Jack Straw’s been making a speech about human rights again. The main point is to say that any charter of British Human Rights should include responsibilities as well as rights. I have problems with the communitarian view of the world. Basic human rightsdon;t come with responsibilities. A right to education for the whole of yur life (even up to the moment of death), say, or to life itself, or to healthcare treatment or (I know this isn’t in any charter) to palliative care, or indeed to having a social work service (and a decent one) which also isn’t in any charter are all things that go along with being a human being in a civilised society. They should not depend on whether we have done our duty to society, particularly some duty imagined in its own interest by some political party..

The speech at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/sp280109a.htm