Human rights hypocrisy


Sarah Wrack

When attending a rally in Westminster on 30 May to defend the Human Rights Act (HRA), Socialist Party members found ourselves in an unexpected and unprecedented situation. We were on a Liberal Democrat protest!

The speeches were jaw-dropping in their hypocrisy. Championing human rights as an abstract concept – with no reference at all to the limits on human rights implemented by the last government. This government included the Lib Dems themselves. And of course no mention of the threatened attacks on trade union rights.

The ‘right to education’, for example, may be guaranteed by the HRA. But that didn’t stop the Lib Dems stabbing students in the back in 2010, and voting to treble university fees after promising to scrap them.

Equally, the ‘right to marry and start a family’ seems rather meaningless given cuts made by the Con-Dem coalition to child benefit, Sure Start centres and working tax credits

Suffice to say most of those present were clearly not used to protesting. They didn’t respond well when we tried to make these points from the crowd. But we didn’t mind – we headed off to an anti-austerity demonstration, a much better way to defend real human rights!