Vocal Voices

Or check their facts. The BBC faithfully reproduces the claims of Welsh First Minister

They want to give UK courts and Parliament the "final say" on human rights issues rather than Strasbourg.

Asked about the impact of such a change on Wales, Mr Jones told assembly members: "It would make us look like a Banana republic, frankly."

And, of course, now over to that tiny and insignificant "Banana Republic" which also has not signed up to the HRC of the EU.

The United States of America.

Honestly, where to they find these bubbleheads who have no clue about the world or how it works????

The Human Rights Act came into force in the UK in 2000, bringing with it the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as overseen by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg - it is NOT an EU institution.

The only thing the ECHR has to do with the EU is that the EU is now one of its 48 members. The EU does not run or administer the ECHR, but has to abide by its decisions.

The Maastricht treaty mandates signing up to the ECHR. Something Major secured an exception to for the UK when he signed it in his second term.

Blair, that wonderful person, signed us up to it.

Now, apparently, some of our political masters believe that you are no longer a western world if you are not signed up to it.

All evidence to the contrary. The most powerful and largest economy in the world is most certainly not a signatory. Apparently they believe that their constitutional rights and laws are superior to the ECHR. Something I believe about the UK too.

Apologies for my last post. Mr Jones and the BBC got everything, and me, confused. The ECHR is not the same as the European Convention and HRA.

ECHR has 48 members, one of which is the EU along with Russia and Turkey. The Human Rights Act is a device of the Lisbon Treaty making decisions made by the ECHR - the Court part - legally binding in the EU.

The UK signed up to the Act in 2000 and now wishes to ditch it in favour of its own Bill of Rights. All it does is make the UK legally responsible for its Human Rights and returns it to the state it was in prior to the 1998 EU Act. It still has to respect the decisions made by the ECHR, most of which it implemented, but does not have to abide by them.

How that makes us a 'Banana Republic' evades me.

Workingman wrote:How that makes us a 'Banana Republic' evades me.

Me too which is why I posted it. After all, these kind of politicians like to forget that one of the key leading lights on human rights over the last 200 years has been... Erm..... The UK!

Now that we're part of the EU and that the UK has signed up to the "fools charter" as I like to think of it, suddenly we're a Banana Republic if we don't bow down and follow the EU line.

Sorry, it doesn't work for me....