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A short personal reflection on what happened yesterday.

I wanted to wait a bit before saying this as I think yesterday was for those who experienced the sharpest end of the disastrous breakdown between the Labour Party and Jewish people during the past 5 years.

 I started talking about Labour antisemitism here in 2017 I think. My key aim was to try and act as a bridge between the left of the Jewish community and the left of the Labour Party. I used my platform on social media to do it and quite quickly I developed some back channels...
... to who I thought were sensible people in Jeremy Corbyn's office and Momentum. I kept those channels going for quite a long time. I found this paragraph from emails I exchanged in Spring 2018 with Laura Murray in Corbyn's office. It now seems quite prescient.
As I delved more into the issues and heard, privately, what was going on in the movement itself, I slowly and regrettably came to the conclusion that the issue was so serious it needed an "independent body" to come in. It was in Autumn 2018 that @antisemitism approached me...
... to assist in making a submission to the @EHRC to try and persuade them to enter the fray. I was skeptical, given the the UK's human rights organisations had stayed almost entirely silent (to this day, to their shame) on the issue, though I knew it was utterly necessary...
I assumed, as we put the submission together, that the @EHRC would be reluctant to enter such a fraught issue, but I also felt strongly, as did CAA and @jewishlabour, that if the equality and human rights regulator did not intervene on an upsurge in Jew-hate in a key British...
... political institution, who would? What is an equalities and human rights regulator for if it refused? It was a huge relief when they announced in Feb 2019 that they would intervene. It felt, to me, as a human rights lawyer, that the grown ups were coming in to help...
... or the cavalry. And we worked for next 18 moths, alongside others such as @JewishLabour to try and make sure we put our position as best we could. Contrary to what you might read in conspiratorial blogs (!), I had no sense at all at what the outcome would be, until yesterday.
The Commission kept their cards incredibly close to their chest - as was absolutely right. All I knew was that they appeared to have done a thorough job. So my first indication of what was in the report was when I sat down yesterday morning to read it.
I knew when I read the summary that our key arguments had been accepted, and that the truth was being told. It was an emotional experience, as you might expect, but it certainly wasn't a happy or triumphal moment. I think, if anything, I felt that justice had been served.
What do I mean by justice? I mean that an independent judge entered the fray, listened carefully to all perspectives, and decided the right answer based on its application of legal principles. As with any long inquiry, the outcome wasn't exactly what we said it should be...
... nor were all the issues covered that might have been etc. But it felt like a real piece of work had been done, a lasting contribution made to equality and human rights, and - perhaps most importantly - a tiny minority community, which happens to be my own, had been protected.
When I decided I wanted to be a human rights lawyer I didn't want , nor was I expecting, to advocate for my own community. I did so I think with reluctance - because I felt there wasn't anyone else saying the things I wanted to say. I can now say, unequivocally, that I am...
... proud both of my own Jewish community, for how it came together, spoke with more or less one voice, and faced down a real surge in antisemitism. I am also proud of my other community, the human rights community, which found its voice on this difficult issue too.
As I suggested at the outset, there are many whose lives have been permanently altered, and not for the better, by what has happened. I salute all of them, and hope that yesterday's events, as well as what Keir - a former human rights lawyer, noch - is doing to begin the healing.
For me, I have the privilege of moving on to other things, other work that needs doing in other areas which (thankfully, to be honest) don't involve standing up for my own but for others.
David Maxwell Fyfe, a Tory father of the human rights movement, said human rights were about "tolerance, decency, kindliness". I believe that. I don't think people are evil, and I believe that in our great liberal country, where Jews like my family have been mostly welcomed...
... if you fight for something by embodying those values of tolerance, decency and kindliness, you will eventually win out. And I hope that the work I and others have done for our own community can now be used to help others who suffer similar problems.
And to the @EHRC, from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. You did what was right, you came through.
Oh, and one other thing. If you have any questions or criticisms of what I have said about antisemitism and Labour may I refer you to this detailed and thorough 130-page report from the UK's equalities and human rights regulator? 😉😘 https://t.co/ogmGWPVHHL

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Police can now be given access to NHS Track & Trace data if for the purpose of enforcement/prosecution


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https://t.co/adPk9PsE0j

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https://t.co/L5jwlTDaIE

(Thread)


These are not a new set of regulations: they are amendments an old set of regulations

Which we thought were gone! But they are back

Welcome back No.3 regulations

A quick thing before we continue!

I have been analysing these laws for free for 9 months now - if you want to say thanks and have a few £ to spare please give to my @LawCentres fundraiser

They give free legal advice to people who need it

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We could 'suspend' or ignore human rights as a 'peace time nicety' as has happened in the past.

But to do so would be a huge error /1

As a preliminary, it is really, really important to understand that looking at the potential response to Coronavirus through a human rights lens does not generate any easy answers. I’m not going to offer any. /2

Another preliminary: as with response to terrorism (there are similarities here) it is natural that when people are frightened, critical voices raising ‘niceties’ like individual rights are seen as annoying and beside the point. They. Are. Not. We know that from history. /3

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That's all excellent.

I'm not sure if anyone can argue with those four aims: they're irrefutable and all massively important. You bet I'd like to see Labour doing likewise; you bet I'm frustrated that it's so quiet on all of it.

HOWEVER...

Contained within the announcement was exactly the same selective blindness which makes the entire thing all too easy to shoot down - and again, means Corbyn is pretty unlikely to persuade anyone who's not already persuaded.

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The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020

Analysis below as I read them (thread)

https://t.co/adPk9PsE0j

32 pages, 13,891 words...


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Here's number 5


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There's a tragic irony to Johnson's love of Churchill.

When Churchill became prime minister, he said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat". He was honest about the severity of the situation and what it entailed. He didn't pretend everything would magically be alright.

Johnson's approach is the exact opposite. He runs from bad news like a dog from fireworks. He invents nonsense timetables by which everything will be fine.

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It's equivalent to Churchill using his first speech as PM to insist the war will be over by Christmas.
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