Michael Mansfield QC disowned Labour Against the Witch Hunt when in 2018 I sent him some of their tweets including calling Jewish Labour Movement "racist scum", using "Zios" and comparing Zionism to Nazism.
That there could still be debate as to whether LAW or its members should be proscribed proves why it needs to be proscribed. The important question is why it has taken four years to do it
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Important new report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
Sounds boring right? But hundreds of statutory instruments have been used to make Covid criminal laws for the past year and a half, controlling the minutiae of our lives
This is a good report - a bit of "we have tried to work with the government, we have been polite and respectful" etc at the beginning but then goes on to make some serious criticisms of unclear and irrational criminal laws, failure to provide enough notice, guidance vs law etc
I'm not going to summarise as I don't have time but I will post some screenshots of important bits in my opinion
Still don’t really understand the legal basis for this if workers are avoiding test and trace notifications (not just the app). Is it all “research”? Is there guidance on it somewhere? bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
I don’t want to be a stick in the mud but currently there is no “critical services“ exception to self isolation regulations so strictly (it looks to me) if workers follow govt guidance they will be breaking the law gov.uk/guidance/nhs-t…
There is a essential infrastructure exception for the international returns self-isolation regulations but that is different. I suppose that workers could rely on an unlisted reasonable excuse to avoid prosecution but it’s not ideal
As @TomRHickman pointed out in the thread I retweeted earlier, the government has hopelessly confused law and guidance throughout the past 18 months and is now paying the price - no reason why everything can't be done *in principe* by guidance but (a) the govt has...
... toyed and teased in past 18 months with law and guidance with the implication that something legally mandated is more important, but has never been consistent so public totally confused, and...
The Guardian/Amnesty investigation into hacking journalists'/lawyers'/human rights activists' phones is hugely important - and worth watching. theguardian.com/uk
One question though - is there any other example of software being given a nationality?
"Israeli spyware" cited everywhere
Do we ever hear about American Social Media when Facebook is criticised etc?
My understanding of the story is that the software is being used by many governments and other organisations to hack people's phones. I appreciate the origin of the software is part of the story but is it the story itself? Or is the word "Israeli" used in headlines...
I have often thought of people who are anti-lockdown as Ayn Randian - a kind of muscular libertarianism, not really a human rights approach at all (though they often cite human rights)