A positive plethora of news this week – the Conservatives on human rights, assisted suicide in Switzerland, same-sex marriage in South Africa, Scientologists in Russia and more – requiring some separation of the wheat from the chaff whilst retaining a few items of broader interest

A UK Bill of Rights – again

Being (we hope) sensible people with more interesting things to do with our lives, we now tend to give the party conference season a fairly wide berth[1]. However, we can’t ignore one of the major news items of the week: that David Cameron told the Conservatives on Wednesday that if elected with a majority he would repeal the Human Rights Act 1998. This is what he said, according to the Conservative Party press release:

“Of course, it’s not just the European Union that needs sorting out – it’s the European Court of Human Rights. When that charter was written, in the aftermath of the Second World War, it set out the basic rights we should respect. But since then, interpretations of that charter have led to a whole lot of things that are frankly wrong. Rulings to stop us deporting suspected terrorists. The suggestion that you’ve got to apply the human rights convention even on the battlefields of Helmand. And now – they want to give prisoners the vote.

I’m sorry, I just don’t agree. Continue reading →