Crime and punishment, dealing with misfits, and mistakenly blaming the usual suspects - Part 2

Ever heard of the European Court of Human Rights?

Ever heard of the Council of Europe?

And no doubt you will have heard of the European Union, or in its previous existences AKA the European Common Market and the the European Economic Community.

But they are all part of the same thing, right?

NO!

They are part of the same political argument, particularly by the usually very silly (and not always, indeed not very often, well-informed) Europe-bashers in the UK, but they are not the same thing at all.

The Council of Europe comprises 47 members (19 more than the EU) and was founded in 1949, 8 years before the Common Market appeared.

Its best known offspring is the European Court of Human Rights, which in turn enforces something called the European Convention on Human Rights. It is independent from the EU (again), though to note - all EU members are signatories to it. But note also - that way round and not the reverse.

There is currently an ongoing dispute between the UK over a very nasty bit of Muslim work called Abu Qatada whom the UK wants to deport and allegedly the workings of the European Court of Human Rights.

Read the attached article, but also please note the ruling of the British High Court and the decision that it took, which suggests that much of the argument is the typical red herring of which the Tories and their idiot friends in the nauseous tabloid press are so fond on the "never let the facts get in the way of a good story" principle:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/04/uk-european-human-rights-convention

The guy is in jail anyway and if he stays there forever he is not going to do a great deal of harm. Leaving him to rot there will hardly be the end of the world.

Meanwhile the tabloid press might start reminding themselves of the old Clinton-ism "it's the economy, stupid" and start looking at ways to get unemployment down and removing poverty. As they have almost got the government that they want already (actually most of them would probably prefer the anarcho-capitalism of the EXP/UKIP and the even greater unemployment and poverty that would ensue) things should already be improving (cough, splutter ..... ).