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12 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Parliament should be given a *prior vote on the three tier system and where it is initially to apply. The government said that significant measures would from now on be debated and voted in parliament
This is why - laws which bypass parliament are open to abuse and illiberal outcomes. Parliamentarians should be screaming about this otherwise what is the point of them?
The Prime Minister has confirmed that the new three-tier regulations will be laid before Parliament today and debated and voted on tomorrow - before coming into force on Wednesday. This is progress, but won't give opportunity to amend, only to vote 'yes' or 'no'
So the prospect of them being voted down is close to nil - though I hope that parliamentarians use the opportunity to properly interrogate the regulations

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Adam Wagner Profile picture
12 Oct
I messed up the thread so best thing to do is start from the end and you can see the whole thing
My overall thoughts on these: better to have three sets of regulations and then apply them to areas, rather than making new ones every time you bring in new areas. But, the idea that public and police will digest and understand these hugely complex rules is I think farcical...
And these regulations read as if, and I’m pretty sure this is what has happened, they have been drafted by an increasingly large but slightly random committee. There are so many exceptions, they become almost impossible to know or enforce...
Read 4 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
12 Oct
🚨Hot off the press, and for the first time to be debated before they come into force:

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (High) (England) Regulations 2020

I understand there will be 3 sets, one for each tier

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1104… Image
So this is "Tier 2" - High.

The order has changed, so now we get penalties and enforcement section first

Fixed penalty notices starting at £100 but rising to £6,400 for a sixth breach

Business fines start at £1,000

The £10,000 starting fine I assume is for large gatherings ImageImage
🚨Here are the "Very High" regulations. Sorry, this is going to get quite confusing, I'll continue with the "High" ones below and come back to these

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert
Level) (Very High) (England) Regulations 2020

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1105… Image
Read 27 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
12 Oct
This is how they did plague regulations in 1665:

"all plays, bear-baitings, games, singing of ballads, buckler-play, or such-like causes of assemblies of people [were] utterly prohibited"

lawgazette.co.uk/legal-updates/…
As far as I can tell the source is not the laws themselves but Daniel Defoe's description of them

kneesofwiltshire.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/dan…
I like this one - progressive and sensible!
Read 8 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
11 Oct
Not commenting on whether the restrictions are fair or not, but some positives here:
- 3 tiered system likely better and simpler than hodgepodge of local/national rules. Easier to understand, explain, advertise
- consultation with local mayors better than secret decisions...
- Sounds like the 3 tiers will be subject to a parliamentary vote, hopefully before coming into force.

Cautiously, this does sound like a better approach than the fairly random, secretive and largely unscrutinised (by Parliament) one we have had for the past 6 months
Also, if there are 3 tiers which are relatively well-known, it will be harder to change them iteratively and regularly without parliamentary/public buy-in. Entirely possible that govt will carry on using executive decree but the signal is positive in my view
Read 5 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
11 Oct
Super-interesting comments by Dr David Nabarro of the @WHO - not quite saying lockdowns should never be used (as the headline suggests) but saying they should be a las resort to "buy time to reorganise". news.com.au/world/coronavi… original interview is here
The @WHO is a human rights-centred organisation with an holistic perspective on 'health' (below a slide from a talk I gave, key bits of the constitution). So right that they are looking at not just basic question of how many dead but also impact on poverty and and life chances.
I am trying to take a step back and consider where we are up to with human rights and Covid-19, for a talk I'm giving a week on Wednesday. It's still so difficult, six months on, to know what the right balance is, where to focus, how even to articulate the 'human rights approach'
Read 7 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
11 Oct
One of the things this crisis has brought home to me is how illiberal outcomes are inevitable when hugely important decisions are made by a small group in secret and without parliamentary scrutiny. Biases and personal preferences of those in the room are inevitably amplified...
I am not a conspiracist and I believe those in government and the civil servants around them are doing their best in a terrible situation, but it's inevitable when a small group are given almost unlimited power over our private lives that they their decisions will be distorted...
... by personal preferences. Do they go to football? Are their friends keen on grouse shooting? Do they enjoy garden centres? Etc. The Soviet leaders might have sympathised - if we can only take more control over people's private lives, society will move in X direction.
Read 14 tweets

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