Remember Geert Wilders? Back in February the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith excluded him from the UK because of his views on Islam. I wrote at the time that the decision was unlawful; an afterthought simply confirmed my view. I did an interview about the case with Charon QC, too, explaining my view and expressing the hope Wilders would appeal – I’m pleased he has done, and has won. His exclusion simply could not be reconciled with article 27.2 of Directive 2004/38, which requires that any exclusion measure
shall be based exclusively on the personal conduct of the individual concerned. Previous criminal convictions shall not in themselves constitute grounds for taking such measures…. The personal conduct of the individual concerned must represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society.
The decision to exclude Wilders could never, in my view, have met this standard – his personal conduct clearly did not amount to a serious social threat, and the possible reactions of protesters to him are an irrelevant consideration.
I’ll be interested, when the ruling is available, to see whether the Tribunal’s reasoning was the same as mine.
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It will indeed be interesting. The whole matter shows that at the heart of the present government is intolerance of anyone who either disagrees with them or who might disagree with them. I had thought that the law was very much as you have stated ever since the decision back in the early 1970s in Van Duyn v Home Office. Was I wrong?
No, I think you’re right, Peter – not much has changed since then. The tests have been filled out a bit by the Bouchereau case, and I’m not sure the last part of Van Duyn can survive the Adoui case I linked to – but where we are now is recognisable from the viewpoint of Van Duyn’s time, I reckon.