Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Trevor Smith tipped me off about Jack Straw's appearance before the House of Lords Committee on the constitution last October. I quoted Straw's view of our democracy - the executive proposes, parliament disposes and no nonsense about Athens - in December. Re-reading the full transcript read it here as a pdf I thought it was worth reproducing this exchange Straw had with Trevor about Britishness. See if you can understand what is the difference between being exclusive and distinctive or what it is about the Union that "transcends" English, Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish values - over and above a plaque.
Lord Smith of Clifton: Lord Chancellor, I noticed earlier that you talked about a Statement of British Values, which I can understand, but officially it is a British Statement ofValues, which I cannot for the life of me understand. I commend you on your change in language and terminology. Could you explain to me why it is a British Statement of Values as opposed to a Statement of British Values?
Mr Straw: Not really! It is like the essay that I was set when I was a law student, to explain the difference between a breach of a fundamental term and a fundamental breach of a term and I have still been trying to find the answer. There is obviously a difference about the adjective but we are talking about British values, essentially.
Lord Smith of Clifton: What do you envisage as being distinctly British about the Statement of Values and the Bill of Rights and Duties? What are they likely to include which is not shared across Europe and the Commonwealth? And are there implications for the Human Rights Act?
Mr Straw: On the Statement of British Values, I would like to think that many values that we regard as being distinctly British are now ones which have been reflected elsewhere in the world, and we have had an evangelical role – we have, genuinely – when it comes to ideas of liberty and values. I cannot say what will be distinctive about this until this process is finished but I would like to suggest that personally I think one of the things that is distinctive about the United Kingdom – and is not exclusive, which is a different point, but is distinctive – is our tolerance. I think there is a remarkably high level of tolerance in this country. How will it differ from other statements? In France they have this very strong sense of what they call solidarity and we do perhaps have a vague idea of what it means but it does not translate very well – I am looking at Baroness Quin, who may have a stronger idea of what it means than do we – and I am always struck by that in Europe. So it may be the order in which the values are set out, the precedence it is given that is distinctively British as well as some of the values themselves. On the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, what I said in my speech at the Party Conference, in shorthand, as it were, is that we do not want to undermine the Human Rights Act and fundamentally the incorporation of the European Convention into British law, which I happen to think was a very important and a durable Act, and in the end it is worth recalling that after some changes were made in the Bill that we did achieve a broad party
consensus – indeed, I remember Lord Lyell, I think, saying at the Third Reading that we had got it into better shape – and we had, on all sorts of parts of it. What that process on the Bill showed is that we have some choices when you come to incorporation; there are still some parts of the Articles of the European Convention which are not incorporated, most notably Article 13 on Remedies. The other point which again I made at the Party Conference speech is that I think we have learnt – and I have certainly learnt – over recent years that we need better to articulate into the equation the fact that with rights go obligations and responsibilities – they always have done. That side of the equation was taken for granted by the drafters of the European Convention, which were British lawyers – almost exclusively British lawyers – and I think that in today’s world we need to take better account of that, so that is what we are seeking to do and so not to undermine the Human Rights Act and still less the European Convention, but to see ways in which it can be supplemented and complemented and this crucial balance of rights with duties and responsibilities and a mutual obligation is brought out.
Lord Smith of Clifton: Might I ask what have been the reactions from the Scottish Executive, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government to the proposed British Statement of Values?
Mr Straw: I do not recall, because it is an early stage preparation, that we have had a formal response from them, but we are a Union and I was privileged to take part in a ceremony today where Mr Speaker unveiled a plaque in St Stephen’s Hall to the three centuries of the Union. There are British values which transcend English, Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish values.
