@mentions@mrjamesob Three points I hope you’ll cover this morning. One, law needs to be certain – publishing the new regs _at 23.45 the night before they come into force_ doesn’t qualify. See this👇
Two, the “rule of six” may be simple but the rest of the regs are extremely complicated. @AdamWagner1’s whole thread worth reading but for complexities start here:
Three, making of legislation without Parliamentary scrutiny has now become the norm. This is very dangerous and we should be making more noise about it (as legal Twitter has been doing). See this 👇 and
@MarinaHyde Oooooh me too, idolise him. Thanks for posting.
@MarinaHyde My dad’s best friend Steve produced Stoppard’s script “Squaring the Circle” on Solidarność being made into a TV film with Bernard Hill as Lech Walesa & Roy Kinnear directed by Mike Hodges m.imdb.com/title/tt018657… and...
@MarinaHyde Stoppard had also written a short play called NewFoundLand (shown at the Almost Free Theatre in Rupert St) about the first US citizen to be naturalised as British and keep his US passport, Ed Berman, who had to take his case to the US Supreme Court and... donshewey.com/theater_review…
The PM ‘justifies the bill’s repudiating clauses on the grounds Brussels threatens the “territorial integrity” of the UK. He conjures the prospect of a “blockade” – vindictive obstruction ...It is a depiction too twisted by mendacity to work even as a caricature of the facts.’ /1
‘EU state aid regulation would make it harder to divert taxpayers’ money into a British Google, or national unicorn-breeding facility.’ /2
‘Johnson... does not appear to care about the Good Friday agmt, although he understands something called “the peace process” makes a fine rhetorical ornament. He has been as reckless, unfaithful & self-serving in his relationship with NI as in all his other relationships.’ /3
‘Within Mr Johnson’s inner circle, it is a private boast that they are “tearing up the rule book” of government. One of the rules they have been shredding most aggressively is the concept of ministerial responsibility. Under previous governments of many different complexions /1
...this idea has been central to how democratic politics is supposed to work. When things go wrong, the minister is accountable to parliament and must answer to the public for his department’s failings. When things go badly wrong, the minister resigns. /2
Ministerial responsibility is at the core of the compact between government, parliament and public.’ – @andrewrawnsley /3
Poor Mr Orwell must be rolling in his grave this week alone. Anything in this thread strike a chord? All eerily apropos: ‘The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.’ /1
‘The insularity of the English, their refusal to take foreigners seriously, is a folly that has to be paid for very heavily from time to time.’ /2
’Intellectual honesty is a crime in any totalitarian country; but even in England it is not exactly profitable to speak and write the truth.’ /3
If we stay in the EU, we can eat Xmas food at Xmastime. If #ChaosBrexit happens, “This could leave British shoppers having to turn to the likes of turkey, stuffing and pigs-in-blankets as regular fresh food supplies run low.” H/t @MrSandy_P
If we stay in the EU, cancer patients can continue to have treatment with certain radioactive isotopes. These are as unstable as a Slytherin Tory cabinet minister and cannot be stockpiled. H/t @Dr_PhilippaW
If we stay in the EU, we can spend £100m between now and Hallowe’en – more than 2x what Proctor & Gable will spend in that time says @kacidama – on sexy shit such as the NHS, transport, education, jobs, housing and cool Hallowe’en costumes.