Theresa May and her party have a wider purpose: to repeal the Human Rights Act. Their proposal for the military might manoeuvre them into position The journey of Brexit Britain towards Little England continues apace, as the government parades its intention to secure impunity from accountability for the great majority of human rights abuses committed by our forces in future conflict. Universal values are universal, but they need not apply here. As they plot this path, the Conservatives will be pleased to know the extent to which what they seek accords with what has gone before. The Colonial Office bitterly opposed the European convention on human rights in the late 1940s, because its officials knew exactly what the British forces got up to on their civilising missions abroad. Indeed, the first case in the 1950s – involving Greece, Cyprus and the United Kingdom – was sufficiently embarrassing to allow those Colonial Office officials to lament “we told you so”. Continue reading...