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Human Rights

I have apologised for not being present for the opening speeches of the debate, but I have been present for all of the rest of it; I do not think that the hon. Gentleman has been. If he were well informed, he would know that one reason why the debate has become of greater interest to some colleagues is because of a misinterpretation of many of the rights set out in the convention. They are rights to which we in this country have subscribed for many years and they are applicable to many in this country. There has been some misunderstanding of the rights, but I hope that this debate will be one of many exercises—along with the Lord Chancellor’s recent speech and other speeches and judicial interpretations—that correct that. I have seen nothing that justifies a decision that pictures could not be shown in the case that the hon. Gentleman refers to. Let me say clearly to the hon. Gentleman and other Conservative Members that the human rights convention and the legislation is much more about the rights of parents, children, carers, grandparents and husbands and wives who are normal, law-abiding citizens in constituencies around this land, than it is about people who are in prison or who are alleged to have committed serious crimes. It is about the rights of the majority as much as it is about those of the minority. However, if the hon. Gentleman ever thinks that it is not important to protect the rights of the minorities too, I hope that he is never one of those minorities. I hope that he is never arrested unfairly, or that he—or anybody in his family—is never detained wrongly, because if he is he will realise that it is very important that the courts in his county, as in mine, can immediately take an application to grant the liberty of the citizen, which would not otherwise necessarily be granted. I hope that he will think twice about the nationalistic view that these rights are alien to our culture. They are British rights. We drafted them, and thank goodness the European continent as a whole has endorsed them, and thank goodness that they are applicable when we step across the channel and visit other countries in Europe. British citizens can pray in aid those rights in other countries, as other people can here. That we are not dependent on the arbitrary whim of a particular Executive, Government or Parliament is a great civilising development.