The last time the Tories had a period of majority government one of the changes they made was to pass Section 28 which outlawed the promotion of homosexuality. They created a law which not only targeted the LGBT community but which also targeted their allies. Even speaking out in favour of LGBT rights was a crime.


The party which perpetrated that violation of basic human decency is the one which now seeks to create a British Bill of Rights. They’ll do that by setting a dangerous precedent which will ultimately mean that rights only exist if Parliament’s whims deign it so. There’s no mythic power or libertarian magic which will defend the Human Rights Act from the Tory majority.


No government should have the capability to override its citizens rights on a whim. Whichever party forms the government has that power. Parliamentary sovereignty


means they can decide who votes, whether to allow 16 year olds into the franchise or even whether that right ought to be taken from people.


Above: Demonstration against Section 28, enacted by the Tories in ‘88. Repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland as one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament, followed on 18 November ‘03 in the rest of the United Kingdom.


Power flows gradually away from the state. This is the precedent. Like the customary law of the UDHR much of the British constitution relies on tradition, precedent and custom. If the Tories continue to move forward with scrapping those precedents by repealing the Human Rights Act it will permanently endanger the rights of British citizens. Anyone who can stand against this should!


June 2015 21


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