“Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain? That brave Hungarian peasant girl who forced King John to sign the pledge at Runnymede and close the boozers at half past ten”. Today, Tony Hancock makes rather more sense than Young Dave, as our Prime Minister demonstrates an impeccable PR pedigree by facing both ways on the subject of human rights while getting a compliant right-wing press to report it.
Look press cheppies, thet looks like one of those human rights flying past over thyah! Jolly good sheow!!
The Mail’s unquestioning take is typical: “The legacy of Magna Carta has been ‘devalued’ by Labour’s Human Rights Act, David Cameron will say today as Britain commemorates its 800th anniversary … The Prime Minister will say the 13th century charter is the foundation document for human rights worldwide, but the meaning of these rights has become ‘distorted’ in recent years”. Really? Do go on.
“In a clear sign that he intends to honour his commitment to scrap the Human Rights Act, he will say that it is the ‘duty’ of politicians of the present generation to ‘restore the reputation’ of human rights … The Conservatives plan to replace the Act with a British Bill of Rights to affirm the supremacy of UK courts over those in Europe”. Bullshit. Courts in the UK are supreme already, and nothing in Magna Carta can be enforced today.
Ian Dunt at politics.co.uk was singularly unimpressed, noting that, under each of the four categories Cameron cited in his address - “The limits of executive power”, “Guaranteed access to justice”, “The belief that there should be something called the rule of law”, and “There shouldn’t be imprisonment without trial” - the PM “has actively attempted to dismantle the principles which he today celebrates”.
His cheerleaders in the Fourth Estate aren’t fussed about that, with a Sun editorial, going wrong at the start by talking about “THE Magna Carta” (nobody at the Sun do Latin at school, then?), saying of the Human Rights Act (HRA) “This messy Act, alongside fudged rulings coming from Europe, stops Britain from making the best rules for Britons … IN Britain. It has to go … We don’t want cowardly criminals abusing the justice system”.
And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, the HRA does not stop anyone making rules, good, bad or indifferent. And two, it does not facilitate the abuse of the justice system. But papers like the Sun aren’t interested in such trivia, hence “The only way to stop the human rights mess is to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights if they don’t give [the] final say to our Supreme Court”.
And who, pray, is “they”? Readers are not told. And, in any case, our Supreme Court is, once again, supreme. Cameron’s schtick makes no sense. The nodding donkeys among his back benchers make no sense. And his press supporters make no sense either. Championing Magna Carta - none of which can be enforced in a UK court - while trashing the HRA - which can - is the biggest attack on human rights.
Worse, Dave’s campaign is a waste of time and money. Not that they’re telling you that.
2 comments:
As the S*n says:' We don't want cowardly criminals using the justice system to work in their favour' Conveniently forgetting their use of the HRA to protect one of the few hacks they didn't shop to the police or the fact they declined to reclaim £20m court costs because they would have to give more details about their illegal phone hacking. Murdoch & pals have Cameron by the balls and are so very confident they can lead their poodle anywhere they want it to go.
The tories and their press lickspittles dont mention that around 90% of foreign convicted offenders who come up for deportation ARE deported.
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