Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar

Alasdair Mackenzie

@alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social

495 followers 300 following 299 posts

Immigration and asylum law. All views my own. Also left politics, climate, cats. 🧡💚@AlasdairMack66 on the bird app. He/him. "Lawyers have hitherto only interpreted the law. The point however is to change it."

Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Probably

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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A catastrophe explicable only by a fundamental lack of belief that migrants are actually people with rights that require respecting.

Also, Labour’s response to this report will tell us a whole lot about their approach generally
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/arti...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Think you’ll find the Rwandans have spent it all on military hardware and phone-tapping equipment
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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So to sum up: if you can’t prove your identity, you can’t vote, but you can stand for election
www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

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Reposted by Alasdair Mackenzie

Sean Jones's avatar Sean Jones @seanjones.org
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Listening to James Timpson's interview, it is clear that he would like to see a sea-change in sentencing policy. That will not be his remit, but if the new PM supports such a change, I think it would have very significant ramifications for our political culture. Let me explain. /1

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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And they’re off! Here go the Tories already trying to make next five years about exactly how vile we can be to migrants. (“Whatever it takes” in this context of course meaning “set fire to the ECHR and Refugee Convention”.)

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Not feeling much atm. Glad the Tories have gone ofc. Happy that (barring the mother of all u-turns) the Rwanda scheme is toast. Worried what Labour will do instead. Don’t think Labour have solutions for the crises we face more broadly. Apprehensive generally for the future.

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Hard to tell, isn’t it, but what if there was a class of highly paid professionals able to determine what appears in the news and pressurise politicians over it

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Given that the most basic scrutiny has revealed Farage to be brittle, sulky, conspiracy-minded and determined to insult everyone’s intelligence, you have to wonder why no-one tried it before

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Shady globalist forces are undermining Nigel by paying an actor to speak in exactly the same way as his actual candidates, and forcing him to appear on Question Time every week
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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“If we want even a modicum of democracy, equality, fairness and a functioning state, we need not the accommodation with economic power that Starmer seeks, but the mother of all battles with it.”

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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“Do with them”, “process them”, “put them on planes” - judging by the language, it doesn’t seem to have entered anyone’s head that they are talking about human beings rather than packages
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cq...

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London Review of Books's avatar London Review of Books @londonreview.bsky.social
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‘Bristol is a deeply divided city, socially, ethnically and culturally. The leafy villas of Clifton look down on much poorer zones below, with areas marked by extreme poverty, drug use and homelessness.’

John Foot on Bristol’s Green wave:

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ju...

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Reposted by Alasdair Mackenzie

Chris Bertram's avatar Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social
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State-organized murder. And make no mistake, those who advocate pushbacks to France mean something very like this.

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Excellent stuff in the Labour manifesto about ending indefinite detention, reducing Home Office fees, scrapping minimum income requir oh no that’s the 2019 one

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Treating migration as a “problem” to be “solved” by “decisive” government action, all choreographed for the benefit of the S*n, is the exact same motivation as led to the Rwanda plan. These proposals legitimise far more malign measures in future. This is the true Tory enabling.

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London Review of Books's avatar London Review of Books @londonreview.bsky.social
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‘The popular early support for the war in Italy was not to be mentioned; the areas of Italian society that supported fascism, or at least did not oppose it, were largely ignored.’

John Foot on the surprising persistence of the ‘good Italian’ stereotype:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Safe country update Rwanda’s top UK diplomat oversaw use of Interpol to target regime opponents

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Reposted by Alasdair Mackenzie

Olúfẚ́mi O. Tåíwò's avatar Olúfẚ́mi O. Tåíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
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the soft pivots have begun. that's fine, nobody gets everything right. but for the record: you didn't need clairvoyance or irrational pessimism to worry that a campaign beginning with a defense minister promising to engineer a famine might end somewhere bleak

from Oct 9:
www.pbs.org/newshour/wor...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Absolutely, remainers could easily have united round a far softer Brexit but all attempts to do so were torpedoed by people who thought the whole thing could be defeated by magic, or something

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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I’m sure some of them do, others seem keen to dismiss those policies loudly as unrealistic

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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The next few weeks is just going to be endless idiotic babble from the main parties, aimed at racist pensioners, while anyone wanting policies addressing the real issues we face as a country/ species is scolded as unrealistic or divisive by people who wanted a second referendum

