Posting this because it is a total non-story that is typical of today’s news cycle.
First you have the standard tiresome tactics currently in use by HMG:
- Don’t deny anything explicitly
- Don’t correct the false assumptions that are then made
Leaving the EHCR is basically a non-starter; the Good Friday Agreement requires the ECHR to be enforceable in Northern Ireland. I don’t see anyone opening up the terms of the GFA anytime soon.
So: there was no explicit statement that there is a plan to leave the ECHR, and leaving the ECHR isn’t realistic anyway. It’s a non-story.
So now into the question: what “real” news is happening today in UK Politics?
The only value I can see to any of this is distraction and obfuscation. It manufactures an apparent problem that they can then attempt to blame on the “woke”, “loony left”, “blob”, “EU”, “globalist WEF elites” or whatever this week’s flavour is.
Actually this week it’s immigration lawyer bashing isn’t it?
Thing is, the people in the boats are… people. They’re being treated as a means to an end.
If HMG were serious about “stopping the boats” then they could easily hire staff to clear the backlog and effectively take out the smugglers by allowing asylum claims to be made from outside the UK via a legal and official route.
If HMG were serious about “stopping immigration”, the folk on the boats aren’t even the main factor; legal immigration dwarfs it.
In short, I think the whole thing is a sick sideshow.
id be surprised if they have enough time left in this parliament to make such a move. Its a pretty complicated thing to renege on a foundational arrangement. I can think of one pretty big problem, that Good Friday Agreement is definitely resting on it. The chances of getting that sorted in under a year are slim to zero.
Its performative cruelty