The wrongs of the Human Rights Act

12 April 2012

The Conservative manifesto included a commitment to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights, ostensibly to give British law precedence over European law.

In the context of judgments on terror suspects, the intention was that public security and the national interest would be better protected. Such arguments have been thrown into sharp relief by yesterday's ruling that a young Pakistani citizen, Abid Naseer, who poses an acknowledged security risk, cannot be deported because of Pakistan's record of torture.

There will be indignation at the prospect that Naseer will remain here, presumably under a control order and monitored at considerable expense. Our judges give priority to protecting the rights of the individual; those of the community seem to take second place. There is a real problem with way judges interpret the Human Rights Act.

In fact, it was disingenuous of the Tories to suggest that they could replace the Act with a Bill of Rights to solve these problems; whatever happens, we will remain subject to the European Convention on Human Rights, which the Act expresses. The Bill of Rights has in any case been kicked into the long grass, a victim of coalition compromises, with a commission on the subject instead.

The best outcome would be for any terrorist suspects to be brought to trial; that is difficult given the current inadmissibility of wire-tap and other surveillance evidence in court, a situation the security services are not keen to change. But there are things we can do. Pakistan is an ally; there must be steps the Foreign Office can take to obtain assurances that our judges will accept — that terror suspects returned there will be treated justly, no matter how serious the accusations against them.

We should also urgently raise the question in Europe of extending the scope for derogations from the Convention — in effect, opting out of bits of it. At present, we can only do so when it comes to cases like this during times of national emergency; that provision must be extended. Other EU countries appear not to be as constrained as Britain is by the Convention.

It is also worth noting that Mr Naseer was here on false pretences: he came here on a student visa but dropped out and took a job. One of the ways the immigration system has been abused is in the misuse of student visas; tightening that loophole should be a priority for the new Home Secretary.

Teachers matter

One of the problems with Gordon Brown's generous investment in education was that he appeared to set as much store by new school buildings as on what went on in them. Now his Building Schools for the Future plan for investing £55 billion in new school buildings is threatened under spending plans. Several London schools face drastic reductions in their funding for capital investment.

Schools that have already committed large sums to new projects have a good case for preserving their grants. But when it comes to raising standards, the calibre of school heads, and the recruitment and training of the best teachers, matter far more to educational outcomes than grand new buildings. We shouldn't forget that.

Poetry please

It is enormously heartening that the contest for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry, with a salary of £7,000 a year, is attracting such keen competition. Voting begins this week. Poets have had a crucial public role since antiquity; the attention attracted by the Oxford job suggests they still do.

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