So we still, for now, have the Human Rights Act. This secures, in law, certain ‘rights’ from the State which are:

• Right to Life
• Prohibition of Torture
• Prohibition of Slavery and Forced Labour
• Right to Liberty and Security
• Right to a Fair Trial
• No Punishment without law
• Right to respect for private and family life
• Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of assembly and association
• Right to marry
• Prohibition of Discrimination

In many respects the Human Rights Act is a fundamentally depressing law – one that was felt necessary because it catalogues the list of abuses of State power that can and do happen, but in some places it goes too far and in others not far enough.

What seems to have specifically upset Conservatives (and others) about the Human Rights Act is that it prevents the deportation of certain individuals who are likely to be murdered and tortured – even when those individuals are terrorists and show no regard for the Human Rights Act in so far as it applies to other human beings. I suspect the Prohibition of Discrimination and the Right to Education aren’t very popular either.

But the real fault-line here is jurisdiction. The Human Rights Act applies to everyone, irrespective of their legal status in the UK. The Conservative Bill of Rights would likely apply to British (or perhaps EU) citizens only, not foreign nationals.

Foreign nationals – including illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and people on temporary visas would have no protection from our Government at all. Murder, torture, punishment without law, unfair trials – even preventing them getting married – all these options suddenly become available to the Government of the day.

I would argue that the Conservatives need to get their alternative, the “Bill of Rights”, drafted and scrutinised and let us judge which is preferable. Truth is we don’t really know what they intend to replace it with, so we’re playing a wait and see game.

The Human Rights Act isn’t perfect and certainly isn’t the last word in protecting citizens from the Government, and perhaps a Bill of Rights could be an improvement, at least for British nationals… but Lib Dem MPs are never going to vote in favour – or even abstain – on anything that will allow the British Government to commit acts that will result in torture or murder, no matter how reprehensible the individuals in question might be.

But if anything could break up this coalition, this could be it. This here is an example of an unreconcilable difference, one where there’s no reasonable compromise. You can’t have a ‘bit’ of torture, or a ‘bit’ or murder, as far as I know.