Following the recent media coverage criticising and attacking one of our partners, Jacqueline McKenzie, and many other immigration lawyers we wanted to publicly state our complete support and admiration for the work that Jacqueline, her team, and many other lawyers around the country do to ensure that the law is applied accurately to their clients’ cases.
We understand that a briefing criticising Jacqueline was sent from Conservative Campaign Headquarters (formerly known as Conservative Central Office). This four-page briefing had many inaccuracies and was plainly sent with an agenda for Jacqueline to be singled out and targeted by the press.
It is shocking and shameful that in a democratic society such a document could be sent from any political party, not least the party in government. It is both irresponsible and extremely dangerous for anyone to be targeted this way, as we sadly saw in September 2020 when an immigration lawyer was attacked at his office by a man brandishing a knife, which reportedly followed comments by the then Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The document centred on Jacqueline’s supposed links to the Labour party and her work on a multi sectoral group chaired by Baroness Doreen Lawrence to examine race disparities in the UK which she was invited to volunteer for. Omitted from the briefing was Jacqueline’s involvement on another group chaired by Priti Patel MP on the Windrush Scandal and the 90% of her work which is focused on legal support for victims of the Windrush Scandal.
Jacqueline is a well-respected expert with decades of experience in her field of asylum and immigration law and it should not be a surprise that political parties may seek her expertise when working on policies.
Lawyers should not be criticised for doing their jobs. People are entitled to have legal representation when faced with removal from the country, or indeed being moved to accommodation which may be unsuitable. Many of the clients represented by Jacqueline’s team have been through trauma, torture or incredible hardship. In a civilised society they should be treated with compassion and understanding as well as having the law applied accurately and fairly to the individual circumstances of their case.
While the work we do as a firm is not always popular we strive to provide access to justice to all whether that is bereaved families who need help finding answers through the inquest process, those who have been seriously injured on our roads, employees who have been discriminated against by their employers and international communities who bear the brunt of multinational corporations wreaking havoc on their local environments. This commitment to access to justice for all extends to those seeking asylum in this country or who need support with their immigration status.
We are proud of the work we do and will not be cowed by a government whose strategy appears to be to attack and demonise lawyers, and the judiciary, merely for working to ensure the laws of this country are upheld.
On behalf of all partners at law firm Leigh Day
And the Daily Telegraph is using the Tory dossier to vilify a lawyer working to help those seeking asylum:
It would appear from the Daily Telegraph that stopping the government from acting illegally is nothing to be proud of:
A key member of Labour’s race equality task force is a top asylum lawyer who boasted of blocking a client’s deportation to Rwanda.
I'm lovin' this btw:
"While we are doing everything we can to stop the boats, Starmer and his activist friends are doing their best to sabotage our efforts so they can use it for cynical political gain.”
Yep that's correct, Suella Braverman accused others of taking a stance for "cynical political gain".
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it in the Daily Telegraph.
“While we are doing everything we can to stop the boats, Starmer and his activist friends are doing their best to sabotage our efforts so they can use it for cynical political gain.”
Yep that’s correct, Suella Braverman accused others of taking a stance for “cynical political gain”.
But but but...
Rishi said that stopping the boats is a major priority of the British People, he said it repeatedly.
If Labour sabotage that, then how can they make any political gain? Cynical or otherwise?
I said that housing asylum seekers on barges instead of hotels has nothing to do with brexit.
I missed this…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/family-firm-profiteering-misery-providing-30584405
Family firm 'profiteering from misery' by providing migrant barges donated £70k to UKIP
The Langham family, owners of Langham Industries, is now set to profit from an 18-month contract with the Home Office to let the Bibby Stockholm berth at Portland, Dorset
If you see Brexit as something more positive than simply “sticking it to foreigners”, then obviously using asylum seekers as a distraction othering to try and win back voters has nothing to do with Brexit. For everyone else, it’s blindly obviously the same approach to winning/gaining/keeping power in order to make money from holding it.
Predictable twist no.1
Predictable twist no.2
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/asylum-seeker-tb-told-move-30678182
Someone will be doing the full "Malcom Tucker" right now.
No doubt there will be a firm of specialists, with ties to a donor, about to go in and clean it for a hefty fee.
