24 Comments
User's avatar
Caz's avatar

Thank you for this, Bear. As usual, the people calling for us to leave the ECHR are the ones who would probably come out worst if it ever happened - Turkeys, Christmas and all that.

I'm so sick of the constant stream of bullshit being fed to us by the majority of the UK media - I deliberately avoided radio and TV on Wednesday (? whenever it was that Fartrage announced his grand plan to deport 600,000 migrants) because I knew it would be wall-to-wall of his flappy-gob and grating voice and I just wasn't going to put myself through it.

When is someone going to start standing up to him instead of pandering to him? It's impossible not to make comparisions with what's going on across the Pond; whatever happens over there will be here in a few years (and it's already started) - who is going to be our Gavin Newsom?

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Brian's avatar

The propaganda surrounding this topic is worthy of Goebbels Award for Harmful Bullshit.The European Court of Human Rights has seldom ruled against the UK government in relation to the removal of people from the UK. Indeed, the Court rarely rules against the UK at all. It issued only one final judgment finding a violation of an ECHR right in a UK case in 2023 and one in 2024. Neither concerned immigration policy or deportation.

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Mariken's avatar

Fantastic piece Bear as per usual!!

I might translate it and post it in Dutch as at the moment the far right Dutch shambles of a government is floating the same tropes as our right wing media and politicians.

Are you happy with me doing so and of course state you are the author.

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Elaine Maisey's avatar

As my old dad used to say, the Moggs are just educated idiots.

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Kane Clements's avatar

Jacob having received all the benefits of being educated at Eton and Oxford could't even get a 1st.

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Steve Anderson's avatar

So sad and disappointing how time and again, cruelty to others trumps (pun intended) self interest. All the people cheering along to the reform cretins like Pochin, completely unaware that she is talking about removing their rights and freedoms, on the premise that they'll send a handful of people back to be tortured and murdered by the Taliban. WTAF.

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Elizabeth's avatar

Totally well said

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Andrew Winfield's avatar

Well said

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Susan Dent Tasker's avatar

That Home Secretary could be Lee Anderson ; just let that sink in !

If that doesn’t horrify you , it damn well should !

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Opus 6's avatar

Leaving the ECHR will put my rights into the hands of politicians! Yes, absolutely correct! If you had asked me to explain why I wanted to leave, I would’ve said exactly that! I want politicians to run this country, not judges.

“It basically means that your rights don’t live or die at the whims of a parliamentary majority…”

And there you have it in black and white. Supporters of the ECHR are opposed to parliamentary democracy.

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Kristina's avatar

A good article to read on a Friday afternoon. Enjoy your weekend Bear, hope wine and cake are involved 😉xx

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Mike Lowres's avatar

The problem is Farage, his merry band of followers, the right wing press and the knuckle draggers honestly cannot differentiate from ECHR and EU.

People are being told that this will only affect illegal migrants similar to Trump's ICE will only go after naughty illegals however mission creep ends up affecting all people and by then its too late.

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Sarah Cochrane's avatar

Thank you as always Bear 😊 I’m so tired of all the constant lies surrounding this and the complete failure of the MSM to correct or challenge. Mind you, that goes for just about everything these days!

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Glenn Trickey's avatar

🐻 Succinct and well presented as expected.....keep tapping away, your insight and valuable contribution helps me stay sane in the hell hole called X....don't forget to relax and enjoy a 🍷🍷 or 3 😉. Have a great weekend

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Indy's avatar

Brilliant as always Bear. I think that part of the problem in the wider press, is that the people reading the newspapers don't even know what the letters stand for. It is never made clear in any newspaper article or column, that the letters ECHR stand for European Convention of Human Rights. This is often a deliberate move by the largely right wing press, because they know that if not most people, then at least a majority of the British public, mistakenly think that the letters stand for European Court of Human Rights. People think they are talking about a court system and that it's just part of "taking are cuntry back", to use a vulgar phrase. Most of the people I have ever talked to on this subject, have been surprised to find that this is nothing to do with a court and everything to do with protecting themselves and their human rights from their own government! Once explained, they have generally not thought that leaving is the best option. As ever, education is the issue at large.

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Gordon Lynn's avatar

Annoyingly good piece yet again. We need to continue standing with the ECHR, it’s these rights that keep us as safe and balanced, indeed reasonable in our outlook, all things considered. However, sometimes we see, unfairness in some of the decisions and interpretations. An example would be a person who sees their family destroyed by a migrant finds that the defence is the right to a family life, so it’s seen as they have been treated better than those aggrieved. Farage and the others use this to justify the need to leave. Unfortunately a lot of people then seem to support this decision, a handful of slightly less favourable outcomes overrule the thousands of eminently good decisions.

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lyn's avatar

When the empty vessels seem to get louder and louder along comes Bear to cut through their babble. Everytime my tv/ radio is on Farage/ Tice or a Tory is chanting Death to Human Rights, death to NHS death to Migrants etc etc Thank goodness for Bear, after reading his carefully considered ECHR I know we need to push back Reform in all its forms

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