In the wake of the general election one of the most contentious proposals from the newly potent Tory-majority government was the repeal of the Human Rights Act<\/a>, a piece of legislation that came into force in October 2000 under New Labour.<\/p>\n At the time the Right Dishonourable <\/em>unanimously thought this a stupid idea<\/a>, though the specifics of its stupidity were narrower than some campaigners to save the act have intimated.<\/p>\n In short repealing the act, whilst looking like a bold bid for independence from Europe, would not reduce judicial activism (which would probably afflict a British Bill of Rights), would not stop British courts from considering the views of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and would not free us from international treaty obligations.<\/p>\n Initially the Conservatives wanted to achieve this bold plan within 100 days of taking power, but the government quickly abandoned this by not mentioning the matter in the Queen’s Speech, dodging the issue for a short time.<\/p>\n Since then, little was said on the matter until last month when justice minister Dominic Raab told Parliament that \u201cproposals\u201d would be brought forward and that \u201cpreparation is going well.\u201d But concrete details were thin<\/a>.<\/p>\n