Schona Jolly QC Profile picture
Mar 23, 2018 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Today will be trumpeted as a decisive next step, as we take another firm step to the EU door.

We have arrived here in a way by stealth. By triggering Article 50 before we had any idea of the future shape. By trying to hide impact assessments or behind banalities. /1
We arrived here by trumpeting red, white & blue, by setting impossible red lines.

We only reached here by quietly caving in on almost all of them.

And by setting a precedent that makes us likely to keep caving as we move to third party status before we know any more. /2
We arrived here by creating a snowstorm of distraction & by preventing an open, detailed & rational debate about what the future would look like, on the multiple levels of our collective lives.

We arrived here by crying betrayal every time someone stepped behind the bunting. /3
We arrived here by hurling "will of the people" when we asked why we had to cause unprecedented damage to our constitutional, legal, social & economic framework with #EUWithdrawalBill.

We still have not resolved that. /4
We arrived here by refusing to acknowledge we were risking social, economic, workers, consumer, environmental rights etc.

We were told to shut up & believe the Prime Minister would protect us (a PM now seen to fold with the wind), without the letter of the law. /5
We arrived here by suppressing debate & wasting time with a general election.

We arrived here because no dissent was allowed. These are the PM's own words.
This is called Taking Back Control. This is called the Will of the People. /6
We arrived here by lying about impact statements. First we had them, in excruciating detail, then we didn't. Then somehow we did again. And they wouldn't publish them.

And somehow, when they materialised, we magically moved on. The civil service was to blame. Traitors too. /7
We arrived here by ruthlessly exploiting the insecurity of EU nationals, & leaving British nationals in the EU with no certainty of where they stood.

We did this by allowing promises made in the referendum to be forgotten. Papered over.

That was then and is is now. /8
We arrived here by telling our EU partners to Go Whistle, holding Trump's hand & rolling out red carpet for Saudi Arabia

We arrive here today as Trump's unstable WH jumps into bed with Bolton, & EU offer strong solidarity over Putin.

We shout Global Britain & fling fish. /9
We arrive here today, with our elected representatives knowing they are leading us into a poorer, less secure future, with our reputation much diminished.

We have arrived here today by a referendum that solved nothing & leaders who huffed, puffed & blew our own house down. /10
Put down the bunting. There is nothing to cheer.

Our MPs must stand up for our national interest. Twitter threads won't cut the mustard, pay the bills, or keep us safe.

We need to #ThinkAgain. It's almost, but not quite too late. We need a #FreeVote. We need a #FinalSayForAll

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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
“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.
Read 12 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

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