"Give me liberty or give me death." - Patrick Henry

Human rights law 'may be changed'

The UK government might have to bring in new legislation to prevent the Human Rights Act endangering public safety, the lord chancellor has said.

Lord Falconer said cases such as that of rapist Anthony Rice, who murdered a woman while on parole, raised concerns over how the law was working.

The act was also cited when a court ruled nine Afghan asylum seekers who hijacked a plane could stay in the UK.

Human rights groups said the current concerns were not a fault of the act.

"Amending our human rights act because of gross public service failures is like handing a repeat burglar the key to your house," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty.

"Without the act, ordinary people in Britain would have precious little protection from maladministration."

Shami Chakrabarti is correct, the 1998 Human Rights Act is a buffer against a government's authoritarian streak (as we have seen under Blair's rule).

The UK has an uncodified Constitution and therefore our rights are not protected enough from government interference. The Human Rights Act has amended this gross error some bit and Dave the chameleon wants to scrap it, what a total idiot, one minute he is claming he is as green and 'nice', the next he wants to attack civil liberties, whose vote is he going for this time? The fascists it seems.

If you are aganist the Human Rights Act, then you are against civil liberties and the protection of them.

It is an often used quote but it remains as true as it did then as it does now

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."- Benjamin Franklin