HRA has failed to defend us from this assault on liberty

Jon Bright (London, OK): Henry Porter gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on Monday. He lays out a striking case about the systematic erosion of previously taken for granted civil liberties in this country.

On a book tour last month in France, I was repeatedly asked by journalists, “Why in Britain? What has happened in the British people to make them so compliant? Why are there no demonstrations?”

There are complex answers to these questions but an obvious one is that in each case where freedom is compromised the Government has advanced the argument that a new law meets a singular threat from crime, terror and anti-social behaviour. The British have accepted these appeals with a rare faith in the wisdom and benevolence of our leaders – a faith, incidentally, which I increasingly do not share. After a decade the account shows a devastating loss of the freedoms that we once regarded as our birthright, the self-evident and self-perpetuating virtue of the British people and their Constitution.

The shocking part of it all is that it has occurred with almost no coherent analysis, scrutiny or opposition in parliament, no debate about the direction of our society, and only a little understanding and exposition in the media. The truth is that we may have taken a false sense of security from the presence the HRA on the statute book. Indeed, there seems every reason to suspect that the act has served the executive and civil service as an alibi while the balance between state power and individual freedom has been critically altered in the state’s favour. It is for this reason that I find it very hard to share Liberty’s courageous enthusiasm for the act, even though I concede its good points. If the maintenance of rights and liberty is the best measure of a code of rights, then the HRA must surely be declared a failure.

Read his evidence in full here, or watch it here. Porter also has a list of liberties which have been lost over the last ten years which we will be posting later on today and asking people to add to.