The creation of transnational bodies clothed in the lofty rhetoric of human rights and justice all too often ends up constraining the ability of truly democratic states to defend themselves. After all, who can really resist an imperative delivered by a body cloaked in such a righteous mantle?
But sovereign states do have a residual sense of self-preservation, at least some of their citizens do. Even some of the citizens from the left wing of their politics. Today, news comes that Charles Clarke, former Labour Home Minister, is suggesting that the UK might leave the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the Daily Mail. The former Home Secretary said there was public anger that the courts appeared to give the rights of terror suspects a "higher priority" than preventing possible bomb attacks.
On pulling out of the convention, Mr Clarke said: "It's completely underestimated as a possibility, I think it could easily happen.
"If the court is not seen as upholding the interests of the public then the public will say "no thanks"."
He is the first Labour heavyweight to suggest Britain could leave a charter which is enshrined into British law by the Human Rights Act.
Until now, ministers have insisted criticism of the Act is based on myth and misunderstanding.
But Mr Clarke, tipped for a Cabinet return under Gordon Brown, said: "Its operation sometimes appears to place the human rights of a suspected criminal ahead of the rights of those threatened by that criminality or the wider needs of the society.
There is every reason to be suspicious of multinational bodies.
Hat tip: Olivia Smith
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