Theresa May, Grossly offended by the existence of Human Rights
But it seems more like a great day for the Tories as they threaten to disenfranchise millions across the UK in the pursuit of power beyond the next General election. The Daily Hate is currently reporting that Theresa May (perennially negative and disillusioned scourge of human rights law everywhere) is promising to withdraw the UK from the European Convention of Human Rights if her party wins a majority in the next general election in 2015 god forbid. I would link to their report here, but to be honest I no longer wish to contaminate my blog with links to a hate rag.
Anyway, not content with telling lies about cats, not content with telling lies about the Strasbourg court being involved in cases when in fact it is not (there is a good breakdown of this story on the UK Human Rights Blog available here today) May and her pals at Tory HQ somewhere in Mingo City now seem to wish to tear up human rights law entirely. Why?
The usual reasons seem to be getting trotted out. Abu Hamza, Qatada, Prisoner voting rights, the phantom threat of terrorism, undermining of the sovereignty of Parliament (that last one is an uncooked plate of TOTAL TRIPE by the way, theoretically nothing can undermine parliamentary supremacy). I haven’t seen mention of May’s cat yet, but its bound to be skulking around somewhere on the sidelines just waiting for an opportunity to strike. As usual though never a mention is given to the vastly overpowering numbers of cases in which the Human Rights Act, the European Convention and Judicial Review have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the lives of vast numbers of people throughout the UK. Lets call them the silent majority.
Cameron, supports the removal of those wicked pesky human rights
Apparently this new move against civil rights has the support of none other than Lord of War David Cameron, Dictator of Mingo City (AKA Self Deluded Ruler of the Universe, Seller of weapons of mass destruction to the masses, Warrior of the Wasteland, the Ayatollah of rock and Rolla etc) the man who decries immigration into the UK from Eastern European nations yet publicly advocates the opening of the floodgates to unlimited immigration rights to India as he pursues weapons contracts with them; the man who avows the importance of Human Rights to other countries of the world (usually while selling them weapons) yet does nothing but criticise human rights law and the judiciary back home; the man who instituted a highly expensive public consultation and committee to explore the replacement of the Human Rights Act with a ‘British Bill of Rights’ only to have the committee undergo two public consultations (the first being a total buster of directionless pap) roll up and smoke vast sums of public money (coming out of an education or NHS budget near you soon) and report back that there was no justifiable argument for replacing the Human Rights Act (and who were then criticised because they didn’t return the recommendations the Government wanted, probably after rejecting an offer of Weapons by Cameron), and who now is rapidly making his next move on the chessboard which is to just withdraw from the convention entirely if re-elected with a majority, probably while desperately selling weapons to someone else in the process.
A lot of promises are being deferred to 2015 just now; referendum on EU membership; withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights. Funny how they don’t do these things now, but instead defer them until after the election, dangling them like carrots for an electorate who thanks to the government, the media and the sheer lack of objective truth on these matters from either party remain largely in state imposed ignorance about the crucial issues and law in question, and will vote only on the basis of what they are told, and not on the truths of which they are unaware.
It is of course no secret that the Conservative party over the last 30 or so years have never really supported the ability of ordinary people to legally challenge the verbal diarrhoea regularly emanating from the Stationery Office or the decisions of local or central government as they seek to dash our taxes against the wall by splashing out on weapons of mass destruction, junkets to the Swiss Alps, caviare and chips. The idea of incorporating the European convention into domestic law along with the idea of a freedom of information Act was utterly abhorrent to Thatcher in the 80′s (remember that’s the woman that quite possibly knew about police misconduct in the Hillsborough tragedy yet buried it). Given that the current mob of castle owning London based PPE educated professional politician sociopaths currently masquerading as government are so enamoured with those dark and distant times it figures that they too feel exactly the same. If you really want to see the mindset of this party at work regarding issues of human Rights and Equality then just consider the bigoted homophobic opinions of many of its members given during the recent debate and vote on Equal Marriage as they tried to convince us that the pillars of heaven would come crashing down about us, many of whom I suspect voted on their own narrow beliefs rather than those of the electorate who appeared as I am largely in favour of the change.
