Monday, June 01, 2015
First Tory Cabinet split
The Independent reports that the new Tory Cabinet has split for the first time and it is over the subject of human rights.
They say that David Cameron has defied two of his top Cabinet ministers by taking the entirely sensible position of ruling out withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.
His rather less-than-sensible solution is to pursue a “half-way” house which would see Britain remaining as a signatory of the ECHR, an international treaty signed in the 1950s to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms on the continent and which was promoted by Conservative politicians, but still repeal the Human Rights Act, which enshrined the convention into British law in 1998.
In many ways this is the worst of all worlds as it will mean that litigants will have to spend huge sums of money and be subject to excessive delays in taking their case to the European Court on Human Rights rather than, as now, resolving the issue in the UK courts.
In fact, Cameron's solution would do precisely what he and his party has complained about by handing over jurisdiction on human rights matters to Europe, when they can be resolved perfectly well within our borders at present due to the Human Rights Act.
They really are in a mess on this subject.
They say that David Cameron has defied two of his top Cabinet ministers by taking the entirely sensible position of ruling out withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.
His rather less-than-sensible solution is to pursue a “half-way” house which would see Britain remaining as a signatory of the ECHR, an international treaty signed in the 1950s to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms on the continent and which was promoted by Conservative politicians, but still repeal the Human Rights Act, which enshrined the convention into British law in 1998.
In many ways this is the worst of all worlds as it will mean that litigants will have to spend huge sums of money and be subject to excessive delays in taking their case to the European Court on Human Rights rather than, as now, resolving the issue in the UK courts.
In fact, Cameron's solution would do precisely what he and his party has complained about by handing over jurisdiction on human rights matters to Europe, when they can be resolved perfectly well within our borders at present due to the Human Rights Act.
They really are in a mess on this subject.
