UK News 24-08-2004 Tory Human Rights Plan Backfires who: Shadow home secretary David Davis what: Announces Conservative review of "spurious" Human Rights Act where: House of Commons, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: A Conservative pledge to consider repealing the Human Rights Act to curb the "compensation culture" backfired yesterday, reckons The Guardian, "when legal experts accused the party of `alarmist` and `hysterical` behaviour." While The Guardian`s hostility to the Conservatives is nothing new, the rest of today`s press takes a similar stance, with The Times accusing Britain`s second party of "provoking a row with the legal profession", which retorts that the Tories are "perpetuating a myth that there has been an explosion in the volume of compensation claims". The rebuttal adds that Mr Davis "is confusing litigation on grounds of negligence with claims under human rights law." Mr Davis` attack on the Human Rights Act provokes a stinging reaction from The Independent, which takes him to task on all his points individually. In reply to the suggestion that Britain`s going compensation crazy, the paper`s Robert Verkaik points out there`s been "no more than a small increase in the number of cases brought under the Human Rights Act since October 2000", and that Parliament`s Joint Committee on Human Rights said last year that "there is nothing to suggest that human rights litigation has taken hold in Britain." Indeed the committee went as far as to report that "We fear ... awareness of human rights is ebbing, within public authorities and the public." President of the Law Society Edward Nally agreed, saying the "anticipated deluge of claims" had not materialised, and that the courts had been "pretty willing to reject over-adventurous claims". "Frankly, we feel he is overplaying the issue and the facts don`t bear what he`s saying," he added. [... more]

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