Just over a year ago, on June 23, 2022, I wrote that it would be a mistake for the UK to implement a new Bill of Rights as we have a perfectly serviceable one which dates from 1688.

Its provisions are still valid today.

The idea for a new Bill of Rights came about when Dominic Raab was the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Justice. Because of a long-term witch hunt about Raab’s ‘harassment’ of civil servants, i.e. telling them firmly to do their jobs properly, he stood down from both roles.

His successor as Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, who, like Rishi Sunak, seems to be another darling of pro-EU media types, decided on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, to scrap the new Bill of Rights. Raab is shown in the background in this photo:

This is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I am happy about this. On the other, some conservatives view this as the first step in a closer union with the EU post-Brexit.

Guido’s post says:

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has just confirmed the inevitable: he’s scrapping Dominic Raab’s Bill of Rights. Responding to a question from Bob Neill in the Chamber, Chalk announced the government has binned the Bill just two months after Raab was forced to resign over accusations of tomato-lobbing. Chalk said:

Having carefully considered the government’s legislative programme in the round, I can inform the House we have decided not to proceed with the Bill of Rights. But let me say that the government remains committed to a human rights framework which is up to date and fit for purpose and works for the British people. We have taken and are taking specific action to address specific issues with the Human Rights Act and the European Convention [on Human Rights]…

The Bill was designed to reduce challenges to public authorities on dubious grounds and reducing retrospective court challenges that second guess bodies’ “professional judgement exercised under considerable pressure.” Now it’s in the shredder…

Guido quoted Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed, who should read his British history, past and present. We have more rights than most EU citizens. This is what Reed said:

This is the third time the Government have u-turned on their Rights Reduction Act. The plans were a dangerous threat to peace in Northern Ireland, prevented us from deporting foreign terrorists and dented the rights of rape survivors. What’s astonishing is that a string of Tory prime ministers indulged this half-baked nonsense for so long. If you needed any more evidence that this clownish Conservative government is a directionless political circus, this is it.

In the comments, Guido’s readers were suspicious of the move, albeit not in the same way Steve Reed is, and had plenty to say about Rishi Sunak, too. Purple emphases mine below.

One wrote:

As long as we have a PM who will not make a decision (on anything) …The goverment is going to be walked over and are looking a soft touch…would be better with Raab as PM.

Another said:

To date he has decided to get rid of N Ireland and our independence, he has decided to get rid of the NIP [Northern Ireland Protocol] Bill [by substituting the 2023 Windsor Framework, signed with the EU], he has decided to get rid of the EU Retained Law Bill, and now this. He’s also got rid of Miss Truss’s fracking reprieve and [Jacob Rees-]Mogg’s Energy reforms. He decided to get Boris out of Parliament and Raab out of the government. He decided during the pandemic to flood the banks with money for two years while holding down interest rates, during which time he ran a record deficit of a quarter of a trillion, and now he has decided to create a recession. Assets are thus passing from the little people to the big boys, not necessarily British big boys. Those are a lot of joined up decisions for a little chap to make.

On Wednesday, June 28, Guido points out how weak Rishi is when dealing with the Bank of England. Interest rates have gone up from 2.2% in September 2022 to 5% in June 2023. That’s quite an increase.

Guido alleges that Rishi is doing nothing about Inflation, which the Bank’s policies should be curbing:

Rishi and the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, have exchanged letters but nothing has happened:

Guido’s post has more detail:

There has been a lot of deserved criticism of the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, for not bearing down on inflation harder, sooner … The Monetary Policy Committee mandate requires an exchange of open letters between the Governor of the Bank of England and the Chancellor of the Exchequer if inflation moves away from the target by more than 1 percentage point in either direction. During his time as Chancellor, Rishi exchanged 8 letters with Andrew Bailey, with 5 of them being sent whilst inflation was over the 2% target…

Here are Guido’s top 5 quotes from these letters over the last 2 years, illustrating the relaxed technocratic line taken whilst inflation was flaming out of control:

• • 06/05/21 – Inflation 2.1% – “This institutional structure helps to ensure that inflation expectations remain anchored and that monetary policy can play its role fully.”  In theory…
  • 23/09/21 – Inflation 2.9% – “The target is symmetric: deviations below the target are treated the same way as deviations above the target. This institutional structure helps to ensure that inflation expectations remain anchored and that monetary policy can play its role fully.” Yes, but it is going up, chaps…
  • 16/12/21 – Inflation 5.4% – “The target is symmetric: deviations below the target are treated the same way as deviations above the target. This institutional structure helps to ensure that inflation expectations remain anchored and that monetary policy can play its role fully.” So worried about inflation being more than double the target rate was Rishi that he again cut ‘n pasted the last technocratic word salad from the the letter from the previous two quarters.
  • 17/03/22 – Inflation 7.0% – “The UK’s strong and credible macroeconomic policy framework and institutions continue to support the economic recovery from Covid-18, which is why at Budget in October I reconfirmed the MPC’s remit and the primary objective of price stability as measured by the 2% CPI target.” “Credible”? Inflation is triple the target rate, not even a scolding or an attempt to convey a sense of urgency?
  • 16/06/22 – Inflation 9.4% – “I retain full confidence in the Bank of England, and I know and expect that you and the other members of the MPC will take the action necessary to get inflation back on target and ensure inflation expectations remain firmly anchored.” He’s missed the target for five straight quarters and inflation was running at nearly five times target. A well deserved bollocking for the Governor? No, Rishi said he had full confidence in him and his colleagues at the Bank.

Throughout their exchanges Rishi did not at any time criticise the lack of action taken by the Bank of England, on the contrary he commended them and noted only what had occurred. Both he and the Bank were behind the curve. Platitudes rather than strictures were delivered to Andrew Bailey. Rishi has been rhetorically concerned about inflation, he didn’t actually do anything about it or even urge the Bank of England to do anything…

It’s hard to know exactly what Rishi is doing as Prime Minister. It seems he just wants to hold the title and see if he can win the next general election. Meanwhile, his polling deficit against Labour is in double digits, with the opposition party’s popularity soaring among members of the public, whereas when Boris Johnson left office in July 2022, there was only a 5% deficit between the Conservatives and Labour.

Then again, Rishi Rich doesn’t really need to worry about inflation. He’s married to a billionaire.

So Alex Chalk scrapped a new Bill of Rights? That’s a minor worry, when we already have one.

Our much larger preoccupation is the economy. Who’s minding the shop? Not Andrew Bailey — and not Rishi Sunak. It seems as if both are out to lunch. The day of reckoning will come with the next general election. We’d better hope Labour don’t get in.