Nationality and Borders Bill

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Millennie Al
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Millennie Al » Fri Jul 09, 2021 12:34 am

noggins wrote:
Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:52 am
I wondered - is it possible to undermine a draconian law, by privately prosecuting a clearly ridiculous, unjust, but letter-of-the-law case ?
The Director of Public Prosecutions has the power to take over a private prosecution. They also have the power (and, indeed, it could be argued the duty) to drop a prosecution which is not in the public interest. So the strategy is unlikely to work.

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Bird on a Fire » Fri Jul 09, 2021 12:37 am

Also you might win.

Like The Producers, but with activist lawyers instead.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by IvanV » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:10 am

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Fri Jul 09, 2021 12:37 am
Also you might win.

Like The Producers, but with activist lawyers instead.
Or like a Labour Party leadership election.

In general, I dislike the power to take over a private prosecution and drop it. It seems to run counter to the rule of law. It seems mainly to be used when someone is trying to get justice which is being denied them by the shabby behaviour of the government, and the government wants to get its way. For example when "security issues" are the excuse for a cover-up. The power should be unnecessary. If a private prosecution really is an abuse of process, or malicious prosecution, there are (or should be) legal processes for striking it out.

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by IvanV » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:22 am

And there is that rather terrible case of a judge applying the law as written, because he was certain it would show the law for an ass, thinking the government would use its power to prevent the consequences. But they didn't, and Derek Bentley was hanged for a murder committed after his arrest.

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill - Bentley case

Post by jdc » Fri Jul 09, 2021 3:32 pm

IvanV wrote:
Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:22 am
And there is that rather terrible case of a judge applying the law as written, because he was certain it would show the law for an ass, thinking the government would use its power to prevent the consequences. But they didn't, and Derek Bentley was hanged for a murder committed after his arrest.
I'm not sure about that. I'm sceptical of the claims that Goddard later made to Yallop.
Lord Goddard forwarded the jury's recommendation of mercy, but added that he himself "could find no mitigating circumstances".
Goddard's claims were disputed by John Parris in his book Scapegoat (Duckworth), published in 1991. Parris, who died in September 1996, was Craig's barrister at the 1952 trial, and wrote that Goddard told Maxwell Fyfe to ignore the jury's recommendation for mercy, and that Bentley must be hanged.

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by philbo » Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:45 am

Fishnut wrote:
Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:12 pm
I forgot to add, because it's so crazy I can't quite believe it, that the bill is also proposing offshore detention for asylum seekers.
Maybe they could, say, create an enclave for migrants with a dual use as a buffer zone between Russia and the West.. it could be called Spoiler:

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Lew Dolby » Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:14 am

or we could just hold them in the Channel Islands and/or the Isle of Man.

Them buggers expect the UK taxpayers to provide defence, etc but don't put a penny in the kitty.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by discovolante » Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:18 am

I mean deciding where to 'put' 'them' to punish other people or use as potential cannon fodder is hilarious and all but oh wait no it isn't.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Tue Jul 13, 2021 12:25 pm

gal-dem have a great guide to the bill. They've identified four aspects of the bill they consider particularly troubling:

Criminalising asylum seekers
Those who come to the UK using the "wrong" way would be criminalised and face up to 4 years in prison. This, despite the fact that under international law there's no such thing as an "illegal" asylum seeker and the UK has closed many "legal" resettlement routes to the UK.

Increasing risk of exploitation
Rather than stopping dangerous criminals and protecting asylum seekers from exploitation, the bill will only make things worse. As the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, a committee of which Patel was a member, concluded back in 2019,
“a policy that focuses exclusively on closing borders will drive migrants to take more dangerous routes, and push them into the hands of criminal groups."
Asylum Accommodation
The Bill makes camp-style housing standard practice, and also opens up the possibility of holding asylum seekers offshore.
If implemented, it would mean that asylum seekers are removed from the UK without having their cases fairly heard, housed away from public scrutiny and likely in conditions that are unfit for human habitation.
Changes to the Judicial System
The Bill makes it harder to successfully plead your case for asylum and harder to appeal decisions.
The inevitable outcome of this Bill is that the UK will take in far fewer people in need of protection and is making a predetermined judgement on who is and is not deserving of safety. Not only will people be at more risk of trafficking and exploitation, even if they reach the UK’s shores, they will be left in limbo, without support, and treated as criminals.
The bill is evil. Pure and simple. It's going to go through, we know it will, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try all we can to oppose it. If you have an MP who listens to their constituents, please write to them. Safe Passage have a template you can use. And if you have some money spare, please consider donating to a one of the many organisations that support asylum seekers.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by snoozeofreason » Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:40 pm

