Cameron promises UK bill of rights to replace Human Rights Act
David Cameron has announced that, if elected, the Tories would replace the Human Rights Act with a US style Bill of Rights.
It was only to be expected that, with Blair attacking the Human Rights Act - an Act that his own government introduced - that the Tories would jump on the bandwagon.
However, Cameron's attack on the Act seems spectacularly ill conceived. For instance, he says that he intends that the UK should remain a signatory to the European convention on human rights, meaning that any citizen could challenge the government's reading of British law at Strasbourg - where the Human Rights Act is enshrined in law - meaning that any challenge to Cameron's new Bill of Rights is guaranteed to succeed.
Even the right wing of his own party have turned on him with Lord Tebbitt, that famous Europhobe, declaring, "European law would override it and we would be back where we are now, but in a bigger muddle perhaps."
This all began because Blair has got his knickers in a twist because he's not allowed to deport suspected terrorists to country's where they may face torture. He started ranting against what was a piece of his own government's legislation and Cameron has picked up the baton and is running very fast towards a brick wall.
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the suggestion was muddled, misconceived and dangerous.
A US-style bill of rights would outline the rights of citizens, while the Human Rights Act incorporates European rules into British law.
Both Blair and Cameron need to understand that the law is not necessarily bad simply because it doesn't allow you to do certain things that you might want to do. Sometimes the things you are proposing doing are not actually legal for very good reason.
This ridiculous game - that Blair started - has led both men into a ridiculous position because, at the end of the day, neither of them is going to carry out their threats. In order to do so, they would have to leave the European Convention and no-one seriously believes either of them is prepared to do that.
So we have this battle for the hearts of the right wing slobbering Daily Mail readers, with both men promising the Earth, and which neither will have the courage to deliver.
It's antics like this that gives politics a bad name. As the bard once famously described, "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
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