What Has The European Convention On Human Rights Ever Done For Us?

[Hymie]

 

[dave50]

Nothing 

[sandyRoe]

Help keep our governments on the straight and narrow?

[jourdain2]

Caused us a lot of problems as it has evolved from the original idea.

[New Judge]

An interesting little skit. Nowhere near as funny as Monty’s “What have the Romans…”, mainly because it has considerably less depth of material to make use of.

So just a couple of points:

Firstly, why did Mr Stewart conflate “Brussels” (by which I assume he was referring to the EU) and the ECHR, when one has nothing to do with the other?

Secondly (and I’m sure you’re used to this question because I raise it every time you mention the virtues of the ECHR ) what protections does the ECHR provide to citizens of the UK which they would not have without it? Mr Stewart’s colleagues mentioned a few things, so let’s concentrate on them, this time:

The right to a fair trial – is this not provided for under the Criminal Justice System?

The right to privacy – are there no privacy laws in the UK?

The right not to be tortured – How many people have been tortured by the State in the UK recently?

The right Freedom of Religion – are there any restrictions on religious activity imposed by the UK government?

The right not to be subject to discrimination – do any UK State agencies operate systems of discrimination?

Protection from Slavery and enforced labour – How many slaves does the UK government own? 

Finally, the Good Friday Agreement, which was said to be dependent on the ECHR.

Let’s leave aside that the Agreement is ridiculous (among its provisions is a “power sharing agreement” the failure of which has caused the NI Assembly to be inoperative for getting on for 50% of the time it has existed).   There is no reason for the Agreement to be dependent on the ECHR. It can be dependent on he UK’s own Human Rights act (which near enough mirrors the ECHR) and if that is rescinded by a sensible government the Agreement can be redrafted to include the protections provided by domestic law to be incorporated into the Agreement. 

So back to the question (for what seems like the 94th time): what protections for UK citizens that are supposedly provided by the ECHR would be lost if the UK withdrew from it?

[Clone]

It's done plenty for people who wish to game the system.

[Old_Geezer]

IMO the EU and the ECHR appear to be in an unhealthy relationship. Good mates it seems.