Thread by @EleanorRylance

I became politically active 3.5 years ago, straight after the referendum, not just because i was devastated by the result (although I see it as the biggest act of national self-harm in the last few hundred years), but because of *how* and *why* it happened. 1/

I wasn’t an assiduous law student, but I was well-schooled in constitutional law during my degree. I could see from November 2015 that our country was heading to a very dark place, and being used as a pawn by a political party that ought instead to be looking after it.

It is no coincidence that the MPs with the legal training have on the whole been the most vocal in opposing Brexit and the process that led us where we are now. 3/

I’ve been watching the car crash of the last few months approaching, transfixed with morbid fascination and horror. It was obvious 2 years ago that seizing executive powers to force through a hugely damaging and unpopular measure would be the only recourse for the Tories to win.

Opposing Brexit has been the focal point, the crucible of the crisis we were heading towards. The hill, as it were, on which we were all prepared to fight.

I have personal reasons for opposing Brexit- I see it a very regressive move, hewn from nationalism and populism, that would leave us as a country isolated and poorer by every measure.

Like thousands of other people in this country and living abroad, I’ve put my life and work on hold for over 3 years now to fight to retain a country I’d be happy for my child to grow up in.

I cannot express how relieved I am by today’s #SupremeCourt decision. It supports everything I thought I knew about this country- that the law applies equally to us all, however mighty we may think we are. That equality cannot be thwarted to achieve baser aims that itself.

We are still not out of the woods- the Conservatives and their dodgy backers are very unlikely to simply fade away. We still have a fight on our hands. But we do it from today with the knowledge that the rule of law still prevails, and still shelters us all equally.

We must continue the struggle- Brexit must not be allowed to be pushed through in contravention of the Nolan Principles, good sense, and decency.

I hope that MPs who were wavering before, now put their shoulder to the yoke & help us defeat nationalism, and overweening power.

What we have been fighting for for (actually) 4 years, Ever since the Conservatives were returned in 2015, are the aggressive attempts on our representative parliamentary democracy, the mechanism that ensures we all have a voice in parliament.

Some may be happy to see it thwarted and suspended in a bid to get what they wanted. They should not be.

Because the law applies equally to us all, there would be nothing to stop an even worse government from doing the same, if a precedent were set.

At every point along the path of this appalling episode in our history, we’ve thought things couldn’t get any worse. Each time, they did. They could get worse still. Hopefully that chance has lessened today.

We cannot take liberal democracy for granted. There are authoritarian forces at play. This way of life that we haven’t had to think about is not invulnerable, we have seen that over the last 3 years.

Too many people have died to ensure we are able to live largely as we wish.

It took hundreds of years to ensure that the people were adequately represented in the corridors of power,- this had become a right.
Prorogation was an abrogation of that right.
I am glad that has been reiterated today.
/end

PS; sorry about the tweet numbering. I kept running out of characters in awkward places...

@threadreaderapp Unroll please