European Convention on Human Rights

Hi there,

I see that the latest wheeze is that our Home Secretary is considering leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping The Human Rights Act should her political party win the 2015 general election.

Apparently this is because it restricts "the UK's ability to act in the national interest". (Oh yeah? Like me, you may wonder "Why don't the other 46 Member States of the Council of Europe have the same problems?" and apparently they don't!)

Before this band-wagon gathers any momentum I would like to point out to our younger members that:

A) This Convention was first proposed back in 1950 (SIXTY-THREE YEARS AGO!) and it has served ordinary people well.

B) The UK was one of the original signatory states and championed its formulation.

The only thing that has changed in recent times is that our government (for lack of a better word) has been foiled in its attempts to impose more and more Draconian rules on the people who live and work in this country and to reduce their rights and freedoms.

When ordinary citizens have appealed these laws, or the way in which they have been interpreted, at the European Court on Human Rights OUR leaders have been judged to be IN THE WRONG on many occasions. (i.e. THEY have been found to be in breach of the Conventions that THEY instigated!)

I would much rather that, instead of threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping The Human Rights Act, the people who are supposed to be running this country stopped breaking the law themselves and also stopped trying to reduce our rights in the name of nebulous and frankly unbelievable "national interests".

Mump over on this subject until the next election!

Best regards,


REFERENCES:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/09/theresa-may-promises-scrapping-human-rights-act_n_2844690.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights

Here, Here. The problem in the UK is that so many people read and believe the gutter press. The Human Rights Act is designed to stop the state from damaging individual citizens rights. The UK has been taken to the ECHR very few times. Take other countries such as Russia and you will find they have been taken to court much more often.

Hi there,

Today an MP described the European Court of Human Rights as a "Micky Mouse Court" because they won't let him do what he wants to do; which is to deport someone called Abu Qatada!

I admit that Abu Qatada isn't the most handsome of men and he probably wouldn't be very high on my list of "people to invite to dinner" but there are two slight problems to his deportation that our leaders seem to be willing to overlook.

1) This man has NEVER been charged with ANY offence in the UK.

2) The country that is demanding his deportation HAS used torture as a means of gathering evidence.

If anyone thinks that the latter situation is not worth worrying about I suggest that they sit and wonder what level of lies they would tell against their own neighbours.

Believe me, being a devout coward, if someone was industriously removing my fingernails with a pair of pliers, whilst occasionally flicking the switch that wired up my genitals to the National Grid, I would tell them ANYTHING!

Best regards,


Oh, talking of our current crop of "leaders" I have a few questions:

1. "What do you think of a Cabinet Minister who is prepared to Pervert the Course of Justice (a crime that carries a potential Life Sentence) to avoid punishment for a minor traffic infringement?"

2. "What do you think the same Cabinet Minister would be prepared to do if he was caught doing something that may be regarded as a 'Serious Crime'?"

3. "What do you think of an expensive Private School (Westminster) that doesn't bother to teach pupils the concept of "A woman scorned."

Answers of a Postcard please to The Ex-Cabinet Minister's Retreat, c/o HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs.

One for the good guys I think!

Best regards,