The Human Rights Act

I do a bit of teaching occasionally and not that long ago I was doing a course about equality and diversity.

I started the course by asking if people thought the Abu Quatada chap should be chucked out of the country and, everyone including me had their hands in the air.

I then asked who thought torture was an OK thing - of course no one was up for that.

So who would vote for someone to be deported to a country where torture is routine, I asked.

And of course no one would.

Abu Qatada might be a odious little chap but where do our values fall, would we rather him here or condone torture I asked

Even Sun readers tended to prefer the non torture option.

So of course we look at today's ruling from Strasbourg which has been descended on with glee by the right wing.

The court of human rights has ruled that anyone can change, can become a person who sees what they did was wrong, feel remorse and change.

This government has prescribed that they cannot, that change is impossible.

That's not true, even Ian Duncan Smith might one day  learn empathy and compassion.

I doubt it, but I would never support a measure that condemns him because he is the person he is today.

R