Tories call for UK Bill of Rights (from BBC)

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5115912.stm

Tories call for UK Bill of Rights

Mr Cameron accepts it would be difficult to draft the textThe Conservatives will replace the Human Rights Act with a US-style Bill of Rights if they get into power, Tory leader David Cameron has promised.
He says current legislation is inadequate and hinders the fight against crime and terrorism


He believes a British Bill of Rights would strike a better balance between rights and responsibilities.
But Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the suggestion was "muddled, misconceived and dangerous".
And Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile, the government's independent adviser on terrorist legislation, said he could not see any benefit coming from "these extraordinarily ill-thought out proposals".
Mr Cameron's pledge follows Tony Blair's call for the criminal justice system to be rebalanced in favour of the victims of crime.
The Tories say the prime minister is describing the problems his own human rights laws are making worse.
'Invitation for terrorists'
The Human Rights Act has come under repeated attack in recent years from critics who say it puts a "rights culture" ahead of a common sense view of cases.
The act came into force in 2000 to install the European Convention on Human Rights into British law so people did not have to take claims to the European courts in Strasbourg.
A US-style Bill of Rights would outline the rights of citizens, while the Human Rights Act incorporates European rules into British law.
The Human Rights Act has made it harder to protect our security and it's done little to protect some of our liberties
David Cameron
Q&A: Bill of Rights plan
Mr Cameron said the Human Rights Act had enjoyed successes but generally was not working.
In a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies in London, he said the act had prevented Britain deporting suspected terrorists whatever the circumstances.
It was "practically an invitation for terrorists and would-be terrorists to come to Britain" he said.
They knew that whatever crime they had committed or if there was a suspicion they might be planning a terrorist attack in the UK or elsewhere, they would not be sent back to their country of origin "because the process is so complicated and time-consuming for the government".
"I believe it is wrong to undermine public safety, and indeed public confidence in the concept of human rights, by allowing highly dangerous criminals and terrorists to trump the rights of the people of Britain to live in security and peace," he said.
Balance needed
Mr Cameron said the new document setting out people's rights would ensure human rights laws were based on British traditions.
"It would differ because we would be going about it in a British way and doing things that work for this country to get what we need, which is a balance between rights on the one hand and also security on the other," he told BBC News.
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He said people would still be able to pursue their claims in the European courts but judges would have a British Bill of Rights to base their rulings upon.
But he stressed he did not want to withdraw from the European convention, as such a move would send a message that human rights were incompatible with fighting terrorism and crime.
He acknowledged it would be hugely complicated to draft a Bill of Rights and is appointing a panel of distinguished lawyers to unravel those challenges for him.
'More confusion'
Lord Goldsmith said the suggestion was "dangerous".
"I think it would lead to more, not less, confusion about the best way to strike the balance between protecting the public and individual liberties," said the attorney general.

Lawyers are locking horns over whether this would change anything
BBC political editor Nick Robinson
Read Nick's thoughts in full
Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said: "You don't rewrite basic human rights because they seem inconvenient."
The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for a British Bill of Rights and a written British constitution.
But Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "I think this argument that the European Convention has stood in the way of dealing with terrorism is frankly unfounded."
He also stressed that scrapping the act would make human rights the preserve of the rich.

Ex-Conservative chairman Lord Tebbit warned that any British Bill of Rights could be overridden in Strasbourg as long as the UK remains signed up to the European convention.