Schona Jolly QC Profile picture
Oct 8, 2018 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
“The govt insisted on holding a referendum for stupid reasons”: Ken Clarke MP holding forth on Brexit at #IBARome

“Hardly any mainstream politician makes the case for immigration; British society has hugely benefited from it.”
Ken Clarke on the anti-immigration fearmongering & #fakenews in Brexit campaign: Just as Farage campaigned with ‘brown people’ on his posters, so they used Turkey, 70m Turks would come to the UK to take jobs etc.

Mainstream politicians ran the Turkey issue - eg Michael Gove.
“Anybody who tells you they know what will happen in British politics is deceiving themselves. We are in the middle of a mad, anarchic situation as every other western democracy.” Ken Clarke when asked what he thinks will happen on Brexit negs.
Ordinary rules of conventional politics cannot be applied to last 2.5-3 years in Brexit Britain: Ken Clarke at #IBARome
In Irish politics for centuries, symbolism matters. A divided Ireland with a physical border would be a great recruiting tool for extremists, would damage our relationship with Ireland & is bad for the economy: Ken Clarke.
At the time of #EURef, Ireland wasn’t mentioned. It was a mystery to some of the politicians on the Brexit side about what to do with the Irish border if we leave SM/CU, and it remains a mystery to them. It’s quite appalling: Ken Clarke MP.
In the Middle East we were wrong from the start. I thought military intervention in Iraq was a disaster, I said so, voted so with about 30 Conservatives w/ Robin Cooke. I did support targeted strikes in Syria as chemical weapons wd be the last straw. Assad kept trying it: Clarke.
Fascinating from Clarke - when he supported joining EU, Enoch Powell etc were anti-EU & the last of the imperialists who never forgave dismantling of Empire. That has now spread to a wider, increasingly nationalist wing of party, growing for 20 yrs.
Thatcher was very pro-EU, at least economically speaking. Fall of Thatcher was a traumatic moment for the British right & it then started making anti-EUism into a symbolic movement which then grew... now a fantasy right wing movement which I don’t quite understand: Clarke
Both parties are almost unelectable - the public can’t be deceived by the shambles. They are close together in the polls because people can’t decide whom they are least attracted to. Someone like @YvetteCooperMP heading party of Social Democrats might be 20 pts ahead in polls.
Last point was in answer to a question about possibility of a Corbyn govt if UK crashes out of the EU without a deal.
Earlier, I wrote this about Prodi.

Listening to Ken Clarke QC MP this afternoon, I’m struck again how rare this dignity, reflection & experience now is on our political stage. A pleasure to hear him speak, so freely, on all that’s gone wrong. #IBARome

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More from @WomaninHavana

Oct 9, 2018
#IBARome@IntlCrimCourt⁩ Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says emphatically that pushback by the American govt, & other states, will not deter the ICC from doing its work without fear or favour. #CrimesAgainstHumanity #genocide
ICC can be faced with total non-cooperation, dwindling resources, hostility etc. Forms part of challenge to conducting investigations. We need to anticipate such challenges. US isn’t 1st state to refuse to cooperate with ICC, eg Sudan, but we still collected evidence: Bensouda.
Since I announced investigation into Philippines. I’m sure you’ve heard response of leader, including threats against Prosecutor. But, eg, see Burundi where I opened prelim invest. Burundi immediately withdrew, but we ctd investigation & obtained satisfactory evidence- Bensouda.
Read 19 tweets
Oct 8, 2018
“History did not end as Fukuyama predicted some years ago. History is running now & liberal democracies are under threat” - a powerful opening speech from former Italian PM Romano Prodi, on global democratic malaise, populism & the multiple causes of growing inequality. #IBARome
“Migrants are indispensable to our economic lives, here in Italy too.... (yet) the defence for the loss of identity is the nation. This is why all international organisations are under threat.” Prodi on migration #IBARome
“EU is a symbol of shared progress, of the defence against the right. A visible instrument of a new social justice on a continent” (previously riven by wars) - to applause.
Prodi quotes someone as saying “EU is a union of minorities” - but says this is now challenged. #IBARome
Read 10 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
Serious cognitive dissonance in @theresa_may⁩’s Op-Ed.

Citizens of nowhere, we remember.

Hard red lines without any respect to a deeply divided result, we see now.

A refusal to apologise for the #HostileEnvironment.

EU citizens rights, we care. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
May claims a “decent, moderate and patriotic programme that is worthy of” Labour support.

So patriotic it deprives us of jobs?

So decent it leaves British citizens in Europe stranded?

So moderate it strips us of our right to study, travel, live, love & work in 27 countries? /2
May boldly asserts “The British people are not bound by ideology”.

Brexit is nothing but ideology.

There are no proven facts. There is a preposterous belief that we can do everything, as all the evidence before he flees to Paris, Berlin, Dublin. /3
Read 16 tweets
Sep 13, 2018
Govt has now published its 28 No-Deal Guidance documents.

On a skim, common themes are:
- Red tape (more of it);
- Increased price or trouble for most of us.

But don't worry. Blue passports late 2019. And the PM said it's not the end of the world.

gov.uk/government/col…
Some highlights: "The government will invest £92 million from the Brexit readiness fund on an 18-month programme to design a UK Global Navigation Satellite System. This will inform the decision to create an independent system as an alternative to Galileo." /2

#notonthesideofabus
UK-based businesses, academics and researchers will not be eligible to bid for any future work on the EU Global Navigation Satellite System programmes. Onus on them to take steps to avoid penalties. /3
#notonthesideofabus
Read 15 tweets
Sep 3, 2018
I urge everyone to read this stark analysis of a world failed by self-serving leaders, & rife discrimination.

These are the parting words of Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, @UNHumanRights High Commissioner in ⁦@TheEconomisteconomist.com/open-future/20…
Everything he writes resonates with the weight of our daily troubles.

Even as @BorisJohnson issues lazy, reckless & empty rhetoric, Hussein’s words remind us not only that Johnson’s like are morally cowardly, but also dangerous. Frothing, but incapable of advancing us. /2
As a Myanmar court sentences 2 @Reuters journalists to prison terms for exposing horrific crimes, as journalism is weighted down again as a crime, Hussain’s words resonate in a world busy with words, not actions.

“What are we saying to the perpetrators? Or to the victims?”
/3
Read 5 tweets
Sep 2, 2018
August is over, but enjoyed some wonderful books in the sunshine. A few of my favourites:-

- A Strangeness in My Mind, by @_orhanpamuk, a beautiful and absorbing love letter to a fast-changing Istanbul. I missed Mevlut for days after I finished it.
/1
Pachinko, by @minjinlee11 - I couldn’t put down this unfolding 20th century saga about Koreans in Japan, seen mostly through the eyes of tough female characters.

Circe, by @MillerMadeline - a feminist re-working of myth and magic.

/2
Re-read the absolutely brilliant Sing, Unburied Sing by @jesmimi, a painfully lyrical exploration of an African American family in America’s Deep South. It’s haunting, beguiling and very powerful.
/3
Read 4 tweets

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