Anthony Barnett (London, OK): The headline on the front page of today’s Telegraph is “Cameron: Scrap the Human Rights Act”. It is not yet clear that the Tory leader has made this commitment. It is clear that the Telegraph wants him to do so. However, its leading editorial quietly explains why it would not make any difference. And so, it concludes, “Parliament would have to find another way to restore what most British people regard as natural justice”.
And what is this ‘natural justice’? That Philip Lawrence’s teenage killer must be deported “back” to Italy after his release. Really? The issue has swept away the judgement of otherwise sane people, for example this from Iain Dale,
The case of Philip Lawrence's murderer being allowed to stay in this country upon his release, because to deport him back to his native Italy would breach his human rights, surely has to call into question the future of this fault-ridden piece of legislation. Listening to Philip Lawrence's widow this morning, there can surely be few people who would argue that this Act has failed her and her two children. What about THEIR human rights? The right to live in peace and security and free from the fear that one day they might run into their beloved husband's and father's murderer. I hope the Home Office will use their right to appeal this case, because the precedent it sets will be of huge importance.
There is moral panic going on here about the right to deport people. It started with the courts denying the government the authority to deport terrorist suspects to countries likely to torture them. Damn if wizened old judges are telling our leaders what to do. What about British democracy! We want REAL leaders – men like Thatcher – who won’t let themselves be bossed around by effeminates in wigs! (Did someone try to mention the rule of law? Sheer political correctness!)
Learco Chindamo who, it seems from the reports, was an illiterate 13 year old when he stabbed Mr Lawrence, has now learnt his country’s language, English. He left Italy when he was six, his mother is not Italian, neither he nor she speaks it, his father is nowhere in his life. So one question for, say, Iain Dale is, why would deporting him to Italy make Mrs Lawrence secure and free from fear as he suggests? Put it this way, if Chindamo is deported to Italy what can he do there, on his own, without the language? Reasonable odds, he will become a criminal who uses his native English to prey on tourists from the UK. At least if he stays here, according to the prison service that has worked to educate and rehabilitate him, there is a chance he may create a law-abiding life for himself. But in Italy? Neither the Lawrence’s children nor Iain’s cousins and godchildren will be safe to see Rome or Florence for fear of the mugger who speaks to them in their native tongue.
One of the reasons for the European Union is that we are, yes, Europeans. Our families work and holiday across the continent. It is not another planet. Iain has just returned from taking his mother to Zurich as if that is completely natural because, well, it is completely natural. Deporting someone across the Channel can increase the chance you might “run into” them, as Iain puts it, whereas if Chindamo went to live in Birmingham the odds on his ever crossing the paths of the Lawrence family are close to zero...
There is a bigger and sadder issue here about the weight of victims' opinions and vigilante justice. Meanwhile, continuing OurKingdom’s expansion into publishing articles, we are about to put up an excellent paper on human rights by Francesca Klug who helped Jack Straw draft the Human Rights Act in the first place.
