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Let me tell you the story about how my pyjamas are connect to a High Court test case and holding the UK Govt to account ... By the end of it I hope you’ll consider supporting the #DeniedMyVote legal challenge. Every little helps & makes a real difference! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/discrimination-eu-citizens/
A little over year ago, shortly after midnight. I lay in bed in my pyjamas, genuinely dreading the day that had just begun. It was the day of the 2019 EU election and I knew that 1000s of EU citizens at home in the UK would soon be robbed of their right to vote in the election.
Obviously, I can’t look into the future, but the Govt had failed to take action on an issue to do with how EU citizens had to register for voting in the UK, so there was *no doubt at all* that many were going to be disenfranchised and discriminated because they are EU citizens.
... And that’s when I thought that it’d be really important to document this right from the start. Stories would undoubtedly come one way or other, but perhaps, I thought, it was best to try make them as easily discoverable as possible to help challenge what was about to happen.
That is how I came to coin the hashtag #DeniedMyVote ... shortly after midnight, pyjamas and all. Now the #, the scandal it stands for, is the name of a High Court test case.
By the time I next looked at Twitter early in the morning—thanks, I think, largely to @davidallengreen’s experience ealry in the morning (see below) which gave the problem early exposure—many #DeniedMyVote stories were already beginning to emerge.
That suggested to me that this could turn out to be even worse than I was expecting. It did. #DeniedMyVote was trending before 10am and tweet after tweet kept coming with accounts by EU citizens who were denied their vote, seeing their names crossed off lists in polling stations.
It was a devastating day for many EU citizens, but also for democracy. That is another reason why the worst bit of this scandal is that it was a *scandal by choice*. The Govt could have prevented it but chose not to act: it let democracy be undermined. https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/23/we-knew-eu-citizens-could-be-stopped-from-voting-yet-those-with-power-did-nothing-9667461/
Since then, @the3million has done an amazing job preparing the court case with a great legal team to try and hold the Govt to account. This case is important not only, however, because of the #DeniedMyVote scandal itself, but also what it could mean for the future.
As John Halford of Bindmans LLP explains, the test case asks the High Court to
rule that #DeniedMyVote was unlawful
establish a precedent that discrimination against EU nationals as a group is as unlawful as it is unacceptable in a democracy.
rule that #DeniedMyVote was unlawful establish a precedent that discrimination against EU nationals as a group is as unlawful as it is unacceptable in a democracy.
Point 2 is really important. We have a chance here to effectively put in place a protective shield for EU citizens. As John explains: “if EU citizens can be stripped of the right to vote, despite it being embedded in law, what other rights might be taken away by the same means?”
To prevent the Govt from stripping rights away further, we need a@ruling that says: no, you can’t discriminate against EU citizens as a group. That, to me, is the most important aspect of the legal challenge and explains why it’s so vital. I could be our game changer. So ...
I know we live in challenging times, but if you can support the legal challenge please do—sharing the link helps too. Ultimately, this case isn’t just about discrimination of EU citizens, it’s also about the very fabric of our democracy. Thank you. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/discrimination-eu-citizens/
