Effect on Bangladeshi Family in Tower Hamlets

Delivering the Holborn Law Society Lecture Cherie Booth QC reminded her audience of the reply given by Lord Scarman when asked what difference it would make to a single Bangladeshi family in Tower Hamlets if Britain had a Bill of Rights: “A Bill of Rights would secure to the members of that family protection enforceable in the courts against harassment: their private and family life, and their home, would have the protection of an enforceable law … Their colour, language, religion and minority status would not expose them to discrimination to their disadvantage in the countless ways in which they currently suffer … They would have the support of public opinion educated in the fundamental social importance of the basic human rights of everyone … Constitutions are not designed as automatic purveyors of jobs, homes and property. Their purpose is to establish and protect a framework within which government and people can attack these problems on the basis of equality and justice for all”.