Bernard Ryan
Professor of migration law, based in Leicester. For social equality, multiculturalism and anti-colonialism. Now more than ever.
- How come Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs get to vote on England’s student loan system?
- How about a political auction over student loans, rather than immigration policy?
- www.theguardian.com/society/2026... Why on earth does the @guardian call the Parliament Acts ‘archaic’? They were passed in 1911 and 1949 as democratic measures, in order to ensure social reforms.
- www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Poor headline, which inadvertently makes Matt Goodwin seem mainstream. His previously reported view was that ethnic minorities born *and raised* in the UK were not necessarily being British.
- Trump II is an extended settler colonial revival: Palestine, ICE, Venezuela, Greenland. It’s an old story, this time in digital technicolour.
- Recommend this piece by @stewartmotha.bsky.social, on the parallels between the Chagos islands and Greenland.
- STEWART MOTHA (stewartmotha.bsky.social) revisits the UK’s dispossession of the Chagossians as a cautionary tale for Greenland, where security narratives may enable a fragmented absorption of territory and distract from interconnected vulnerabilities. verfassungsblog.de/greenland-ch...
- www.theguardian.com/world/live/2... It’s like the American revolutionary war all over again: indigenous populations preferring to stick with the imperial centre, rather than being exposed to the predations of settler rule.
- What’s especially shocking about this is that the ‘Salisbury convention’ is supposed to mean that Lords do not obstruct manifesto Bills. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
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View full threadIt’s about time British commentators stopped pretending there is a functioning democratic constitution here. In truth, the system enables powerful actors to defend their positions under a democratic cloak.
- I am all in favour of a democratically elected upper house by the way. The current Lords is too weak overall, but yet able to defend specific interests and privileges.
- A parallel breach of that convention has occurred on respect of the Hereditary Peers Bill. The Lords are trying to keep the current 92 hereditary peers on post for their lifetimes.
- But the 2024 Labour manifesto spoke of “immediate modernisation, by … legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.” And that is what the Commons has voted for.
- The settlement consultation paper includes the remarkable announcement ("not subject to consultation") that those "with a uniquely strong attachment to this country" will not face longer periods to settlement.
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- Likewise Jonathan! The position of Irish citizens as favoured sponsors is now really unclear - presumably they don't qualify either?
- The Immigration Rules have not favoured British citizens over others 'present and settled' in relation to the sponsorship of family members since July 1985.
- The removal at that time of some nationality preference was part of the response to the Abdulaziz ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (May 1985), which had found gender discrimination in immigration policy contrary to the ECHR.
- These are said to include (a) the spouses and dependants of British citizens and (b) British Nationals (Overseas) from Hong Kong.
- If something like this is the outcome, it would mean that - contrary to the long practice in UK immigration law - holders of indefinite leave would no longer be able to sponsor family members on the same terms as British citizens.
- In the foreword to settlement consultation, the Home Secretary tells us that "My father came here in the early 1970s, and my mother a little less than a decade later."
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View full threadWives who were sponsored to come to the UK by British citizens, or holders of ILR, before 1985, acquired indefinite leave without a probationary period.
- Someone really should ask for further details about their status at the relevant times. The idea that 'fairness' means making settlement far harder to acquire now does not stand up to scrutiny.
- It seems very likely that Shabana Mahmood's parents each qualified for permanent stay upon arrival.
- If her father was admitted to work, or as a family member before 1 January 1973, he would been without time limits, and so would have obtained ILR automatically when the Immigration Act 1971 came into force.
- There is a Brexit angle to this. If the UK seeks to rejoin EU, it will be obliged to accept a Directive giving long-term residence after 5 years. Polices which deny ILR, or make it harder, store up problems.
- Denmark has an opt-out, which is why it’s the only member state pursuing the see policies.
- So the key question is whether Anthony Williams was known to the mental health system? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...?
- Handsworth appears a model of integration, understood as everyday living together by diverse people.
- There’s also a solid case for student number controls at the institutional level, to end the instability an open market for students has caused since 2015. As things stand, in every discipline, some universities are simply expanding at the expense of others.
- Leicester UCU @leicesterucu.bsky.social will be on strike from Monday 29 September until Friday 17 October. Support our striking members, donate to the fighting fund if you're able. More details here: www.uculeicester.org.uk/leicester-uc...
- If only commentators would recognise that in UK law ‘deportation’ is what happens to foreign nationals who have been convicted of serious criminal offences. Those affected typically had a right of residence beforehand.
- It’s not the same as the ‘removal’ of those with no legal right to be here, such as overstayers and unsuccessful asylum applicants. That does not usually involve serious criminal offences, and no conviction is needed.
- This matters because the conflation of the two categories tends to helps those arguing against (a) migration and (b) legal guarantees for foreigners.
- Reform's plan to end ILR - including where it has already been granted - would involve a bonfire of treaties and legislation.
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View full threadFor those without permission, the Rules could though be changed to make ILR impossible to acquire.
- Despite its manifest and massive unfairnesses, this would all be legally achievable if a majority was held. The UK constitution is just not equipped to prevent such extreme policies being implemented.
- If EEA nationals were included, the Withdrawal Agreement and parallel agreements would also have to go.
- At the domestic level, for those with existing immigration permission, it would mean amending the Immigration Act 1971, section 3: it prevents conditions being attached to ILR. There is also a Windrush issue: ILR was conferred automatically by section 1(2) of that Act upon pre-1973 residents.
- At the international level, it would conflict at least with Article 8 ECHR (right to private life), and Article 3 of the European Convention on Establishment (secure residence after 10 years)...
- Just think Corbyn is too set in his ways to lead the left party that UK politics needs. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...?
- Can we agree that the main threats to free speech in the UK concern pro-Palestinian opinions?
- Sorry, not buying the idea that Labour has been waving the UK flag to represent diversity. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
- Why does the article refer to the St George’s flag? He’s surely referring to the British flag.
- EXC - Keir Starmer condemns far right racism and violence at yesterday's march Says there will be "no surrender" of British flag to those who promote hate Our story here - www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
- One of Labour’s problems is that under Starmer they have actively deployed the union flag as a backdrop, both in campaigning and in Government. Point is: Labour are now very badly positioned to challenge the ‘patriotism’ of the populists or of the far right.
- Really not sure this will fly: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
- There is an established practice of linking visa facilitation and liberalisation to better return arrangements. Carrots, in other words.
- Not sure it will work to make visas harder to obtain (sticks). Why should the other Governments care? Plus they might respond by making it harder for British citizens going the other way.
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View full threadBut could someone explain to him what Coppola’s movie was about?
- The more you look into Trump’s post the more appalling it is. It is referencing Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in Apocalypse Now, who declared “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” 🤯
- That hat is called a Cavalry Stetson. It’s extraordinary how brazenly Trump uses settler colonial motifs.
