A letter to the Times which was published on 19th January 2012.

It is not “cultural relativism” as Professor Vernon Bogdanor puts it (Wednesday 18th January) to uphold the principle that British laws are there primarily for the benefit of British citizens.

As it is, in the teeth of the British people’s opposition, unelected judges have systematically extended British law and our system of welfare benefits to foreign nationals to such an extent that British citizens now have no unique right or benefit as citizens, except the carrying of a British passport.  Soft British legal practices on asylum and welfare benefits are known all over Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, making Britain a target for anybody who fancies an improvement in their standard of living (see benefits report, January 18th) or who has fallen out with their own government.

Despite Vernon Bogdanor’s assertion to the contrary (and it is only his assertion), British judges are not paid to transfer, in effect, the privileges of being a British citizen to all and sundry under the guise of human rights.  Nor has the European Court of Human Rights the power to stop the deportation of Abu Qatada back to Jordan. The ECHR has given what is simply an opinion on the case.  The British government is free, as it always has been, to ignore the opinions of any foreign court and the disapproval of the human rights industry here at home.  Only British courts have jurisdiction over the British government and they are not bound by the ECHR either, though too often they give the impression that they are.