#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.

“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.

“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

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

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

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 ⁦@TheEconomist⁩ economist.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

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

It's August, & time for a proper #BrexitBreak.

Before I disappear, a few key reminders of the staggering route to summer which Britain's political life has taken this year.

Warning. You might get dizzy, & feel slightly sick.

Thread/1 2. It started with a draft Agreement back in Dec 2018, where everyone was backslapping at their own Brexit brilliance.

Memories can be short, so remember Britain agreed to pay a financial settlement in recognition of its obligations & liabilities.

ec.europa.eu/commission/sit…

In our wildest moments, amidst the deep unease at the referendum result, I don't think many of us could have imagined us exactly where we have landed today. Without effective government, without a proper plan, without preparations for crashing out, without a clue. Unforgivable. Lots of people saying this was all predictable. There was lots that was predictable - NI, for example, the problems w/ Withdrawal Bill, EU agencies etc. But this is stg different. This is an unprecedented level of chaos caused by govt making every possible misstep along the way.

First take from #WhitePaper Foreword.

There’s a new mantra. “Principled & Practical Brexit”.

Apparently it is in our national interest. And so together *we* must now get on and deliver it. To secure the prosperity & security of our citizens for generations to come.

*Coughs* Foreword from our new Brexit Sec sings about our “unprecedented economic partnership..unrivalled security partnership & and unparalleled partnership on cross-cutting issues such as data, science, innovation”.

Isn’t that called the EU? /2

“In any scenario, Brexit has severe negative consequences for the UK aerospace industry & Airbus.”
Tom Williams COO, Airbus.

As they prepare to withdraw major investment from UK over state of Brexit negotiations.

Paging May & Corbyn.
theguardian.com/politics/2018/… Possibly most striking feature of Airbus COO statement is that their request to govt for immediate details on the pragmatic steps that should be taken to operate competitively over 22 months have fallen on deaf ears.

Secrecy, lies and gross negligence from govt.

Trump’s tantrums, his temperament, his ignorance of history & the world beyond his door, his utter disdain for everything & everyone he doesn’t understand.

Like this, with petty fits of pique, Trump is tearing up his world, and ours.

And he is being enabled.

https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1009182012178096129

The US decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council is an expression of contempt for the world & for the progress it has made, for all those in the world who rely on an international support & protection of their #humanrights.

It’s a straight up, ‘we just don’t care.’

Nothing to look at here, folks.

Just a country losing all control.

Nobody can even articulate why.

#ThinkAgain #PeoplesVote

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Any time @UKLabour want to step in & stop this Brexit wrecking ball, that’d be grand.

Change policy, Labour.
Back a #PeoplesVote
Back Remain.
Articulate why.
It’s not hard.

That other way, madness lies.

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

The dishonesty of Brexit is insupportable.

Hiding behind a veil of negotiating secrecy means the country can’t analyse, openly & transparently, the hugely complex problems at stake.

Mansion House created multiples of further questions.

But it seems our govt has closed ears. To take just 1 issue - the proposed multiple sectoral agreements in place of a Single Market. What of the mechanism to adjudicate. Or the regulatory systems required. Or the cost of contribution. Or the new red tape. Or the actual loss of control & influence at the table. /2

Some choice quotes from Major today, inc Parliament’s duty to focus on ‘wellbeing of the people’, but I particularly liked this one on migration- (taken from theguardian.com/politics/2018/…) Major on the failure to explain what Brexit will actually means (Project Know Your History).

Prepare for more high-handed outrage about the EU today as Britain is back on the back foot.

We could have drafted a first Withdrawal Agreement.

We didn’t.

Because how do you get Agreement when the Foreign Sec wants a hard Irish border to accompany his ambition? And how do you get Agreement when you don’t actually show up to negotiate?

Britain’s full of #FireAndFury but there’s not enough substance behind the endless speeches.

If I sound fed up, that’s because I am.

Fed up that we are investing all our effort in a Brexit that is damaging us, & the external perception of us, just through its discussion.

Fed up that the discussion is not honest & transparent.

There’s more. /1 Fed up that the Tories are playing roulette with our present lives & our futures, without the guts to face their fanatics down.

Fed up that Labour are giving lie to the idea that this will be positive for their voters.

There’s more. /2

House of Lords Constitution Committee has harsh words about the parlous state of #EUwithdrawalbill as it reaches the Lords. Lady Taylor, Chair’s comments speak for themselves.

Link to report here. publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ld… Link to @Guardian piece this morning outlining the many fundamental problems with #EUWithdrawalBill theguardian.com/politics/2018/…

As serious q's are asked about the Leave campaign, some 17 months after #EUref, the govt hasn't a clue & is leaping in "blind faith" to prove a point./1 Here's Phil Hogan, EU agriculture commissioner to the Observer on govt's "blind faith' in theoretical FTAs. /2

There’s an embarrassment of ‘riches’, catching up on this week’s Brexit news.

A mirror in a thread. /1 Parliament appeared to grasp the very serious consequences of having triggered Art50, clueless on the path ahead. /2