Abolishing the death penalty “has led to a corruption of our criminal justice system” wrote Michael Gove in his column for The Times. Meet your new Secretary of State for Justice and the man with the small task of deciding the rights you deserve as a human being and those you can do without. 

Putting Michael Gove in charge of human rights is like putting Katie Hopkins in charge of a therapy group for bullying victims. It’s almost as though David Cameron is playing some sort of dangerous practical joke. I can imagine him reclining in a chair in Downing Street with a glass of wine in his hand and a smirk on his face, mulling over the following question: to which madman shall I entrust the task of deciding what level of protection in law every British Citizen receives?

Gove is a terrifying answer. He is tasked with putting together a new ‘British Bill of Rights’, and his appointment not only shows Cameron’s intentions for how the new bill should look, but it is also a clear statement of the direction our democracy will take in the next five years.

Before the election, talking to people and writing about human rights wasn’t easy, because until your human rights are taken away from you, it is very difficult to see what the fuss is about. The media presentation of human rights not only seeks to make them seem like statements without meaning or use, but furthermore presents them as a ludicrous concoction of political correctness and European interference, that flies in the face of common sense and allows axe murderers and terrorist bombers to walk free among us, killing, maiming and stealing at will, whilst simultaneously asserting their human right to eat at KFC. 

Not only is this complete nonsense, but worse still it lulls people into a false sense of security, convincing them that they don’t need human rights and that it doesn’t really matter if they are repealed, replaced or scrapped altogether. The distorted media representation of human rights inhibits people from realising what it means to live without them, a reality which, after this election, could be closer to home than ever before.

The tabloid press don’t like the Human Rights Act because Article 8 curtails their ability to invade people’s privacy, so no extra marks for guessing where a majority of the ‘human rights gone mad’ stories have originated from.

Several of our rights could be at risk. This is what lies in Gove’s hands now: whether you get a fair trial, whether you can be detained indefinitely without evidence, whether torture is acceptable in exceptional circumstances, whether you have a right to privacy or whether the state can listen in on your phone calls, seize your possessions, extradite you, or lock you away if they think you are suspicious.

In the words of Conor Gearty, “Human rights are worth defending because they stand for an ideal at a time when there are few ideals. The act stands for a belief in the importance of all of us regardless of our status, our background, our wealth or our mental capacity.” Human rights are your last line of defence - the Human Rights Act is there to protect you when you are a scapegoat, when you are unpopular, when you are expendable. Human rights are the most important things you can possibly have because they recognise your value in simply being human.

The European Convention of Human Rights was drawn up in the wake of the Second World War, when humanity was reeling from the horrors of holocaust, bloodshed and tears.  Friends and foe came together and decided that never again would man reduce man to animal. In human rights they found salvation for their suffering. With human rights we mark their sacrifice.

Right wing of left wing, Conservative or Labour, it doesn’t matter where on the spectrum you lie. The Human Rights Act protects you and it is up to you to fight for it. This is not about what you think of the Tories. It’s about what it means to be human.

The mark of a country is not how they treat their ‘financially secure majority’ but how they treat their outsiders, their minorities, their vulnerable and their lost. Gove has won, fair and square, so he represents our majority. But the World Wars have taught us that sometimes the majority do terrible things, that sometimes good people lose sight of what’s right, and that it’s easier to strip people of their humanity than you think.

We have a duty to fight for our human rights before they are caught in the noose. Because otherwise, we might just swing.

@Collinatorrrr