Tag Archives: david edwards

There are moments in politics when you can feel not just the temperature of the debate shift, but the very foundations of our democracy tremble.

Last week, in the House of Commons, Ed Davey delivered one of those rare speeches that cut through the noise.

Calm, principled, and grounded in the best traditions of British Liberalism, Ed reminded Parliament and the country why the European convention on Human Rights – which Britain helped create, championed by none other than Winston Churchill – remains essential to who we are as a nation.

It shouldn’t need saying, but in 2025 it still tragically does: human rights are not a luxury, nor an inconvenience to be discarded when considered by some to be out of fashion.

They are the bedrock of our freedom, dignity and fairness.

They protect each and every one of us, not just in moments of high politics, but in the quiet moments when we suddenly find ourselves reliant on the protections we too often take for granted.

You don’t always know when you’ll need rights like the right to a fair trial, to family life, or freedom from discrimination.

But when you do need them, you really need them.

And yet the drumbeat against these fundamental protections grows ever louder.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK – a party that proudly positions itself as anti-rights and, it would seem, anti the rule of law – now threatens to drag our country down a dangerous path.

They talk breezily about leaving the ECHR as if it were a minor administrative tweak, not the ripping up of a promise we made to the world and to our own citizens after the horrors of war – a promise that every human being, whatever their background, status, or present circumstances, deserves dignity, equality, and justice.

For all of the bluster, this isn’t about sovereignty or “taking back control.”

It’s about weakening protections for ordinary people while handing more power to the already powerful.

This isn’t patriotism.

It’s authoritarianism dressed up as populism.

Liberal Democrats know better, and we must say so proudly.

We stand in the great British tradition of liberty under the rule of law, of fairness for all, and of defending the vulnerable – not scapegoating them for political gain.
The ECHR isn’t some foreign imposition.

It’s a British achievement.

A legacy of Churchill.

A beacon of hope to countries emerging from tyranny across Europe.

Leaving it would not make us stronger – it would leave us smaller.

Human rights protect us all.

They are not for one group or another – they are for every citizen, every family, every person who may one day find themselves needing justice, protection, or support.

Those rights were hard-won.

They must be fearlessly defended.

As Liberals we have always believed that the measure of a society is how it treats its people – all of its people, and especially its most persecuted and vulnerable.

Now, more than ever, we must say loud and clear: Britain must remain in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Our freedoms depend on it.

In praise of David Edwards