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Crime and Security Bill

Regretfully, that is correct. That is why, when I was shadow Attorney-General, I recommended, and my party accepted, that we repeal the Human Rights Act. For all the reasons under discussion, we must be quite clear about the European convention. Geoffrey Robertson QC, a very distinguished lawyer who, as he said himself, is not a known Eurosceptic, recently made it clear in a very important Standpoint article that we had to review the status of the European convention on human rights, and, as I understood his article, that we should legislate in Westminster to ensure that we strike the right balance in such matters. This is a very important provision and a very important new clause. The hon. Member for Eastleigh prattles on—if I may be allowed to say so, somewhat pejoratively—about proportionality, but the essence of proportionality is derived from that European convention.