Let me make this clear @Douglas4Moray. THE COURTS not THE GOVERNMENT and NOT PARLIAMENT are masters of law and THE ONLY ONES ALLOWED TO INTERPRET IT. Parliament makes laws, The courts interpret them. Government and Parliament DO NOT SIT ABOVE THE COURTS. They sit EQUAL TO THEM.

#BREAKING
U.S. charges political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi with acting as an agent of #Iran's regime.

https://t.co/fsmrOtgImm

Afrasiabi is a known Tehran apologist & strongly defends the world's number one terrorist Qassem Soleimani.

"Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran & the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN who was being paid to spread their propaganda.... he intentionally avoided registering with the Dept. of Justice as the Foreign Agents Registration Act required."

“Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by #Iran's gov to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation."

Afrasiab on CNN with Amanpour & Reza Aslan, all Iran apologists.

"For more than a decade, Mr. Afrasiabi was allegedly paid, directed & controlled by #Iran's gov to lobby U.S. gov officials, including a congressman; and to create & disseminate information favorable to the Iranian gov."

Seen here with former regime president Mohammad Khatami.

"Afrasiabi has also been secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the IMUN. Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN’s official bank accounts since 2007..."

Charles Walker, Vice Chair of the 1922 Tory backbench committee in the Commons tells TWTW that he thinks the government knew it intended to “cancel” Christmas on Wednesday or Thursday but waited for Parliament to rise to do it. Says many of his colleagues find this “egregious.”

When put to Walker that Matt Hancock said this morning that wasn’t the case, it was the briefing on Friday which prompted the decision, Walker says: “Hmm yeah...well I’d have to disagree with the SoS on that.” So he’s either saying Hancock isn’t being truthful or is misinformed.

Walker: “Surely at some stage a senior government minister has say I’ve offered my resignation to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister has to say- very early I’ve had to accept this.”

Reminder- Charles Walker is Vice Chair of the Tory backbench committee.

Walker heavily implies it’s Matt Hancock he wants to see resign: “I’m not asking for the government to collapse. I’m asking for a Secretary of State to take some responsibility.”

The Charles Walker interview is extraordinary in what he is inferring. A senior Conservative MP is essentially accusing his govt and ministers of deceit about what they knew about the new strain and when and by implication the timing of the new lockdown.

Is the European Union really being unreasonable over the City of London?

Or are we seeing an inevitable consequence of a Brexit that prioritised sovereignty over financial services?

A thread…🧵💵🏦🇬🇧🇪🇺

Andrew Bailey’s Mansion House speech this week showed clear signs of frustration about the EU’s foot dragging in granting “equivalence” to UK regulators on financial

The view among UK financial lobbyists and regulators is that the EU has various financial equivalence agreements already with a host of other third countries (even the US) so why not the UK, which is currently, of course, totally aligned?...3/

But the view in the EU is that the UK is different from those other countries because it’s so dominant in finance - and they fear outsourcing regulation to an authority outside the bloc when that regulated activity could potentially affect EU markets/business so profoundly ...4/

Andrew Bailey thinks the EU is gearing up to demand the UK be a simple “rule taker” in return for equivalence, unable to unilaterally change UK rules, which he says would be "intolerable"....5/