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It’s fascinating that Jonathan Sumption seems to now be the intellectual arm of the Spiked approach to democracy and human rights - that judges are wresting control from ‘democratic’ institutions and critics of human rights are having their free speech stolen
There is a paper tiger on the certain parts of the right about free speech being taken away - Sumption of all people should know the difference between public outrage about certain opinions being expressed (happens) vs legal prohibitions on the same (what are they?)
I do think we live in quite febrile times for free speech now that everyone everywhere can publish their opinions, and everyone everywhere can express their outrage. But Sumption appears to blame human rights judges for restricting speech, which is factually wrong
Oh and that line about the Human Rights Convention being “designed to make us have rights we don’t necessarily want and entrench then” is poppycock and he himself contradicts it in the same interview where he says we need the very rights contained in the ECHR
I’m not one to rail against the BBC but it’s a bit gutting Sumption is given the platform of Reith Lectures to produce what sounds like an eloquent but intellectually thin Spiked article about how dreadful human rights laws are - fawned upon by Bryan Appleyard amongst others