Matthew Scott heaps praise on Colin Yeo (the author of the Free Movement document mentioned in the OP) but has found more to worry about in section 23 of the bill than Yeo did. Section 23(2) sets out that where evidence is produced late by a claimant
Unless there are good reasons why the evidence was provided late, the deciding authority must, in considering it, have regard to the principle that minimal weight should be given to the evidence.
As Scott points out tthere are all sorts of reasons why an claimant might produce evidence late. Some of these might count as "good" reasons, but other won't.
Matthew Scott wrote: Let us take for example an asylum seeker from Iran who claims that he will face persecution because he has converted from Islam to Christianity. Apostasy is punishable by death in Iran, so the stakes are quite high. They almost always are in asylum cases.

Now let us suppose that late in the day – or at any “on or after” the deadline that the Home Office chooses to impose – he produces powerful evidence that he will be persecuted, and possibly executed for apostasy, if he is returned to Iran.

If there are “good reasons why the evidence was provided late” the evidence will be assessed on its merits.

But people make mistakes and often there will just be bad reasons. Perhaps he didn’t realise what evidence he needed to produce, or was just slow in getting hold of it. Perhaps his legal advisers were incompetent. Perhaps they served the wrong email address. Perhaps he, or they, simply missed a time limit. Lawyers do things like this from time to time, I’m afraid. So do asylum seekers who do not have lawyers and probably don’t speak English very well. Some of them may even struggle with simple things like immigration law.
The word "simple" in the last paragraph is ironic. As Scott points out, immigration law runs to millions of words set out in different acts of parliament passed over a period of half a century.

Scott also contends that, although section 23 is worded as if it instructs deciding authorities to heed some existing principle, it actually creates that principle (I get the impression that Yeo disagrees with that). He also points out that the section only applies to late evidence submitted by the claimant. The Home Secretary can take all the time she likes.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. The human body was knocked up pretty late on the Friday afternoon, with a deadline looming. How well do you expect it to work?

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by jimbob » Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:16 pm

IvanV wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:24 pm
There is a sorry record of the government passing acts, stating they are for a particular Good Purpose, and saying they won't be used for anything else. But then the law is there, policemen and lawyers and judges read it, and then enforce what it appears to say. And what they said in the house is not evidence in this country, although it is in others, and only on rare occasion have judges found it appropriate to pay it attention.

Thus the Twitter Joke trial was based on a law that was supposed to be about the electronic communication of blackmail - thugs demanding with menaces - by using electronic/media methods. But it has been widely, indeed mainly, been used outside that context, to controll trolling and the like, and, notoriously, an obviously jokey "I'll blow them sky high", which is not very different from the "I'll put a bomb under your chair" various schoolteachers used to use to express their frustration with their charges at schools I attended.

The Twitter Joke Trial was overturned, I think, on second appeal. Indeed I think the prosecution didn't even turn up to the second appeal, as they could see by then which way it was going. But that didn't end it. The law itself continues mainly to be used for policing trolling, etc, which was, according to those who introduced it, never its purpose. And almost never for its intended purpose. And few people have had the persistence, backing and knowledge to resist its application.

So it is very important to say "this law will be used for this evil purpose". Because if it can be so used, it probably will be.
Exactly.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Grumble » Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:13 am

Lew Dolby wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:14 am
or we could just hold them in the Channel Islands and/or the Isle of Man.

Them buggers expect the UK taxpayers to provide defence, etc but don't put a penny in the kitty.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:22 pm

FOI requests have revealed that the Home Secretary was less than entirely truthful when she said that child rapists were "abusing our modern slavery system",
...an FoI response to queries by ECPAT UK reveals that the Home Office’s modern slavery unit could not provide data for child rapists, national security threats or failed asylum seekers referred into the modern slavery system since 2017. The response clarifies that it would need to trawl case files to compile the data, suggesting a lack of existing data for the claims made by Patel and the Home Office.

Patricia Durr, ECPAT UK’s chief executive, said: “It is shocking to have to rely on an FoI request to get to the truth behind a policy that will impact over 10,000 potential victims identified last year alone – the majority British nationals.

