Thursday, June 29, 2006
Human Rights Fiasco
David Cameron has recently announced his intention of replacing the Human Rights Act with a new 'British Bill of Rights' - while staying in the European Convention of Human Rights.
Personally, I remain unconvinced. The current HRA has obvious problems, but it is not clear how a new bill, which would drastically alter the British Constitution, would solve them. While I don't know if the pros outweigh the cons quite yet, it is clear that this is a very complicated but important issue which deserves the time and debate it is surely now going to get.
What isn't the slightest bit helpful are the kind of remarks uttered by Ken Clarke, in which he calls the new bill "xenophobic" and "legal nonsense". Huh? One suspects through the prism of Clarke's own Euro-fetishist world view, where the existance of an independent British nation is "anti-foreigner", that this kind of comment might make sense. But back in reality - or at least back in the reality we feel on this side of the floor - it is insulting.
Clarke should resign.
# posted by Chris Hughes @ 9:17 pm 
