Friday, May 19, 2006
Human Wrongs
Peter Hitchens blog on the Mail on Sunday website is quickly becoming one of my favourites - and this post on British liberty and the Human Rights Act is no exception:
While I don't share Hitchens contempt for David Cameron, I must say his general conclusion seems about right. Even a strong Tory government will never restore British sovereighty and independence to what it should be. Lack of principle or just a reflection that things have changed? You could argue either way, but personally I'd go with the former... and that leaves me with a heavy heart indeed
Many sixties leftists chose to enter the law rather than politics, precisely because they realised that these [European] conventions were a limitless mine, into which they could dig for excuses to push through radical social change. They could never have got these measures past the electorate. And all these things were going on long before Labour passed the Human Rights Act. The Strasbourg Human Rights Court had for years been providing an excuse for British governments of both parties to do liberal things. they wanted to do them anyway, but could claim Strasbourg had forced them to.
Mr Clair and Mr Blameron are both currently squeaking to the 'Sun' newspaper that they have got it in for the Human Rights Act. Don't you believe it. Neither of these elite liberal public schoolboys would ever dare withdraw from the European Human Rights Convention, the only way to free ourselves from this rubbish. Why, if they did that, they would have to leave the EU, Britain would go back to governing itself, and politicians would once more become directly responsible for the actions of their government.
That would never do, would it?
While I don't share Hitchens contempt for David Cameron, I must say his general conclusion seems about right. Even a strong Tory government will never restore British sovereighty and independence to what it should be. Lack of principle or just a reflection that things have changed? You could argue either way, but personally I'd go with the former... and that leaves me with a heavy heart indeed
# posted by Chris Hughes @ 11:27 pm 
