Conservatives will scrap the Human Rights Act

[Taf]

The Conservatives will scrap the Human Rights Act if they win the next general election, the home secretary has said.

Another promise to break IF they get re-elected?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21726612

I think we have to be careful what happens if that is done ,it's ok to want more state freedom with legislation so we can remove undesirables or prevent them coming in the first place but at what cost to the citizens of that state .There are many good things about the ECHR and the HRA that have benefited many people and withdrawing could just backfire on us

Originally Posted by martyh

I think we have to be careful what happens if that is done ,it's ok to want more state freedom with legislation so we can remove undesirables or prevent them coming in the first place but at what cost to the citizens of that state .There are many good things about the ECHR and the HRA that have benefited many people and withdrawing could just backfire on us

Actually the way things are right now it's the ECHR that has backfired on us, remembering of course that it was us that invented the thing as a means of preventing any further little incidents brought about by dictators usurping democracy on the continent.

In its conception it's a great idea; unfortunately in execution - as it is currently being executed at any rate - it is becoming a means for activists* to themselves become the usurpers of democracy by passing judgments that overrule the settled will of our democratically elected, supposedly sovereign Parliament.

The HRA was an attempt to curb this by bringing the administration of our human rights obligations back on-shore so to speak, but all it has achieved is to import the whole human rights gravy train back into the UK without any beneficial effect, so far as I can see.

The whole thing needs torn up and re-thought from scratch. By all means go back to the original musings of the British politicians (including Winston Churchill) who brought the ECHR about, but then what should happen is that those good intentions should be codified in a Bill of Rights for the United Kingdom. Something that both serves the British people and is respectful of their democratic institutions which are far older and more stable than any of those the ECHR was originally designed to protect.

* I say "activists" because a lot of the "judges" in the European Court are nothing of the sort. They are supposedly legal experts but in many cases they are completely without the schooling in the letter and the spirit of the law that you would expect from a judge in a British court, and seem to think it is their remit to tell Governments what their laws should be, rather than respecting what those laws are.

Originally Posted by Chris

Actually the way things are right now it's the ECHR that has backfired on us, remembering of course that it was us that invented the thing as a means of preventing any further little incidents brought about by dictators usurping democracy on the continent.

In its conception it's a great idea; unfortunately in execution - as it is currently being executed at any rate - it is becoming a means for activists* to themselves become the usurpers of democracy by passing judgments that overrule the settled will of our democratically elected, supposedly sovereign Parliament.

The HRA was an attempt to curb this by bringing the administration of our human rights obligations back on-shore so to speak, but all it has achieved is to import the whole human rights gravy train back into the UK without any beneficial effect, so far as I can see.

The whole thing needs torn up and re-thought from scratch. By all means go back to the original musings of the British politicians (including Winston Churchill) who brought the ECHR about, but then what should happen is that those good intentions should be codified in a Bill of Rights for the United Kingdom. Something that both serves the British people and is respectful of their democratic institutions which are far older and more stable than any of those the ECHR was originally designed to protect.

* I say "activists" because a lot of the "judges" in the European Court are nothing of the sort. They are supposedly legal experts but in many cases they are completely without the schooling in the letter and the spirit of the law that you would expect from a judge in a British court, and seem to think it is their remit to tell Governments what their laws should be, rather than respecting what those laws are.

What i would be concerned about is that in their quest for votes the conservatives will use the scrapping of the HRA as a means to an end without any real thought into what they will replace it with .It seems that the conservatives are using the whole "European issue" to base the next term of office on which isn't a bad thing as long as they give a lot of thought and have legislation ready if we ever do withdraw from the ECHR/scrap the HRA or even withdraw from Europe entirely

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by martyh

What i would be concerned about is that in their quest for votes the conservatives will use the scrapping of the HRA as a means to an end without any real thought into what they will replace it with .It seems that the conservatives are using the whole "European issue" to base the next term of office on which isn't a bad thing as long as they give a lot of thought and have legislation ready if we ever do withdraw from the ECHR/scrap the HRA or even withdraw from Europe entirely

Some of my family was round today and during the different conversations that go on someone brought up this incident with Abu Qatada and the resulting consensus was that 3/4 of us have decided over the last couple of weeks that UKIP is the way forward.

UKIP could be the reason this never happens

[MalteseFalcon]

The reasoning behind this law being brought in by Blair was sound, unfortunately it has been hijacked so the criminals can hide behind it. Victims have no human rights now, and as such any party who actively pulled us out of the human rights law and the EU completely would get my vote for life.