is not just the SNP’s purview it’s their duty. It’s good they’re leading the charge against these sweeping changes, though it puts them as a regional party in an odd position.
So too is Scotland itself in an odd position. Civil Rights are devolved but the Human Rights Act is not and cannot be amended or repealed by the Scottish parliament. This is the ultimate example of legislation for the whole of the UK that has a knock on effect in Scotland. It’s technically devolved but the Scots can’t themselves do anything about the laws once they’re set in stone.
The reason this is all so dangerous
Below: Demonstration outside the Embassy of Ecuador in
London where Assange takes refuge from the
British authorities enforcement of
extradition orders
is because of the nature of political power itself. Power ought to flow in one direction: away from government. This is different from the question of centralisation which is just a reorganisation of powers the government already has. All of our rights are things which we’ve won after extremely hard slogs. From the right to vote to freedom of speech and to form a union we enjoy rights which have had to be taken from our governments. They were not given to us, any of us, in any country. We took them. And it is up to us to defend our hard-won rights from those who would take them back.
If the Tories want to amend the Human Rights Act to give citizens greater rights or protections let them. Let them give people greater liberty. But only if they do it without creating the precedent that rights can also be taken away. They don’t have a very good track record here.
20
June 2015
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