| Topic: | Re:Is it as simple as 'Theresa May hates foreigners?' | |
| Posted by: | Huw Burford-Taylor | |
| Date/Time: | 04/05/17 09:51:00 |
| There is a theory doing the rounds on twitter at the moment (yes I know) and it goes something like this: "Once upon a time Theresa was Home Secretary. One day she had to deal with a request from Jordan for Abu's deportation. She was not the first Home Secretary to have to deal with this request. But there was a problem. The was the prospect that the evidence to be used against Abu in Jordan had been obtained by torture. And if so, it was not lawfully open to the UK under ECHR to deport anybody if there was prospect of torture-gained evidence being used. So what did Theresa do? She huffed and puffed at the courts, spending huge amounts of public money. Those in the media who rail against "fat cat lawyers" didn't mind the government instructing three QCs at public expense, in this case. But Theresa still lost that case. She lost every appeal, and the reason she lost was, well, because torture is absolutely wrong, and no one should be deported to face torture-based evidence. Having lost in her attempt at shouting at the courts, Theresa tried a new tactic. She shouted at Europe. It was seriously suggested that the UK "temporarily" leave the ECHR. This idea did not get far, because it was laughed at by a Lord Chancellor called Kenneth. But Theresa had got the tabloids in a frenzy at this case - she had shouted at the courts and at Europe, but none of it had worked. And so Theresa quietly did a sensible deal with Jordan where they agreed never to use torture-based evidence. You would say this was a Good Thing, as it meant there would be no torture-based evidence used in Jordan again. But Theresa did not want to talk about it. Instead she made out she had deported him "despite" ECHR rather than in compliance with it. So despite huffing and puffing and exciting the tabloids and threatening suspension and appealing, she did what the ECHR required anyway. Theresa ended up doing a sensible deal on Abu, contrary to the expectations and demands of the press, but then pretended she hadn't. In turn, Abu in Jordan was cleared, as the supposed serious (torture-based) evidence against him was no longer admissible. And Theresa got another job where she shouted at courts and at Europe, getting press into a frenzy, and then she...." The above was taken from the @davidallengreen twitter feed, which an excellent balanced legal view of things Brexit and otherwise. My interpretation is as follows: May loves to be seen to be "fighting" as not only does it gives the impression of being and "active battling politician" but it simultaneously deflects attention away from what she's done/said in the past & where this might lead us in the future. It doesn't matter, because she's "fighting" for us. I will state the obvious, it's one of the oldest tricks in the demagogues playbook: "look at me I'm fighting for US against those nasty people over there, back MEEE." And the idiotic tabloid press as sure as night follows day have fallen in behind her, so when this bloody farce collapses around our ears it'll all be the fault of the EU/unelected Brussels bureaucrats/those nasty foreigners/remoaners/anyone else apart from the sodding idiots who led us down this merry garden path in the first place. |