The level of incompetency on top of the level of inhumanity is amazing to comprehend!
How long before 30p lee says...****in' 'ell, if they don't want legionella they shouldn't come here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-66476538
Am I just being an arse, but I really dislike the BEEBs use of the term migrant to describe the barge 'guests'. Should it not be asylum sneakers? Migrants is just falling into the right wing of the tory parties/daily mail intentional demotion of status language.
I'm really struggling to work out if I loath the likes of Braverman and all the other cockwombles more or less than the middle aged and oap loathsome daily mail reading arsewipes who have lived the safest, smallest and most priveldged of lives for whom all this shite bollox talk and posturing is indented to ameliorate. i.e do I loathe my father in law or Braveman more - it's a close call - both are so so very punchable.
How long before 30p lee says…****in’ ‘ell, if they don’t want legionella they shouldn’t come here.
I think Lee would voice it in an even more 'salty' or 'fruity' manner
These 2 terms have been used by Tory Campaign HQ (as its now known) to refer to 30p Lees latest abusive, national front tribute act, football-hooligan-esque outburst
A former Tory speech writer was on the Radio this morning and his take was that Rishi will have basically told Anderson to go out and say precisely what he said. Then all the other senior Tories could row in behind it, starting with the opening gambit "well, of course, I wouldn't have used that language myself, but Lee makes a valid point..."
And our politics is debased yet further by these cynical, rabble-rousing shysters
How long before 30p lee says…****in’ ‘ell, if they don’t want legionella they shouldn’t come here.
Either that or he'll claim that the risk from Legionella is non-existent and that it's only because of leftover EU red tape that they have still had to test for it. (It's never been an EU thing, the UK legionella testing regime is tougher than most of the EU!).
FWIW - Legionella risk is not usually as bad as people make it out to be, but the factors that drive it are very well known (like plumbing systems that have been sitting unused for long times), and solutions for managing it before you bring people in and expose them quite readily available. Its a spectacular **** up. If it is bad enough that they really need to move people out, there's something very very wrong with the risk management on site. The fact they know about it at all sounds like last week someone went "oh we should maybe get the water tested (usually a 10-14 day process)". There are faster tests available that should probably have been used given the risk factors involved, if there's been no mitigations in place for weeks. The other things you don't want to do is put immune compromised people near infected water - so Predictable twist no 2... is event worse than it would have been.
convert - I hope you don't mean 'asylum sneakers' as that would be much worse than BBC referring to migrants.
binners - if only an interviewer/presenter would say...anderson's comments are foul mouthed, insulting and referring to them as salty/fruity effectively endorses racism, panders to bigots and represent a little englander mentality.
I would expect the barge crew to be performing those tests at regular intervals.
As far as I am aware, the engineers on the cruise ships I worked on, did the tests onboard. They may of also sent samples to confirm.
Sounds like they jumped the gun and went in before the sample results were returned as they take a couple of weeks to turn round.
convert – I hope you don’t mean ‘asylum sneakers’ as that would be much worse than BBC referring to migrants.
😀 - yes that's a pretty good predictive text typo! Braverman would thoroughly approve.
made me laugh as I assumed it was tongue firmly in cheek!
I would say that the Legionella thing was supprising but alas it really isn't.
Annecdotaly when looking into optimising my plumbing last year and lowering flow temps and things like that, the subject of Legionella came up, and cases in domestic applications in the UK are pretty much zero aside from the odd anomaly.
I can't remember the figures but something like 99% of cases are outbreaks due to unmaintained air conditioning and plumbing in commercial/industrial buildings.
Quel supprise.
<p>Usual gibberish from our fav forum right wing ****</p>
Thank god I’m back longer a taxpayer
Presumably you mean 'no longer a tax payer'. But yet you are, indirectly, you still have to pay tax such as council tax and VAT to name the obvious ones.
Car insurance up 40-50% too, do you drive? Food more expensive etc. etc.
this ongoing invasion
I'll fix that for you:
Ongoing lack/underfunding of border enforcement even when in the EU we failed as a country to use the tools available.
And ongoing lack of actually bothering to actually process asylum seekers. Those with genuine claims are lumped in with illegal immigrants as it suits the tory narrative.
(if they bothered turn applications around in weeks rather than years, it would litterally save billions in over-inflated accomodation contracts.)
