Lord Blair: Cases like Qatada make dangerous politics
Former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Lord Blair told Sky News that "hard cases" like the deportation of Abu Qatada should not mean scrapping the Human Rights Act or leaving the European Court of Human Rights.
This does seem to me an extraordinary idea. Hard cases like Abu Qatada make bad law and make dangerous politics.
I have worked with five home secretaries, all of whom have been dealing with Abu Qatada and all of whom have been frustrated by it.
But one or two of these really difficult cases doesn't mean that we should withdraw from a treaty which British lawyers drew up in the 1940s after the Second World War.
Where do we go next? Do we withdraw from the United Nations?
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