Thread by @AdamWagner1

Let’s see the details of the government’s “bill of rights”. It doesn’t sound like there is much which hasn’t been widely trailed for the past few months. Very unlikely this will strengthen rights protections and will more likely weaken, or pick fights with the European…

Court of Human Rights by forcing judges to alter the balance in the way they interpret rights away from how Strasberg has, therefore, ironically leading to more influence from Strasbourg rather than less. The “right to trial by jury” may be legally meaningless but added…

… So that it can be said this “bill of rights” is not entirely regressive from a rights perspective. The freedom of speech change sounds like it is a sop to the right-wing press as the human rights act already has an extra emphasis on freedom of speech through section 12…

… The “permission stage”, will need to see the detail, from my perspective I tend to act in human rights cases that are brought through judicial review which has a permission stage anyway, and in the civil courts there is always the prospect of a case being struck out early…

… So I’m not sure procedurally how much this will add. Is the focus on human rights immigration claims? Who knows. On that, the re-calibration of article 8 for deportations, that is interesting because the case Raab cites is many years old and since then…

… The government has enacted legislation to precisely do what he is again trying to do, which is tell the courts how to consider article 8 and which balancing factors to apply. It is notable has still has to use a case to illustrate his point which predates key changes in…

… legislation, which suggests a weak argument. On removing the requirements take into account Strasbourg caselaw, This just misrepresents the current situation because courts have been happily ignoring Strasbourg caselaw if they don’t agree with it for years, but sensibly…

… following it where there is a clear and constant line of authority which is not completely absurd. That approach can be achieved through the current requirement to “take into account“ European Court of human rights caselaw, and I don’t imagine the courts will change it very…

… much because there is a key reality that the human rights act incorporates the European convention on human rights which the UK is a party to and that will not change. If the UK courts significantly and regularly diverge from Strasbourg, people have to go to Europe…

… To get their rights vindicated, a costly and long process, which was the point of the human rights act in the first place: to bring rights home. Anyway, to sum up, this looks like a series of relatively small changes which are both highly party political and quite small minded

from a rights perspective. It is a bit of a joke to fiddle in this way and call it a bill of rights but if I’m honest, if this is the extent of it (I have to see the detail) and it stops the Toried banging on about the human rights act for a generation, that may be worth it…

… Because as I have been saying for years, human rights are not just about law they are about culture. It is time the Conservatives got back behind the idea of individuals claiming basic rights against the state, which is a quintessentially Conservative idea…

… It is not possible, or at least it is a lot harder, to have a human rights culture where there is this constant drumbeat of nonsense and misrepresentation about how human rights really work which is really a culture war point not a legal one…

… and if the Conservatives get their “Bill of Rights“ without hugely damaging anything and can then take ownership (I accept this may be a platform for long-term plans to withdraw from the European Court of human rights, but let’s fight this battle) then that may not be terrible

Don’t forget this bill of rights idea is now 16 years old. The nonsense has to end at some point theguardian.com/law/2015/jun/1…

And don’t forget that’s the real target for many senior Tories is the European convention on human rights. This may just be a staging post in that long-term aim prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/after…

Final point: you really have to look at this as a package, including the reduction in the right to protest through the Policing Bill, the nationality of borders bill allowing citizenship to be stripped without notice, they now semi-permanent use of secondary legislation…

… Brought in hours before a debate, if there is one, The general disregard for the laws which the government are setting for everyone else (see Covid Christmas parties, Hancock, Cummings, etc). Is this a government to trust with people’s basic liberties?

But look, as I say having lived through it for 15 years this Tory psychodrama over the human rights act has to end as it is doing its own damage. If the Conservative party want to use their 80 majority to bring in the smallest, meanest Bill of Rights in the democratic world…

… if they want to fulfil Churchill and Maxwell Fyfe’s legacy by weakening rather than strengthening rights protections - what a waste and a shame, but also please let it be finally over.

One more final point: if we are going to have a “Bill of Rights” that is the opportunity to do something really beautiful, which genuinely respects British history as well as the European human rights culture which has developed since the Second World War and has given so much…

… to so many people, progressed human rights principles and created a genuinely international set of ideals and legal requirements as the world intended after ww2 and the Holocaust which let us never forget the international human rights system was created -

by far wiser people than lead us today - to prevent. Britain, if it only took its head out of its $€#@ could be an inspirational leader on human rights rather than a regressive, petty opponent. But that’s for future not for now - our bill of rights is about deporting people

If you want to see how beautiful a bill of rights can be, have a look at the South African Constitution which balances a very local spirit, incorporating South African history and culture, with being internationalist i.e. bringing in wisdom from elsewhere gov.za/documents/cons…