And ongoing giving of said contracts to Tory shills/bent busnessmen.
I can see a pattern of operation here, and it has nothing to do with dealing with the asylum backlog.
Presumably you are retired, so also don't get ill. The doctors are on strike again.
I'm trying to find and article to reference it, but I'm 100% Theresa may essentially opened our borders during her tenure as home sec. before she became PM.
She basically deemed it a waste of money to event attempt to police, and commanded border forces to pretty much wave them through with zero checks or process, rather than pay for better controls.
Now this same party is saying we have a crisis. well, maybe we do, but if we do, it's a Tory crisis, created by tory government decisions. Voters have very short memories.
Watching channel 4 news, this whole think gets more shambolic and farcical by the minute.
So much for ‘Stop the Boats’ Week? What a bunch of ****ing clowns!
Christ only knows what all this nonsense and the rolling car crash of Rwanda is costing
Given that we’re talking about housing 750 people, tops, with both those schemes, we must be well into the billions by now. It’d be cheaper to put them all up in suites at the Ritz?
Given that we’re talking about housing 750 people, tops, with both those schemes, we must be well into the billions by now. It’d be cheaper to put them all up in suites at the Ritz?
Jobs for the boys, innit. Tories gotta get rich(er) somehow.
Nothing to do with tax payer value for money. Career politicos looking to do no work and retire comfortably.
I really dont see what is wrong with housing people on barges whilst their claims are processed
I wouldn’t have an issue with it either if there were absolutely no alternatives. Which there are, far cheaper, more humane alternatives
this is first and foremost about punishing these people for having the ‘audacity’ to try to come to this country. It makes me xxxxing sick..
Ignore D*veyl*d, he admitted to me in a PM the other day he's just taking the piss. Not sure why he singled me out..but I just replied that he's a boring **** and should really keep quiet.
this is first and foremost about punishing these people for having the ‘audacity’ to try to come to this country. It makes me xxxxing sick..
It's not about punishing anyone, it's about appealing to the likes of @daveylad with an 'invasion ' narrative to shore up voters from the extreme right wing.
Never mind that the perceived 'invasion' is entirely of conservative manufacture, and any actual invasion, if there is such a thing, is, and has been, entirely preventable.
Let us not forget we have had a conservative government for the last 12 years, and with a sizable majority for most of that time, too.
That's enough space for any party to at least begin to enact thier vision, and who knows? it's kind of all going to plan from an extreme right wing conservative perspective...
Well, they’ve done it. They’ve stopped the boat.
That deserves a standing ovation! Bravo!!!!!!!!! 😀
martinhutch
Full MemberPredictable twist no.1
It almost passed me by but **** me that government response is proper banality of evil stuff.
"The government department added the bacteria samples relate "only to the water system on the vessel itself" and not fresh water entering the barge. It stressed there is no health risk to the wider community of Portland and that the disease "does not spread from person to person"
Yep, everything is fine because they've only endangered people on the barge, and you can't catch it off them. No real people are at risk
Also, is it just me or does legionella sound vaguely delicious? Like a desert you might get in a south asian fusion restaurant, or a spirit that comes in a really skinny square bottle that you drink on the last night of your alps holiday?
chrismac
Full MemberI agree its no substitute for getting on an processing claims in a timely manner. That is almost certainly the best solution. However we aren’t in that position
Deliberately, because of years of hard work from Theresa May and those who followed in her footstep to destroy the department responsible. The exact same people who now say they should be trusted to solve the problem they created. The same people who blame that problem for the "necessery" things they choose to do now.
Looks like she’s getting it in the neck from every angle this morning
Everyone to the left of Ghengis Khan thinks she’s inhumane and totally incompetent and now everyone to the right of Ghengis Khan (the Tory party MPs and membership) thinks she’s not inhumane enough, but still totally incompetent
Rishi will still leave her in place though, as he’s too weak to do owt else. He’s backed her up 100% on all this nonsense anyway, so it’s his fault as much as hers. They can take joint ownership of the whole bebacle
To be fair Gengis Khan did embrace diversity so you don't really need to be to his left to disapprove of Suella Braverman.
left to fend for themselves somewhere in the community
We're all fending for ourselves somewhere in the community. It's called life.
