1 October 2020 – today’s press releases

  • PM mistaken in thinking he can break the law without consequence
  • Tories’ nasty plans for asylum seekers not the answer

PM mistaken in thinking he can break the law without consequence

Responding to reports that the European Commission has launched legal action against the UK, following the UK Government’s refusal to remove sections from the Internal Market Bill, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Christine Jardine said:

Contrary to the belief of senior Government figures and their families, breaking the law has consequences. It beggars belief that Boris Johnson and his Government seem to think that not only are they above the law, but they can get off scot-free when breaking it.

How can Ministers seriously condemn other countries, like Russia and China, for failing to respect international treaties if they don’t do the same when it comes to the Withdrawal Agreement?

No one should be surprised that the UK will face legal action if Boris Johnson pushes ahead with the Internal Market Bill. However, there is still time to ditch the Bill and prevent it from becoming law. We must do what we can to salvage our international reputation.

Tories’ nasty plans for asylum seekers not the answer

Responding to reports that the Home Office is considering converting disused ferries to process people seeking asylum in the UK, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

We all want to prevent people from making dangerous attempts to cross the Channel, but these absurd Home Office proposals are not the answer.

Tory Ministers are showing no regard either for the wellbeing of asylum seekers or the island communities they want to turn into detention camps.

Instead of coming up with ever more impractical, ever nastier ways of treating asylum seekers, the Government must restore safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees – especially unaccompanied children.

The UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need, and Liberal Democrats will not let the Government turn its back on them now.

Read more by or more about , , or .
This entry was posted in News and Press releases.
Advert

9 Comments

  • PM Has already broken the law. Furthermore we know the catastrophic effects of a no deal or a hard BREXIT. So I don’t need to go over them here. But it seems it gives the government leave to take us closer to a totalitarian regime. Please follow the links below to see what the government has planned.

    https://5pillarsuk.com/2020/09/27/government-agents-to-be-authorised-to-commit-crimes/

    https://northeastbylines.co.uk/education-and-the-thought-police/

    Doesn’t make for pleasant reading does it? The opposition parties need to cooperate to block these scenarios. If we ever get rid of this government, as well as re-joining the EU. We must change the electoral system. We need to add to the constitution, powers that prevent the PM from having executive powers, and to guarantee that the judiciary will always be independent. It needs to be done before we lose our democracy.

  • Peter Martin 2nd Oct '20 - 9:14am

    “…..has already broken the law”.

    OK but whose law? And which law have we broken? There are contradictory clauses in the WA so it’s quite likely the UK will have a viable defence.

    However, if the EU think this is the case then they should take the UK to the International Court of Justice and not their own EU court. That’s not going to resolve anything.

    The sensible course of action is for both sides to redouble their efforts to secure a FTA and then of course the problem of the NI border, the cause of the dispute, will largely be resolved.

  • Law or not, one thing is certain. You can’t an open border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea. And it’s not just a FTA but all the regs especially on agricultural produce that go with it.

  • Peter Martin 2nd Oct '20 - 9:53am

    @ Alex B,

    There can be checks on the Irish Sea border by the UK, checks on the NI/Ireland border by both, and checks on the Ireland EU border by Ireland and the rest of the EU.

    No government can allow an external power to police tariff barriers within its own territory. That’s really the bottom line. Everything else is negotiable.

    Farage, in 2019, was calling the WA the second worse Treaty ever signed but then he suddenly stopped saying that and went quiet about it all. So it looks like BJ told him exactly what they planned to do after the election. I really don’t believe BJ was naïve enough to think that the deal was ‘oven ready’. That was just for internal political consumption.

  • Everything happening is moving towards a fascist state. This Govnts actions show it. .’Johnson, Internal Market Bill even if a ‘negotiating’ ploy will have consequences.
    We used to put ‘undesirables in old sailing ship wrecks as ‘prison hulks’.They were also sent to a new country called Australia. They are even hidden in hotels WHY NOT GIVE THEM JOBS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE ECONOMY!.The Irish came over and helped in growing the Industrial Revolution that, changed the World
    fascist state look up look up https://secularhumanism.org/2003/03/fascism anyone
    (From Free inquiry ,Spring vol23 No2 by Laurence W Britfrom 2003
    A

  • John Marriott 2nd Oct '20 - 2:41pm

    ‘Breaking the law’
    Well, regardless of which law, if you make an agreement with someone and break it, it says more about you than anything else. The problem, as far as I see it is that, if you get a reputation for lawlessness, who is going to trust you to keep your word in future. As far as this particular ‘law’ is concerned, it seems to me to be either cockup or conspiracy. Either way, it doesn’t say much for the clowns currently governing us.

    ‘Tory plans for asylum seekers’
    They strike me as being the product, prematurely leaked, of a brainstorming session at Whitehall, which were intended to be refined before seeing the light of day. The idea to put them on some off shore island for processing seems rather like the tactics of the Australian government a few years back when, I believe, a certain Mr Tony (look in the mirror) Abbott was its PM. And where is he now? As he apparently knows a bit about suppositories, perhaps we might wish to tell him, and anyone else come to think of it, where to put their ideas. After all, didn’t Hitler and the Nazis suggest that the Jews be sent to Madagascar?

    HOWEVER, if you move in the circles that I am forced to at times, I can tell you that there are quite a lot of people, whether in the shires or the northern industrial towns currently with Tory MPs, who would probably reckon this to be a good idea!

  • John Marriott 2nd Oct '20 - 2:58pm

    More on ‘breaking the law’
    What chance have we got to get people to obey the law, when certain people are prepared to ignore it?

    What started with a certain Mr Cummings appears, like the virus he was allegedly trying to avoid, to have caught on elsewhere. Not content with having the former Leader of the Opposition caught ON CAMERA breaking the rule of six’ and the father of the PM failing to wear a mask in a shop, we also have the possible prospect of having a convicted ‘TV licence refuser’ like Lord Moore of Etchingham becoming Chairman of the BBC. Now, to cap it all, we have an SNP MP travelling on public transport from Scotland and back and speaking in the House of Commons with a positive test. At least the SNP appears to be dealing with her seriously. I wonder whether the same would apply if she had been a Tory or even a Labour MP?

  • Peter Martin. Suggest that you volunteer to man a customs post on the border in Ireland if you think it is a goer.

  • Peter Hirst 3rd Oct '20 - 3:45pm

    In order to win the next General Election, The Conservatives will probably have to ditch Boris Johnson. The first step is to make him unpopular. He was selected to fulfil the result of the Conservatives’ referendum. By getting a new leader who is less bound to the events of the last few years, they hope they can gain another majority. I hope they are wrong.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • John Waller
    @Andy Iran hates America, and Britain, because it ousted Mohammad Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran, in 1953. Iran is a proud nation. Read ‘Hitchhiking to I...
  • Nigel Jones
    @Andy Daer that Netanyahu is "trying to help the Iranians overthrow their tyrannical rulers" is worrying because who would replace the current rulers and how? ...
  • Andy Daer
    Currently, Iran hates America because America hates Iran, and America hates Iran because Iran hates America. In one of the Mullah Nasruddin fables, Nasruddin...
  • Andy Daer
    @John Waller, we don't actually know what that the last thing Netanyahu wants is. If he brings about regime change, that would be good for the Iranian people, a...
  • Simon R
    Realistically we do have a problem that people are going to University to study certain subjects in far greater numbers than demand exists for jobs that require...