What’s wrong with a Bill of Rights?
Power 2010, a campaign to reform the UK constitution, is inviting people to vote on five reforms to which they will ask parliamentary candidates to sign up before the coming General Election. There are some excellent ideas, some not so good and some deeply flawed.
Among them is a suggestion that on face value should be welcomed. Over at the Adam Smith Institute’s blog I examine the call for a UK Bill of Rights. As I note, “a Bill of Rights that set out the freedoms that people should enjoy as citizens (not subjects!) of the United Kingdom – bringing together both ancient liberties and new ones – would be a good thing… However, as is so common when talking about ‘Rights’, the authors of this proposal go on to conflate two very different issues, and in doing so they undermine their case…”
To find out where they have gone wrong, read the full article.
[Please also leave any comments there rather than below: why have two conversations when we can have one?]
February 10th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
So where does the right to join a trade union come in this? Is that a social right or a civil right?
February 10th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Or for that matter, freedom to trade?
February 10th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Freedom of association, a civil right. But if you are thinking of the right of the Trade Union to be recognised by the employer there can be no such right, people have human rights not organisations.
Any legislation governing recognition of trade unions and the interaction with employers would not be part of a list of “fundamental” rights as they cannot be seen as universal and certainly not time less.
Even if you believe in such legislation, attempting to incorporate it in to a difficult to amend bill of rights would cause all sorts of problems as working practices change.
February 10th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
that was to the trade union question