Our human rights are under attack from this government

This week government representatives meet with world and business leaders at Davos to talk a big game on inequality. Yet at the same time, a new report from more than 70 civil society organisations across England and Wales has found that our basic human rights at home are in crisis.

Soaring levels of poverty, a health service in crisis, a social security system no longer fit for purpose, poor work conditions, restrictions on the right to strike, discrimination at work and school, and in healthcare and housing, are all human rights issues under international law. Our essential rights to food, housing, social security, work, health, and education are not being respected, protected or fulfilled.

The successive shockwaves of austerity, Covid, and the cost of living crisis have left us with deepening levels of inequality, with the UK government’s actions consistently worsening rather than improving the situation. Far from protecting our essential rights, the government is failing people across the board.

The solution? Greater human rights protections. Over 45 years after the UK signed an international treaty agreeing to uphold economic, social and cultural rights, they’re still not part of domestic law, meaning the government can break its obligations without consequence. It’s time for us to stand up for these rights, and for them to be incorporated into domestic law.

Jess McQuail London

Bottoms up?

It has been reported that the economy has grown by 0.1 per cent as a result of us all drinking more. So the answer to all our economic woes would seem to be that we all need to drink ourselves silly. But won’t that lead to more pressure on the NHS?

Geoff Forward Stirling

Here come the waterworks

Thames Water has been the subject of criticism on a number of occasions. However, the latest story really takes the biscuit.

An interactive map recently demonstrated that – in the last week – sewage has been discharging into rivers and streams through storm overflows in a large number of Surrey towns. With local rivers currently in spate because of heavy rain, there is clearly a danger that at least some of the sewage will wash up on river banks; a very unpleasant thought.

The sell-off of the water companies was one of the most unwise privatisations undertaken by Margaret Thatcher. As soon as possible, water and sewerage should be renationalised.

Andrew McLuskey Address Supplied

A ban on workers striking is a step too far

In Chile, the military dictatorship did not disband trade unions; they only banned strikes. That made the unions inoffensive. Our government is trying to restrict the right to strike so as to ensure strikes do not cause serious disruption.

The problem for workers is that unless they cause serious disruption, their demands can be safely ignored. How can they avoid having a pay cut or worse conditions of work whenever management decides unless they are allowed to withdraw their

work? At the same time, the law allowing management to engage temporary agency workers to do the job of strikers points in the same direction.

Moreover, the proposal would make it compulsory to work and cross picket lines when the manager decides, otherwise you can be sacked, legally. This contravenes the right to strike, which is already enshrined in UK law.

Abelardo Clariana-Piga Southampton

Pathetic prophylactic

Tom Peck’s caricature of Boris Johnson as the used condom of British politics that will not be flushed away (Johnson finished? Don’t be silly... we’re not that lucky, Voices, yesterday) is apposite for many reasons. The self-serving and profligate former prime minister keeps bobbing up to remind us of a shameless and intemperate period in our nation’s recent past that should be consigned to history. A one-night stand that the electorate and the party of government should be ashamed of and regret.

The current manoeuvres have nothing to do with service in the interests of others; they are, as ever, dedicated to the massaging of his ego and the misguided belief he has in his own exceptionalism. In office, he achieved nothing of lasting significance to address the pressing issues of our times; most of which have been made worse through his inability to plan ahead and achieve anything beneath those shallow, three-word slogans.

The man is without conscience and unfit to govern. His current venal behaviour would be enough to sink any other public figure. Seeking a publicity photo in Ukraine, bribing Rishi Sunak by requesting he be given a safe seat, receiving handouts from the rich as a reward for past preferment whilst continuing to make eye-catching comments that distract from the serious business of government; these are marks of a man who uses politics to further his own ends, not those of others.

Those Conservatives who wish to have him reinstated as prime minister are as self-serving as he is. They are motivated solely by the patronising belief that his shallow boosterism might make them electable again, with no sense of how that will solve our nation’s ills. As long as Johnson is around, he will continue to hold us back from making the radical changes that are needed if we are to meet the challenges that currently beset us.

Graham Powell Cirencester

BACK TO TOP