1/ I’m sounding the alarm🚨. After Brexit is done, the European Convention on Human Rights is the next target for those who drove the Leave movement. And it may well be successful [THREAD] 
2/ In amongst the row over whether the Leave Campaign spent beyond legal limits was a blog post published yesterday by Dominic Cummings containing this chilling statement dominiccummings.com/2018/03/24/on-…
3/ Cummings was the campaign director of Vote Leave. So he can’t be ignored. And it makes total sense, if you follow the logic of the Leave Campaign. I’ll explain why.
4/ The key messages of the Leave campaign were taking back ‘control’ and ‘sovereignty’ from the ‘undemocratic’ international institutions which make up the EU.
5/ One of the surprising focusses of the Leave Campaign’s ire was the European Court of Justice. Surprising because do people really care about an international court which, in most lawyers’ eyes, is usually (though not always) sensible and not perverse?
6/ it turned out that the European Court of Justice, which is nothing to do with the European Court of Human Rights (see rightsinfo.org/whats-differen…), was an effective target. Michael Gove and Boris (backed by his QC wife Marina Wheeler) regularly railed against it
7/ The European Convention is a treaty which the UK was central in drafting (see rightsinfo.org/wrote-european…). It's is overseen by an international court in Strasbourg. The idea there should be international standards but with wriggle room for individual states’ history and culture
8/ The European Convention on Human Rights is extremely important to the people of the UK and Europe (see ). But it is not well-understood or particularly popular in the UK
9/ The reason for this is mostly the hostile tabloid press which have over decades “monstered” human rights and made it seem as if they only protect terrorists and paedophiles. That is wrong, but loads of research shows the belief is now pretty well-entrenched
10/ So. If Cummings is telling the truth and they are “coming for the ECHR”, how likely is BrECHRit? Well, the political will is there. Theresa May is a long-time critic of the European Convention. Only a few loud “Runnymead” Tories would actively oppose
11/ And as I said, we are a long way away from widespread support in the UK for the ECHR, just as we were a long way away from widespread support for the EU before the Referendum. So the conditions are similar. I’m worried.
12/ We need to get active. We need to get ahead of this. To focus on a wide hearts and minds campaign, appealing to people's emotions - which the tabloid press do so well. Please sign up to rightsinfo.org/subscribe to keep informed about what to do! /END
13/ Also, if this bothers you even a bit please consider making a regular donation to @rights_info which is building support for human rights through story-telling and engaging information rightsinfo.org/donate