“Many provisions are unnecessary, cruel and clearly baseless. There are serious questions to be asked about the evidence basis for measures in a bill that is biggest setback in recent history on survivors of trafficking.”
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Thu Jul 22, 2021 7:14 am

This is a nice Q&A about the "illegal" crossings of the channel that are occurring which the Nationality and Borders Bill is trying to curb. TL:DR:

How does the UK compare to other European countries?
We are a minor destination for boat-bourne asylum-seekers. In 2020 the UK had 8,500 people arrive by sea, complared with 10,000 for Greece, 34,000 for Italy and 40,000 for Spain.

What’s happening to the UK numbers?
They appear to be rising but the numbers that you see in the press are not official, they're being collated by the press, which calls into question their reliability.

Isn’t this an asylum issue?
While the Home Secretary keeps framing this as an "illegal immigration" issue, 98% of those who arrived in the first half of 2020 (I'm guessing that's the most recent figures available though they don't say) sought asylum.
It’s important to remember that compared to other European countries, the UK was only fifth in absolute terms in the number of asylum applications it received in 2020, and 17th if we adjust this number by population size.
Will the new immigration bill reduce channel crossings?
No. It just makes the journeys more dangerous. This Twitter thread is a good explainer.

While the new bill won't reduce channel crossings it will make it harder for those subsequently claiming asylum to be successful, and itwill treat those claiming asylum worse than those who arrive through "legal" means. The United Nations Refugee Agency has said that "International refugee law prohibits penalisation of irregular entry" and has "[called] upon upon the UK to reconsider this proposal and align its plans with a proper interpretation and application of this provision."
The human consequences of this proposal will be very serious. Living under the constant threat of expulsion and being prevented from integrating will only push refugees with this ‘temporary protection status’ into precarious and potentially exploitative limbo situations in the UK – the very situations the UK seeks to take global leadership in eradicating.4 Such limbo situations, when for an extended period, can cause serious consequences for mental health. A system that is designed to maintain a refugee in a precarious status intentionally frustrates, rather than facilitates, their integration and naturalisation.
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discovolante
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by discovolante » Thu Jul 22, 2021 7:28 am

The BBC's reporting of this yesterday was f.cking atrocious (I'm sure other outlets did a bad job too mind). I was going to submit a complaint just for the feeling of having done something but I didn't get round to it, I will try and have a go in a couple of days though.

One thing to note is that Priti Patel witters on about the public being fed up of boat crossings or whatever, and I think Zoe Gardner of the JCWI linked to a survey or two fairly recently showing that the public is currently less bothered about immigration than it ever was in recent years. That might be the covid effect and I'd have to dig it up for everyone to take to pieces, but still.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by jdc » Sat Jul 31, 2021 2:45 pm

When they're not busy criminalising the RNLI or planning offshore detention centres, the Home Office spends their leisure time pretending to be an organisation called On The Move, providing information for asylum seekers.
Exclusive: The Home Office set up a website targeting asylum seekers with “misleading” claims to deter them from journeying to the UK

It created a fake organisation called On The Move, which claims to provide "free, reliable and important information”
https://twitter.com/lizziedearden/statu ... 4510361602
After I put questions about the website to the Home Office, the first line of its response was: "The Independent’s claims are wrong and misleading"

They hadn't seen my article, I hadn't even written it
https://twitter.com/lizziedearden/statu ... 1260688385

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Sat Jul 31, 2021 5:25 pm

Overpriced, underhand and infective. Sounds just like them.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by FlammableFlower » Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:19 am

jdc wrote:
Sat Jul 31, 2021 2:45 pm
After I put questions about the website to the Home Office, the first line of its response was: "The Independent’s claims are wrong and misleading"

They hadn't seen my article, I hadn't even written it
https://twitter.com/lizziedearden/statu ... 1260688385
That seems to be their go-to line now - I notice from the Guardian article shpalman linked to in the Brexit Consequences thread:
A Home Office spokesperson rejected the claims as “completely baseless” and despite a number of cases featured in the article having been contested by the Home Office in immigration tribunals – the latest of which occurred on Friday – claimed “the Observer had failed to provide any proof whatsoever that detention or removal directions are being served to those with EUSS Settlement Scheme Status”.
Even though a judge had just ruled exactly that.

