Lord Bingham helped to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Liberty with a keynote speech of note and distinction at their recent annual general meeting in London. Lord Bingham introduced his speech with a broad background to the history of the National Council for Civil Liberties (Liberty). Tracing a lineage that extended from the Great Depression marchers of 1932 to the modern day he encapsulated Liberty's support for the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.Showing how Liberty's founding members had articulated their early work into the Convention, Lord Bingham adopted a ten point plan in his defence of the European Convention and the Human Rights Act of 1998. Perhaps too many points in one speech for most speakers, Lord Bingham strode through his list of ten with consummate ease.
At a time when the very future of the Human Rights Act is questioned by many, Lord Bingham showed very cleverly, concisely and competently how the Act supports the UK's legal system; offering plaintiffs recourse to UK courts instead of a Strasbourg court. Not an imposition by Europe but a release from the slow workings of justice in a foreign land.
Saving his best point for last Lord Bingham asked which of the rights protected by the European Convention and the Human Rights Act would be jettisoned by a new government? Would it be the right to life, the right not to be enslaved, the right to security and liberty...and so on. The point was made. Well made. A convincing conclusion to a well-structured keynote speech.
Peter Bowler is webmaster at Time to Market – a specialist provider of presentation training courses throughout the UK.
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