndBordersBill

“The true measure of a civilised society is not in its hostility but in its humanity”

MPs are now voting on the #NationalityAndBordersBill, a Bill described today as “the worst bit of legislation I’ve seen in 17 years” by @timfarron.
#AntiRefugeeBill @hrw

#BREAKING: MPs voted 302:232 to reintroduce the #AntiRefugeeBill's clause 11, enabling the govt to treat refugees differently, depending on their method of entry to the UK & grant @pritipatel the power to send asylum seekers to #offshoredetention camps.

“Today, Tory MPs voted to make it a criminal offence for Ukrainian families to arrive in the UK without the right papers with a penalty of up to 4 years in prison. This is deeply shameful” #BordersBill #AntiRefugeeBill #NationalitiesAndBordersBill #UKraine
theguardian.com/world/2022/mar…

“An act of human rights vandalism”

The @amnesty world report on the state of human rights, slams UK govt’s attack on fundamental rights & protections, highlighting attempts to dismantle the Human Rights Act & a battery of laws on refugees & policing
theguardian.com/global-develop…

This damning indictment of the UK is just one of 154 countries examined in @amnesty’s Annual Report, out today!👇

“People the world over have made it abundantly clear that a more just world, grounded in human rights, is what they want.” @AgnesCallamard

Today, the #BordersBill that seeks to turn people fleeing from war, insecurity & persecution into criminals, will return to the House of Lords

Show solidarity with @GreenJennyJones @natalieben @CarolineLucas & those fighting the Bill
#TogetherWithRefugees

Plans to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda take responsibility-shifting of refugee protection to a new low

It is cruel AND costly (at least 4x more than processing them in UK)

Research estimates measures in the #BordersBill will cost an extra £2.7bn to reform the UK's asylum system