ECHR - no thank you

Strasbourg, the capital of the Alsace region, near the German border in eastern France, is said to be beautiful. It is also the home of that European creation, the European Court of Human Rights. What a remarkable institution the ECHR is. Its judges, I learn, are not all qualified lawyers. That is not too encouraging, is it? Surely courts need to have learned and properly qualified lawyers as judges. It has a massive backlog of cases awaiting trial and I read it continues to make law way beyond its original remit. It has dictated that our Parliament must give the vote to prisoners. Our laws, made by our elected representatives declare prisoners do not have, nor should have, the vote. Leaving aside the pros and cons of convicted criminals curently in prison having the right to vote, the key issue to me revolves around the findings of the ECHR. That court seeks to usurp authority over our Parliament and our Supreme Court. Yesterday, I saw that Lord Judge (great name for a judge, a learned and highly qualified lawyer) our former Lord Chief Justice, had pointed out recently that our Parliament is sovereign and and that our Supreme Court is not inferior to the ECHR in Strasbourg. Great. Today I read that Lady Hale, the deputy president of our Supreme Court, has said that European judges have the right to overrule Parliament on the question of voting rights for prisoners. Extraordinary. We must not lose sight of the real issues. Assuming the report I have seen is accurate, voting rights are not the essence here. If any court has the right to overrule our Sovereign Parliament on any one issue, that court becomes sovereign. When the devil tempted Jesus, the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would bow down and worship the devil. Had the Lord done so, that would have been the end of the matter. To bow down and worship for any one thing is to place oneself in a subordinate position that becomes irredeemable. If we bow down and worship at the European Court of Human Rights, we will become slaves to that court and ultimately lose all right to independence.