To think the right wing tabloids have gone too far?

[Mistigri]

Reactions of the Mail, Express and Sun to yesterday's court decision on brexit:

The Mail's front page has a picture of the three high court judges with the headline "Enemies of the people". One judge is criticised for being "openly gay".

The Express says this is the UK's greatest crisis since the Second World War.

The Sun (proprietor: R Murdoch) takes to task the "foreign elites" who brought the case. Because their readers are less likely to approve of attacks on white pensioners (the other claimant), they focus their attack on the non-white woman claimant.

The Mail is the most problematic IMO; attacking the judiciary is another step on the road to facism.

How can we have any reasonable political debate in this environment?

On my Twitter feed just now:

"Would The Daily Mail's front page satisfy the UK Government's definition of extremism?"

Bearing in mind that the government defines "extremism" as "vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including .... the rule of law".

Peregrina I agree entirely.

Incidentally, many eyebrows were raised at the Bar when it became clear that the inexperienced A-G was going to lead the Govt's advocacy in this case himself. To be fair he did assemble a team and did not do it on his own, but still it is highly unusual for an A-G to appear in court as an advocate. Usually (indeed, almost invariably) the Govt's civil advocacy is entrusted to practising barristers specialising in the relevant area of law.

For those who don't like the ECHR - our lawyers were key people in drafting it, after WW2, in very real response to the horrors which had just been witnessed.

We are in desperate need of relearning some lessons from our recent history, and not just from the Fawlty prism of "Don't mention the war."

And I fear the US is about to play the Trump card

We live in very interesting times. Very !

babybarrister You're right, his appointment predated TM's administration. But he has not covered himself in glory. The transcripts of the hearing are excruciating! They cannot in all honesty have been surprised at the outcome.

Presumably TM didn't have to keep him on in post? She could have re-appointed Dominic Grieve. Except of course, she couldn't because she doesn't like the ECHR either.

I do wonder if she has studied any history. It seems not.

Is anyone else having trouble submitting a complaint to IPSO? I've been trying since yesterday evening, but the process keeps freezing at Stage 3. I can only imagine the deluge of complaints have crashed the site.

babybarrister Yes, Legal Cheek has been amusing, hasn't it, about the learned A-G. He may not have the experience traditionally regarded as commensurate with this great office of state - but apparently he's a dab hand with Skype so that's OK

Feels like Groundhog Day

1972 UK sovereign Parliament passed a law. In 2016 a majority of people voting, voted to repeal that law. A Parliamentary law needs Parliament to repeal it.

Interesting point.

We all support the freedom and independence of the judiciary, whether we agree with their judgement or not.

We all support the freedom of the press with exactly the same caveat.

We live in interesting times!

I don't want to. Argh.

My feelings exactly lljkk! I want to live in a stable country, I've had enough of referendums.

Just jumping into say that good old Gary Lineker is tweeting lots of sense over on Twitter.

Gary Lineker is one of my favourite people these days. Never saw that coming!

Shame on Liz Truss for not condemning the attacks on the three judges. She's out of her depth and really needs to go.

I am disgusted by the Daily Fail on a regular basis so their treatment of the court decision didn't surprise me. Perhaps it says something about the level of political discourse now and journalistic standards that my reaction was a shrug instead of active outrage.

The DM people know exactly what they are doing, manufacturing and stoking fear and hatred is their daily bread and butter. On a completely irrelevant topic the Daily Fail has trawled through the life of that woman Prince Harry is dating making all manner of unnecessary and biased insinuations about her. The way that rag writes about people they could make the Pope look like a criminal psychopath.

Gary Lineker is one of my favourite people these days. Never saw that coming!

If only I could go back to the early 1990's like Biff in Back to the Future:

'I'm going to place a bet that in 2016 Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be fighting a presidential election, and Gary Lineker, host of Match of the Day will be the voice of liberal reason, and Leicester city...'

I know! 2016 is some crazy place isn't it?

When Brexit occurred, it marked the beginning of the end of the UK. The split will not be immediate, bui it now an almost certainty to occur in the next 10/20 years.

However, I never thought Brexit could spell the end of parliamentary democracy. After seeing those headlines on so many newspapers, I now realise that a line has been passed and there are no certainties anymore.

In recent news, The total lack of respect for rule of law, and ignorance about legal proceedings, it's shocking, isn't it?

I guess it's not new to treat lawyers & judges as parasites, not really, but still. How do people think that laws work unless we try hard to follow them consistently & not just make up minds on the hoof, or decide guilt on the basis of rumours?

I'm not a fan of bureaucracy & rules for every decision, but sheesh. :(

Looks like The Sun did a wee bit of Photoshopping to emphasise certain characteristics of one of those "Enemies of The People". I wonder why ?

mobile.twitter.com/AlexTaylorNews/status/794626760629428224

Tell you what though CorkieD. For years whenever the subject of the Daily Mail and its unfortunate record in the 1930s has been raised the answer has often been "you do not understand the historical context, it was the done thing in those days for the papers to support the Fascists".

Well, it turns out that 80 years later as soon as the Daily Mail sees a possible advantage in it they revert to type without a moment's thought.

Haven't looked through the whole thread so apologies if this has already been posted but people may be interested in this:
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/prosecute-the-daily-mail-for-contempt