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Howard Jacobson wrote an interesting article in the Independent: “Civil liberties or civil protection – which is the more important?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/howard-jacobson/howard-jacobson-civil-liberties-or-civil-protection-ndash-which-is-the-more-important-1869544.html

The majority of people who mailed in were hostile to his stance but my own feeling was that neither ‘side’ was approaching the problems sensibly either.

The Basic Problem

On the one hand we live in a risk averse society, everybody wants to get to Heaven but nobody wants to die and if they do, their family want to sue some organisation for “negligence”. The reality is that if someone wants to blow themselves up on the Underground, there is little that can be done about and society at large should start by accepting that as a fact.

Once this first step is taken, people can accept some curbing of civil liberties under some circumstances whilst not under others with the test being whether it is “reasonable, proportionate and fair” rather than “This Law, my Rights” which is total nuts all round.

Poor Legislation Lies at the Heart…

Unfortunately over recent years there has been a totally unhealthy drift into passing reams of useless legislation to define every action on every matter which is not what legislators should be doing. I am very fond of the United States but it is a Nation that will finally be destroyed by its own Lawyers who have produced a very weird legal culture which even in the criminal sphere speaks only of expedience, not justice.

Laws need to be properly “codified” to prevent arbitrary interpretation of the Law but in the end any system is only as good as the people who operate it at every level. The balance should come down to strong logical structures under pining any Law but also with sufficient leeway for Lawyers and Judges to operate on common sense interpretations of “What Parliament intended in passing this Law…”

Some of this current folly is well documented via foreign nationals still in the UK but who cannot be deported because doing so might “infringe their human rights”. So in effect, the “Sovereign Rights” of the British people are subservient to legislation that demands that Terrorists and others who wish nothing but harm to Britons, have to be kept here at the taxpayers expense whilst they plot further harm – obviously totally potty.

First Step – Repatriate Law to UK

The UK needs to leave the jurisdiction of The Court of Human rights if only because it seems poorly staffed, might be one argument but mainly because it is too far removed from the day to day realities of British Life. Whether on this or with regard to the stream of nonsense coming from the EU, whilst perfectly possible to adhere to common standards and aims, the Highest Court in Britain should be within the UK and nowhere else.

The type of nitpicking Laws being passed in the UK and Brussels will never produce Justice or a proper balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of society as a whole, it has produced a “Sue Crazy Society” and will inevitably lead to organisations like the Police, who will get sued whatever happens, deliberately misapplying things like Section 44 against innocent photographers. The Rule of Law is built upon trust and it is that which has been eroded, bits of paper mean nothing without the hearts and minds of the “People” on all sides. If anybody doubts this I suggest that they look up the Soviet Constitution that existed under Stalin, a highly enlightened document but it didn’t stop him having millions of his own people executed.

We need to bring the whole legal process back to the UK so that any public servant who exceeds the range of their remit, can be called to task by the British people and dealt with appropriately. We do need to get back to rebuilding our legal system so that both Rights and Responsibilities are put back into a proper balance, perfection can wait.