The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

A Constitutional Re-examination? 125
the largely hereditary House of Lords, even though that
Chamber is much more independent of party control on
non-major matters. There has also been widespread
concern about the manner in which Parliamentary
candidates are selected by activists and imposed upon
the electorate as the only effective choice. Because
democracy operates through the party system, if the
value of democracy is really to operate, it is necessary to
see that parties too are democratic. The value of
democracy is also considered by some to be at risk in
relation to changes in the relationships between central
and local government. Concerns are reflected in the
continuing debates on whether there is a proper
distribution of power as between central and local
administration, whether there is adequate democratic
control over local financial expenditure and whether local
democracy is being diminished in favour of central
government control with indirect central democracy.
Public awareness of human rights issues has been
aroused. In my second Lecture I indicated the credit that
should be given to a watchful Press, various professions
involved in the development and application of human
legal rights, non-governmental organisations, legal academia,
social policy scientists and public administrators.
Recently these concerns have been highlighted by the
Charter 88 campaign, which has voiced grave anxiety
that traditional human rights values, already expressed
in constitutional and legal arrangements, are not being
furthered and that existing protections for human legal
rights are being diminished by new laws and by judicial
decisions.
Lay concern has been heightened by some ignorant
journalism—I exclude comments by the Press cognoscenti.
For example, it has been written even in "heavy"
newspapers that the United Kingdom does not have a
constitution. The position is that Britain does not have a