Looking a bit like they're trying a different angle on Trump's "fake news" refrain.

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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Fri Oct 15, 2021 11:13 am

Just saw this thread by the Interim Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. It's not sourced but given their position I'm taking it as true until proven otherwise.

The thread says that the government has introduced more detail into the Bill and describes three key developments,

1) Currently there are some countries who won't accept people who have been deported from the UK. The government needs them to in order to make the Bill work. So they are going to blackmail those countries by making it harder for their citizens to get visas to the UK, or simply suspend visas altogether. This is obviously targeted at the global south, a reminder of the racism inherent in the bill.

2) The government is going to assess the age of child refuges using x-rays (by the sounds of things of teeth but maybe other growth areas, I don't know). The thread points out that this is "grossly dehumanising" and without a strong scientific basis. This is designed to make the public think that refugees routinely lie about their age and cannot be trusted.

3) People who have a conviction of a mere 6 months will be liable for deportation. This significantly lowers the threshold at which the government can deport people. We've already seen the impacts of deportations of people deported to the Caribbean after spending a life-time in the UK. The Windrush Scandal was only the start.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:23 am

Fishnut wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 11:13 am
...
2) The government is going to assess the age of child refuges using x-rays (by the sounds of things of teeth but maybe other growth areas, I don't know). The thread points out that this is "grossly dehumanising" and without a strong scientific basis. This is designed to make the public think that refugees routinely lie about their age and cannot be trusted.
It seems that Priti Patel has dropped the teeth x-ray plans following opposition by the British Dental Association, but plans to x-ray the bodies of asylum seekers instead.
i understands that the Home Office currently views X-rays of people’s bones as the best method for checking asylum seekers’ ages, by estimating the maturity of their skeletons.

Officials are also studying a form of DNA checking known as methylation, which is used to estimate people’s ages in other countries.

Under the plans, a national age assessment board will be set up to carry out the assessments.
So, that's possibly full-body x-rays (seemingly forgetting that x-rays have - admittedly small but still non-zero - health risks and should only be given when medically necessary), DNA analysis and a new governmental Board that's being proposed. What's that going to cost? What are the chances it's more than we'd be spending on giving a few refugees additional support because they were erroneously classed as children rather than adults?
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:44 pm

Look on the bright side. It sounds like they'll be diverting some of their racism budget into medical services and STEM.

It's like when the US military funds R&D. OK, it'll kill brown people, but it will also expand the horizons of human knowledge.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:44 pm

One of the amendments slipped in last month would allow the government to remove someone's citizenship without even telling them. The amendment says the subsection that requires notice to be given doesn't apply if,
(a) the Secretary of State does not have the information needed to be able to give notice under that subsection,
(b) it would for any other reason not be reasonably practicable to
give notice under that subsection, or
(c) notice under that subsection should not be given—
(i) in the interests of national security,
(ii) in the interests of the relationship between the United Kingdom and another country, or
(iii) otherwise in the public interest.
From the Guardian,
It would also appear to be capable of being applied retrospectively to cases where an individual was stripped of citizenship without notice before the clause became law, raising questions about their ability to appeal.

Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve, said: “This clause would give Priti Patel unprecedented power to remove your citizenship in secret, without even having to tell you, and effectively deny you an appeal. Under this regime, a person accused of speeding would be afforded more rights than someone at risk of being deprived of their British nationality. This once again shows how little regard this government has for the rule of law.
The Home Office says that being British is a privilege and one they can withdraw when they choose,
The Home Office said: “British citizenship is a privilege, not a right. Deprivation of citizenship on conducive grounds is rightly reserved for those who pose a threat to the UK or whose conduct involves very high harm. The nationality and borders bill will amend the law so citizenship can be deprived where it is not practicable to give notice, for example if there is no way of communicating with the person.”
I don't see any reason not to find this all absolutely terrifying.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Lew Dolby » Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:59 am

and this from the same people who, only last week, were complaining about the lack of "natural justice" and the lack of a right of appeal (even tho' there was one) in the Patterson Affair. Beyond satire.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by Fishnut » Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:28 am

The latest list of amendments has been released. There's a huge number - this tweet puts them at around 80. By my count there are two amendments which intend to make it illegal to claim asylum in the UK. The first is NC18,
“Illegal immigration: offences
(1) Any person who is present in the United Kingdom without legal authority shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person who enters or attempts to enter the United Kingdom without legal authority shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine (or both);
(b) on summary conviction in Scotland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both);
(c) on summary conviction in Northern Ireland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both).”

