Wednesday 10 July 2013


Human rites: a quaint little ritual 

 Wednesday 10 July 2013
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The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg makes a pronouncement. The Daily Telegraph howls, theDaily Mail goes incandescent with rage, and the rest of the media follows.

Mr Cameron makes a ritual declaration about being ready to "rip up Human Rights Act" (Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2006), or he makes a ritual declaration about being ready to "scrap the Human Rights Act"(Telegraph, 22 August 2007), or perhaps he makes a ritual declaration about being ready to "rip up Human Rights Act" (Sun, 3 October 2011).

Then, absolutely nothing happens – until the next time. At that point, Mr Cameron makes a ritual declaration about being ready to "rip up Human Rights Act" or, on a good day, he might even promise to "scrap" it.

As always, life goes on just as before. It's just another of those quaint little English rituals ... maidens cycling to the pub on Sundays to watch the cricket … timeless and meaningless, like making promises on EU referendums, or writing posts about STOR.

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Richard North 10/07/2013