Some might feel the decision to strip Isis bride Shamima Begum of her British passport and ban her from returning to this country was harsh.

She was just 15 when she went from London to Syria, was married off to a jihadi fighter and bore three children, all of whom died in the chaos and aftermath of the terror group’s final defeat.

The Appeal Court acknowledged these factors yesterday but still ruled that the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s 2019 decision to revoke her citizenship on national security grounds was lawful.

It was a rare legal victory for the Government and welcome recognition by the judiciary that public interest sometimes trumps individual human rights.

Begum may be contrite now, but by joining Isis she repudiated British values and all we stand for. To allow her back would send a message to others who join our enemies abroad that they will always have a home here.

Human rights group Amnesty described Begum’s banishment as ‘medieval’. This is risible. What was truly medieval was the regime of beheading, slavery, and mass rape in which she chose to participate.

But there is another aspect of this case that exposes the byzantine nature and colossal expense of our immigration courts system. 

Since declaring her desire to return to Britain in 2019 – primarily so she could have a baby on the NHS – Begum’s case has cost the taxpayer millions.

It has been through several hearings before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, and all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled against her in February 2021.

Undeterred, her lawyers tried a new tack, saying she should be allowed back as she had been trafficked to Syria. Having lost yesterday, they will doubtless be considering another Supreme Court appeal.

It’s an absurd legal merry-go-round which makes lawyers rich but corrodes public faith in justice.

This is a high-profile case, but it is played out in microcosm every day in the asylum system, where endless appeals have made it almost impossible to deport those whose claims are refused.

Indeed, if Begum, now 24, could get herself from Syria to Calais and pay traffickers to ship her across to Kent on a small boat, she would probably be back for good. So much for taking back control.

Protesting too much

It's good that MPs have at last woken up to the increasingly disruptive and intimidatory tactics of demonstrators who abuse the right to peaceful protest.

But it was only being targeted in their own homes that spurred them into action.

From the climate extremists who bring cities and motorways to a halt to the pro-Palestinian thugs who scream anti-Semitic slogans in our streets, these zealots have been given licence for far too long.

The police sit back and watch, the courts are excessively lenient with the few who are prosecuted, and politicians have been afraid to confront them for fear of seeming illiberal or racist.

As a result, militant activists become ever bolder, defacing synagogues, issuing death threats, and even invading the Prime Minister’s constituency house.

The family homes of our elected representatives must be sacrosanct, so Home Secretary James Cleverly is right to look at giving police greater powers to protect them from demonstrators.

But don’t we all deserve more protection? Yes, the right to protest is a keystone of our democracy, but so is the right to go about our everyday business without being harassed or impeded.

It’s time to rebalance those two liberties in favour of the majority – rather than keep pandering to the shrill minorities who seek to impose their will on the rest of us.