Member’s explanatory statement
This new clause would create offences in respect of persons who have entered the UK illegally or who have remained in the UK without legal authority.
The second is NC19,
“Illegal immigration offences: deportation orders
(1) Any person who is convicted of an offence under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 shall be subject to a deportation order unless the Secretary of State deems such a deportation order to be against the public interest.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above, a deportation order shall be deemed to be in the public interest unless a certificate to the contrary has been submitted by the Secretary of State to the Court.”
For those wondering, section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 is about entering or staying in the UK illegally. I'm not going to quote it all as it's too long.

Remember that to claim asylum in a country you have to be in that country. So for those in conflict-riven areas, or who are otherwise unable to get appropriate documentation to arrive by commercial means, the UK is not going to allow you to claim asylum. No matter the role we have played in making so many areas riven with conflict in the first place. We are washing our hands of the consequences and telling people that the very act of coming here will make them criminals in our eyes.

There's also an amendment to Clause 40 (amendment 63, p34) to "provide for exclusions or defences to the offences of facilitating illegal entry or the entry of asylum-seekers in circumstances where... a person rescues another person at sea". Basically, trying to answer whether the RNLI would be breaking the law for rescuing people. It's a long amendment and honestly I'm struggling to get my head around it, but one clause stood out to me,
For the purposes of subsection (2), the following are not to be treated as an act of providing assistance—
(a) the act of delivering the assisted individual to the United Kingdom in circumstances where—
(i) the United Kingdom was not the nearest place of safety on land to which the assisted individual could have been delivered, and
(ii) the person charged with the offence did not have a good reason for delivering the assisted individual to the United Kingdom instead of to a nearer place of safety on land;
This seems to be drawing an imaginary line down the middle of the channel and saying that even if we can help people on the other side, we won't be allowed to without fear of prosecution. That's not how rescue at sea works.
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Re: Nationality and Borders Bill

Post by IvanV » Wed Dec 01, 2021 1:24 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:28 am
The first is NC18,
“Illegal immigration: offences
(1) Any person who is present in the United Kingdom without legal authority shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person who enters or attempts to enter the United Kingdom without legal authority shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine (or both);
(b) on summary conviction in Scotland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both);
(c) on summary conviction in Northern Ireland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both).”

Member’s explanatory statement
This new clause would create offences in respect of persons who have entered the UK illegally or who have remained in the UK without legal authority.
The second is NC19,
“Illegal immigration offences: deportation orders
(1) Any person who is convicted of an offence under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 shall be subject to a deportation order unless the Secretary of State deems such a deportation order to be against the public interest.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above, a deportation order shall be deemed to be in the public interest unless a certificate to the contrary has been submitted by the Secretary of State to the Court.”
Under clause (1) of this law, it looks like Spike Milligan would have been guilty of an offence and deported, during his early adulthood, before he became Irish in his mid-40s. After all, if you are not at a specific point in time acknowledged as British, or anything else, and have not explicitly applied for leave to remain, then it might well be said you are here illegally. That's in effect what happened to the deported Windrush people. Maybe this law would even legalise deporting the Windrush people, for having failed to assert their British nationality, as they could be said to be here illegally at some point after arriving if they failed to do that.

Milligan entered the country entirely legally at age 12, with his parents. They settled, as there was no legal impediment to them doing so. His parents had legal right of residence. He later left and re-entered the country several times while serving in the British army. But 30 years after first arriving, when Milligan first applied for a passport as an adult in his own name, he discovered that his situation did not make him automatically British. Rather he would have to apply for it and demonstrate he satisfied the criteria. He was born in India to a British mother and an Irish father. He was sufficiently offended by this unjust law, that he applied to be Irish instead, when he discovered that was a possibility.

That was in 1960 and rules have tightened since. After the Thatcher administration nationality reforms, many people applied to renew their British passport and were told that they no longer qualified automatically as British, and had to explicitly apply to be British to get a new passport. Even though they had previously been lawfully issued with a British passport. The situation was even worse for those status was similar, but had never previously applied for a passport, such as the Windrush people.

I almost wish I still had a Tory MP to write to, to complain about it. Not much point preaching to the converted, though.

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