Not only are our government (forget coalition, the Lib Dems are dead whitebait in the shark pool; WE HAVE a Conservative government propped up by arch coward and closet Tory Nick Clegg who sold his party, soul, students, female members of his party and voters down the river in return for a taste of power) seeking desperately to get rid of the influence of the European Court of Human Rights, the Human Rights Act etc they are also now attacking the principles of Judicial Review, the method by which members of the public can ask the courts to rule on the legality, rationality or procedural propriety of government, local authority or emanation of the state decisions taken under secondary legislation that affect the specific individual or interested party. The logic seems to be that in the desperate times in which we live (which the Government and master of negativity Mervin King in the Castle Grayskull that is the Bank of England do nothing to help) the state should not be tied up in red tape and should have a free hand to do what they wish. They cite the rise of judicial review over the years as a menace against government. Personally I think that any rise in judicial review is merely indicative of a rise in bad government. I also think that in desperate times it is all the more crucial that we hold onto the values and legal protections that we have as was recognised by Lord Atkin in Liversidge v Anderson back in the midst of World War 2 when he gave a powerful dissenting argument against the House of Lords merely following the intention of Parliament in the heat of war rather than upholding the principles of rule of law and separation of powers like they should have. Difficult times are always a powerful incentive for the public to allow governments to have their way. Those in power realise this and do everything they can to exploit such times, usually by whipping up a frenzy over trifling issues in the media, such as the Quatada affair, a man who is only in the UK because the Conservative Government in the 1990′s granted him asylum shortly before the security services started pumping him for intelligence.
Iain Duncan Smith, Scourge of the Nether Regions
It seems today that we are on an ever descending spiral into the depths of a place where the state is becoming ever more all powerful and the public have little option but to accept their lot as dictated by that state with little option for redress. The conservatives prior to taking government promised to undo the encroachments on civil liberties and rights imposed by the former Labour government in the shadow of the war on terror, encroachments that the conservatives had long complained against while in opposition. Since coming to power however they seem to have reversed on those promises with a vengeance, grabbing onto any little excuse to unravel the fabric of public law protections that vastly benefit the public beyond a mere handful of trifling yet high publicity negative cases that are bandied about as justification for entirely negative change. No place else is this attitude reflected more than in the antics of Iain Duncan Smith, the man who pre election went to Easterhouse and promised to do something to help lift those in poverty out of it, but since coming to power seems to have made it his mission in life to wipe such communities and people off of the face of the Earth by sucking out their very lifeblood while the Government continues splashing billions on Aircraft Carriers and disgusting Nuclear Missiles.
I personally find the times we are living in just now as quite scary, as do a lot of others. It feels like the early 80′s again. Even the fashions from the period are back with a vengeance, and drainpipe jeans and chinos didn’t look good then either. I see a massive negative impact that our Government’s ideology driven policies are having everywhere. There is an unquestionable rise in homelessness in Bristol. I also keep reading of a possible huge forced exodus of social housing tenants out of London which I am cynical enough to believe may have been the whole point having read in the past of how certain areas of London society object to having social housing within the golden square mile of Westminster Thanks also to Government cutbacks in legal aid many are now finding out the hard way that they have no help to deal with serious issues and the enormous negative impact of government activity on society. The removal of Human Rights law or reduction in the availability of Judicial review or placing of it beyond the reasonable expense of the public will intensify these problems. Increasingly it feels that we are today all living with our backs to the wall. Many however don’t even realise it, and won’t do so until their lives are impacted negatively by the State and find that they no longer have any method of redress. Meanwhile Cameron keeps on talking about ‘the big society’, which I doubt very much he has even the first clue about, and wouldn’t even it slapped him around the face with a wet roe stuffed smoked salmon. If he did understand ‘the big society’ he would never have employed the monster that is IDS and wouldn’t be feverishly de-constructing and disenfranchising the very machinery that could make any such society possible in the first place.
Anyway, while this post has been satirical, cynical, angry and emotional, I believe strongly in these issues, and I recommend others to seek out the truth on them rather than believe the rhetoric of the politically biased media. There are many good campaign groups out there desperately fighting against the whirlwind of destruction currently emanating from Westminster, Reprieve for example, Amnesty UK, Justice to name a few. These are not as some would lead you to believe organisations of lawyers exploiting a gravy train of Human Rights Practice, but in many cases individuals who campaign in their own time without pay for the issues that they believe in.
Also for good objective reporting on Human Rights issues please read the UK Human Rights Blog which does a damned fine job of unravelling the untruthful antics of Government and the Media. Don’t take the tales of outlets such as the Daily Mail or the Sun at face value, these are after all so called news papers that have never hidden their political affiliations, affiliations which go to the very heart of their intentions in presenting the news in the way that they do. Please, think for yourself, look around, see the world as it is, not as they would have you see it. One day you may need to rely on the basic rights currently available. It would be such a pity if you found out in future that they were no longer there for you.
DON’T PLAY INTO THEIR HANDS. DON’T BELIEVE THE MEDIA HYPE. WITHDRAWING FROM THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION AND COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS WOULD ONLY BE A HUGELY NEGATIVE STEP BACK FOR THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, WALES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM AS A WHOLE. LIKE THEIR INTENTION TO PUSH THROUGH THE CREATION OF SECRET STAR CHAMBER LIKE COURTS, WITHDRAWAL FROM THE CONVENTION BENEFITS ONLY THE STATE AND THE GOVERNMENT.
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Mike Farrell-Deveau
