The people were intent on leaving France - perhaps they were asked if they wished to be taken back and refused to go. It would have been illegal for the French boats to enter British waters.
I have no idea of the back story but the fact they gave the migrants equipment and water etc would suggest they were not just abandoning them. Do we know that the crew did not alert the British teams ?
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News & politics
Breaking International Law
(93 Posts)This is a twitter thread by the Professor of Public Law & Chair of the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. Billed by David Allen Green QC as 'one of the country's greatest constitutional law scholars '
It demolishes each of the justifications so far put out by the government for breaking international law.
Just putting it here so people can access it easily
By my reckoning, the Government has so far attempted in five ways to justify clauses 42 and 43 of the Internal Market Bill, which, if enacted, would allow Ministers to make regulations in breach of the Withdrawal Agreement /…
1. The powers would breach international law but only in a ‘limited and specific’ manner (Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary) — but this is not a distinction the law draws: a breach of international law is a breach of international law /…
2. The powers are needed in case the Government needs rapidly to implement safeguards under Art 16 NI Protocol (Lord Keen, Advocate General) — but the clause 42–3 powers bear little relation to the matters with which Article 16 is concerned /…
3. The powers are needed in case the Government rapidly needs to do what Article 62 of the Vienna Convention allows (Lord Keen) — but Article 62 requires a fundamental change of circumstance and permits only withdrawal/termination, not repudiation of individual obligations /…
4. The Withdrawal Agreement is a ‘special’ form of treaty because it presupposes a Future Relationship Agreement, so it’s ok to breach the WA if no FRA materialises (various Ministers) — this is just wrong /…
5. The Internal Market Bill would amount to an ‘acceptable’ rather than an ‘unacceptable’ breach of the rule of law (Robert Buckland, Lord Chancellor) — but the law draws no distinction between these two forms of breach /…
So: five attempts to justify clauses 42–3, none of which is satisfactory as a matter of law.
Sixth time lucky?
Border Force UK is becoming an expensive taxi service.
☹️
I wish we might get an ethical leader.
Urmstongran is interesting as a stereotype of people who are seduced by superficial metaphors. That particular metaphor about taxis is already out of date; as careful taxi use is less expensive than private car ownership, and there have always been occasions when it is justifiable to pay for a taxi.
It's now less expensive long term to accept refugees than to keep them in camps; and it is justifiable to save their lives and stop some of them becoming social outcasts. Not to mention ordinary human kindness.
At least we can now turn away any dinghy with more than 6 illegal immigrants !
ah there you go Lemon, not rubbish. That is OK then, as long as they drown in EU waters and not UK.
At least you are brutally honest.
Brilliant speech in the HoC by Alyn Smith. Perhaps someone could share it here, I seem to be unable to.
Unelected politicians? You have seen nothing yet.
The BBC has seen a letter instructing NI government to prepare the NI seaports for customs checks.
So I wonder if the WA will stand as signed?
biba79, Alyn Smith was excellent in the HOC. Well worth watching and listening!
twitter.com/AlynSmith/status/1306166603369910278?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Amal Clooney is the latest lawyer to resign from a government post in protest as the government intends to break international law.
varian
Amal Clooney is the latest lawyer to resign from a government post in protest as the government intends to break international law.
Yes I saw that. Is she married to George, only I seem to remember her looking fabulous in yellow at H&Ms wedding?
Yes, she is married to George Clooney, lucky lady!
Curlywhirly
Yes, she is married to George Clooney, lucky lady!
What a charmed couple!!
biba70
ah there you go Lemon, not rubbish. That is OK then, as long as they drown in EU waters and not UK.
At least you are brutally honest.
Oh, here’s silly me thinking that the French Navy who escorted the overcrowded dinghy into British waters ( from French ones!) should have taken all the migrants on board back to France.
What they did was leave them the minute they were in our
Waters, to sink or swim as it were, and until they were were spotted by a British boat.
It has long been suspected they were doing just that....shepherding them into our waters and then taking off.
There were women and children in the dinghy who are often unable to swim.Don’t try and excuse what the French did/do.
Oh I do not, not at all.
Well, I have this habit of looking for corroboration of any outlandish claims I read on here, so I went looking for confirmation about this idea that the French “shepherded” the boat into UK waters.
You may not be surprised to find that the only websites reporting this firsthand were the Telegraph, the Mail and Breitbart, hardly bastions of balanced reporting. And guess who alerted these agencies to the event? None other than Nigel Farage, who of course travelled down to the Channel while we were all in lockdown, pretending to be a reporter.
And as for the “escorting” claim, even the Telegraph report the following: Home Office sources told The Telegraph: "At sea, under international law, the preservation of life is paramount. There have been some instances where migrants refuse to board French boats. The boat will remain with the migrants to ensure their safety."
So will everybody drop the fake indignation? Nah, probably not.....
FGS. This bill was only proposed because Barnier brought up the threat to NI which the EU will use it if they don't get their way over their conditions!! It will only be used in the event of the EU actually triggering that threat, otherwise it will gather dust in a drawer! Anyone would think from all this hysterical indignation from people who should know better that it was going to be definitely used next week. jumping on a band waggon?!! No one wants to break international law but equally no government can allow another entity to use blackmail as a means to adversely threaten any part of its country.
Well it’s our government that want to change the oven ready / half baked deal it wrote itself, not the EU. Maybe they didn’t fully understand what they were signing up to.
This would be a ridiculous argument even if the bit about Barnier was true, which it isn't. We covered this on another thread. Keep up.
"No one wants to break international law" you say? Then don't make preparations to do it.
It was the WA that was oven ready not a deal!! But you know that really don't you!? Better to prepare for war in peacetime than be caught on the hop! but you know that too! And yes, Barnier did utter a veiled threat! Again you know that if you're honest!
Don't call me dishonest Jaberwok. I'll find the relevant clip and discussion later and post it again.
How could a Deal be oven ready when trade talks hadn't even been started and couldn't be until we had actually left, which at that point we hadn't?! It was the Withdrawal Agreement that was oven ready as indeed it was! Clearly not dishonest, just strangely misinformed!
...Trade Deal..
Jaberwok
It was the WA that was oven ready not a deal!! But you know that really don't you!? Better to prepare for war in peacetime than be caught on the hop! but you know that too! And yes, Barnier did utter a veiled threat! Again you know that if you're honest!
As it is the WA, now agreed and signed into law, that is being threatened with breaching this post of yours makes no sense, Jabberwok
'How could a Deal be oven ready when trade talks hadn't even been started'
you should really say this to Johnson- I actually agree.
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