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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A further thought on this case - this child *did what the Home Office say they want him to do* - he didn’t travel clandestinely or take a small boat, he made an official visa application to come here - and the HO’s response is refusal, delay while his appeal's heard, & then these miserable excuses

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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The Home Office just told an Immigration Judge that a traumatised Afghan 13-yr-old, living by himself in a Middle East country, doesn’t need to come to the UK to be reunited with what’s left of his family, because he can enjoy family life with them via WhatsApp

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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OK it’s great Labour say they won’t do Rwanda, but there are so, so many things they could do - on safe routes, legal aid, right to work, culture of disbelief etc - to make the asylum system better, rather than just expanding police powers & banging people up for the approval of the right wing press

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Of course it follows that Labour could severely undermine the Rwanda plan now just by confirming it’d cease the whole project the day after the election. Rwanda can see the same polling as we can & would know there’s no point expanding its infrastructure now if Labour is going to ditch it

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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From the Rwandan perspective ofc you can understand the caution - makes no sense to invest in infrastructure or staff if you have no idea how many people are being sent, because of legal challenges or indeed potential changes of government

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Very interesting that the Rwandans are confirming they only have space to receive 200 refugees atm, with vague plans to expand capacity in future - lots of numbers have floated around but never been concrete
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Braverman is a key reason why the Tories are so utterly toxic and unpopular, and the only reason Sunak is pressing ahead with eg Rwanda is to try to keep people like her on his side. The idea she doesn’t need to own these defeats herself is laughable.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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If true that people are to be detained well ahead of any flights, for electoral advantage, it is, let’s say, not immediately obvious how that would be a proper purpose or therefore a lawful use of the Home Office’s powers

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Lizzie Dearden's avatar Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social
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Exclusive: Home Office civil servants are “running away” from roles linked to the Rwanda scheme, insiders have said

There is internal frustration over attempts to implement the government’s plans, which civil servants called "unworkable" and "a shit show"
inews.co.uk/news/politic...

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Went past a ULEZ protest yday full of obsessive anti-Sadiq stuff, some of it clearly racist, along with banners encouraging votes for Susan Hall - despite not apparently being a Tory demo - so none of this is remotely surprising

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Dan, who voted for the Safety of Rwanda Bill, would like you to know he thinks the Conservatives ‘have become a nationalist party of the right that has abandoned ­compassion’

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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“No UK government has put a court in a position like this before, forcing it to consider whether Parliament’s sovereignty extends to denying reality.”

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Principles of international law took decades of hard work & compromise to build up and it’s incredibly chilling how rapidly, and recklessly, our government & others have cast them aside when they found them inconvenient

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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This is a huge setback for anyone who believes this is a country governed by the rule of law. It’s hard to overstate the implications for our constitution. But I promise you, this isn’t over yet. We are not going to abandon refugees without a fight. Refugees welcome here always. ✊🧡

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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You just woke up in a country where the ruling party thinks it can pass laws to say 2+2 = 5, and can muzzle the courts when they say 2+2 = 4

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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“If airlines and aviation authorities give effect to State decisions that violate human rights, they must be held responsible for their conduct” UK: Airlines and aviation authorities should not facilitate unlawful removals to Rwanda, UN experts say

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Monica C. Camacho's avatar Monica C. Camacho @mc2x.bsky.social
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Not small at all! It’s a quick way to prime the audience to think about “invasion” narratives rather than humanitarian needs or economic benefits of migration. Like flood metaphors—take a shot whenever a journo or politician describes immigrants as water instead of people.

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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Small thing I guess but it’s very cliched for the media to always illustrate stories about the Rwanda Bill with photos of people in dinghies - more informative surely to show eg the Rwandan police shooting refugees dead, as they did in 2018, or maybe the jails where they keep dissidents

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Alasdair Mackenzie's avatar Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social
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House of Lords still fighting a rearguard action over the Rwanda Bill

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Reposted by Alasdair Mackenzie

Alison Harvey's avatar Alison Harvey @aliromah.bsky.social
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My colleague at One Pump Court Dr David Chirico KC will give Wilsons Solicitors LLP's 7th Kay Everett Memorial Lecture at SOAS on 8th May with discussants Moud Gouba of Micro Rainbow & Ayesha Aziz of Rainbow Migration. Get tickets on eventbrite www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kay-everet...

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