Francis Hoar Profile picture
Sep 14, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Adam continues to provide a valuable service given the inexcusable publication of these regulations just before they are made. The justification for using the emergency procedure (and so no Parliamentary scrutiny for a potentially indefinite period) is held by a gossimar thread.
It is a potentially indefinite period because it lasts for 28 days but only those days during a period in which Parliament is sitting. Regulations under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, on the other hand, must be approved by Parliament within seven days irrespective.
One small (but not insignificant) observation. This appears to ban friendly sports matches or kicks-abouts. However, that would not be the case if one member set up a limited company and organised the matches. This is the level of absurdity to which this government has stooped.
A further point is that the Regulations, yet again, had no impact assessment. Consequently, the courts should give it little if any margin of appreciation: R (FACT) v Secretary of State [2020] EWCA Civ 649.
Very concerningly, and contrary to a Tweet by the Archbishop of Canterbury @JustinWelby last week, there appears to be an absolute ban on services of more than six people that are not weddings, funerals or 'life events' (Christenings,Bar Mitzvahs,Confirmations,etc). @AdamWagner1
There was no specific exemption in the No. 2 Regulations (which these amend). Services were permitted simply by reason of being in private or public places, indoors, which were not dwellings.
No additional exemption to the Rule of Six Regulations has been added that would preserve the right to hold religious services other than weddings, funerals and ‘life events’.
This is a very significant interference with Article 9 ECHR rights to religious worship and freedom. Irrespective of its justification at the height of the epidemic, how can it possibly be proportionate with around 5-10 deaths per day in English hospitals?

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Francis Hoar

Francis Hoar Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Francis_Hoar

Apr 16
The government’s tobacco Bill is not just stunningly impractical and unjustified by the harm that smoking causes to society, rather than the individual. It is sinister. To require adults to prove their age (not that they have reached adulthood) to buy a legal product is a gross intrusion in to individual privacy and autonomy.
It has preposterous results, such as the two 25 year-olds (then 35, 45…), a day apart in age, one of whom will commit a *criminal offence* by buying a product available to the other. (Again, not comparable to an age limit based on an assessment of maturity that is reached, only once, by all.)
It would create a thoroughly dangerous precedent that the state may ban a product not because of its capacity to do immediate grave harm (eg poisons) or to cause disorder or other societal mischief (eg alcohol, if we were being honest) but because of long-term health risks.
Read 11 tweets
Jun 28, 2023
I acted in a judicial review of this decsn in 2021. Regardless of whether the court rightly rejected the challenge to the decision of the Sec of State, as a matter of record the JCVI did not recommend vaccination for 11-15s as there was insufficient evidence about their safety.
The reason why the Chief Medical Officers of the UK and devolved nations (‘the CMOs’) recommended overruling them was astonishingly flimsy - that they might save a (proportionately) tiny number of school days in absences by reducing the number of children getting Covid.
In making that decision, the CMOs *expressly* decides not to measure that against the accepted certainty of absences due to side-effects of the vaccine. Even only taking into account minor side effects (cold like symptoms) these were likely to be greater than absences from Covid.
Read 5 tweets
Jun 13, 2023
An improvement on indications of Lady Hallett’s thinking,but it misses central points.
Lockdowns weren’t considered in pandemic plans not just b’cs they were unthinkable but bc’s measures *less* draconian were found to be ineffective & disproportionate.

bbc.co.uk/news/health-65…
It *is* positive that the Inquiry is finally addressing the lack of any adequate prior consideration of the exceptional harm that wld be the inevitable consequence of lockdown; let alone to weigh whether that harm was justified by the supposed efficacy of lockdown.
(I say finally because of the consummate lack of any such consideration in the terms of reference and earlier openings.)
Read 9 tweets
Aug 2, 2022
I find the approach of Christian Concern very odd - and wholly divorced from orthodox Augustinian and Aquinan Christian principles, quite apart from Hippocratic ones. Tragic though this case is, it concerns the end of life supporting treatment, not active steps to kill.
Not long ago, such withdrawal would have been expected and uncontroversial, however sad, where medical professionals determined that it was very unlikely that a person would awake from a coma.
And, because it was treatment using facilities and medication that was finite, such a determination was likely to have been final, a hospital having the right to ration treatment.
Read 18 tweets
Jul 29, 2022
This is desperately sad news.
Mark was the epitome of a good citizen.He devoted his life to serving his borough. I came to know him during the Tower Hamlets election petition,when his research & analysis were invaluable to exposing the corruption of Lutfur Rahman and his cronies.
He had been working on this with other journalists - @TedJeory @mragilligan, John Ware and more - for years. But assembling the evidence was particularly challenging in the face of an organisation controlled by one man.
During the nine months in which the case was prepared and presented, the small team could not have proved the case against Rahman so comprehensively (the judgment survived two judicial reviews) without Mark and others.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 14, 2022
One of the most interesting moments in the documentary was how quickly the public reaction turned. From ‘how dare you say this’ to ‘he never existed’ (a revealing comment).
The last two yrs have confirmed to me the conclusion one can also draw from this.

theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…
Let’s not beat about the bush. Public opinion is fickle, easily manipulated, and an exceptionally dangerous measure of what is right.
That is why an absolute democracy would be one of the most dangerous - and short lived - systems. A recipe for tyranny.
Edmund Burke recognised this. That is what he meant by ‘democracy’ when he castigated it.
Yes, a balanced, mature liberal democracy is the worst system apart from all the others (the caveats were understood to be implied by Churchill)…
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(