Genghis Khan was sometimes a very naughty boy but he did have some redeeming qualities of which the diversity ernie mentions is just one.
By contrast braverman has no redeeming features - not one.
Khan successfully united multiple warring Mongolian tribes; the empire he established was meritocratic; his army was flexible, organised and disciplined; he established principles of eurasian trade - thanks Wiki.
Looking at those achievements, today's party leaders could learn a lot.
This is where the fruitloop section of the Tory party and Braverman, their de facto leader, are now
They seriously want their manifesto for the next election to contain a pledge to join those bastions of freedom, Russia and Belarus, in leaving the ECHR, describing it as ‘a threat to our democracy’. No, the threat to our democracy is you, you mad bastards! They are absolutely insane, the lot of them!
https://twitter.com/marinapurkiss/status/1689653062665953280?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
I suspect quite a few of those who want to send the refugees to Rwanda will look at those two examples and think its even more of a reason to get rid of the ECHR.
This did amuse me, from todays Observer:
We risk being seen as the ‘nasty party’ again, warn senior Conservatives
What, really? Do you reckon?
I think that ship sailed quite some time ago
They seriously want their manifesto for the next election to contain a pledge to join those bastions of freedom, Russia and Belarus, in leaving the ECHR, describing it as ‘a threat to our democracy’.
I wonder how many of the hard-right actually support the Russian invasion in private? Wouldn't be surprised if it's a sizeable proportion.
Actually putting it in their manifesto for the next general election which they are certain to lose isn't a bad strategy at all, there's nothing mad about it imo.
Firstly because they won't win the next general election they won't have to worry about implementing it.
Secondly the debate that it will undoubtedly trigger during the general election campaign will be a very useful distraction from their all failings.
And thirdly it will appeal to their core voters, which they need to motivate to vote on election day if they are to avoid electoral Armageddon.
Given a choice of whether or not to include leaving the ECHR in their election manifesto including it is probably the wisest choice for the Tories.
Much is made of how necessary it is for Labour politicians to adopt policies which they don't necessarily support because allegedly they need to satisfy voters, there is no reason why it should be different for the Tories.
Welcome to conviction/principle-free UK politics 2023
I wonder how many of the hard-right actually support the Russian invasion in private? Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a sizeable proportion.
The spectacle of extreme nationalists making common cause across national boundaries should be an amusing contradiction in terms.
But it also points to the fact that being a nasty piece of work transcends nationality.
Everyone to the left of Ghengis Khan thinks she’s inhumane and totally incompetent and now everyone to the right of Ghengis Khan (the Tory party MPs and membership) thinks she’s not inhumane enough, but still totally incompetent
I think she's been very competent.
She's managed to funnel £1.6bn to another Tory donor for a non-functional product. She's managed to completely dehumanise asylum seekers for the Daily Wail brigade.
I'm sure that "fixing" the non-functional product will involve many more millions gifted to more Tories/Tory donors who miraculously have such solutions available at the right price.
She's probably got herself a couple of nicely paid "consultancy" roles lined up as a result of all that profligate spending.
That's the very definition of "competent" in Tory speak.
They seriously want their manifesto for the next election to contain a pledge to join those bastions of freedom, Russia and Belarus, in leaving the ECHR, describing it as ‘a threat to our democracy’. No, the threat to our democracy is you, you mad bastards! They are absolutely insane, the lot of them!
Which should be Starmers response at every opportunity, every single time.
The spectacle of extreme nationalists making common cause across national boundaries should be an amusing contradiction in terms.
You might want to read up on the 1930s and see where it left us.....
You might want to read up on the 1930s and see where it left us…..
Well, obviously. I was being obtuse for comic effect.
And FWIW in the 1930s British fascists gave it a good go, but thankfully the average Brit ridiculed Moseley and his preening, posturing nitwits. 90 years on, it would appear that we have gone backwards in some regards.
binners
Full MemberThis did amuse me, from todays Observer:
We risk being seen as the ‘nasty party’ again, warn senior Conservatives
"We've invested a lot of effort in being seen as the "evil lunatics party", but we risk being seen as merely nasty", I guess?
Well, obviously. I was being obtuse for comic effect.
Apologies, my error.
