uk politics
David Cameron, Chris Grayling and apparently now Michael Gove feel we'd be better off if we axed an act that's held the powerful to account over and over again, and instead allowed those with a vested interest in keeping their power unchecked to limit when and to whom human rights apply. Funny that... If you've been paying attention to party spin recently, you'll have seen our HRA suddenly rechristened "Labour's" Human Rights Act. So it's worth clearing up at the start that it was passed in 1998 with overwhelming cross-party support and Tory leadership endorsement. It was a long-held ambition of the Society of Conservative Lawyers.
The closure of police stations and the demise of community policing will inevitably mean that the only contact the public will have with police officers will just be in stressful situations such as when they are the victims of crime, involved in an accident or indeed rebuked, reported or arrested. Police will be seen as remote, authority figures as is the case in so many countries. At present however, police retain the support of the public. Although politicians treat them as such, the public are not fools.
There has been a lot of debate in the Western press over whether to supply Ukraine with defensive arms. How to make sense of all the editorialising? Which op-eds and columns should one take seriously? Consider the following questions:
Let's be clear: I agree there is no justification whatsoever for gunning down journalists or cartoonists. I disagree with your seeming view that the right to offend comes with no corresponding responsibility; and I do not believe that a right to offend automatically translates into a duty to offend.
Salmond has restored Scotland's pride and left us in a better position now than when he started his campaign, long, long ago. He has left the SNP in good hands in Nicola Sturgeon, and has secured a population re-engaged in the politics of Scotland once again, and that in itself is a major accomplishment.