Rather than me putting words into the mouth of an incredibly articulate and knowledgeable person, I’ll repeat verbatim what Baroness Hale said regarding the European Courts of Human Rights:“It's one of the few subjects which are definitely being turned into a party political thing, that I am nevertheless prepared to say that I think it would be a disaster if the United Kingdom pulled out of the European Convention on Human Rights. And it is all driven by concern about migration. Two aspects to migration, one of which is alleged difficulty in deporting foreign national criminals, and the other is people arriving here irregularly, without the permission that they need or staying here without the permission, which are two rather separate questions.”“Looking at the figures, I mean, there's been a report recently from the Bonavaro Human Rights Institute in Oxford that said that successful challenges to deportation of foreign national criminals are incredibly rare.”“There's some figures from my great hero and friend, David Gorkin, who says there have been 29 cases involving deportations from the UK heard by the Strasbourg Court since 1980 and the UK has won 16 of them; none of the 13 defeats has been in the past five years. I mean, it's astonishing how little.” That puts it into perspective don’t you think. Also, do you notice she doesn’t say ‘illegal immigrants’ she says; ‘ people arriving here irregularly, without the permission that they need or staying here without the permission, which are two rather separate questions.” Anyway, it’s excellent stuff, no wonder the Daily Mail hate her, she’s an expert, and a woman!
Gerry Boyce ● 2d