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

130 Values and Civil and Political Liberties
institutions, their financial and material base, the interrelationships
of all of these, and methods of controlling
institutions, including remedies of all kinds, political,
administrative or judicial. That is why constitutional
arrangements, simultaneously the apex and the basis of
the institutional system and its substantive outcomes, are
so crucial. From time to time systematic evaluation, even
rethinking, of these is therefore necessary—admitting
that, just as all elements of the status quo are not
necessarily satisfactory, so too all proposed changes are
not necessarily good.
Such an evaluation and rethinking is far from easy. As
explained earlier, there are differences of interpretation
of the meaning of values and conflicts between competing
values. A fortiori the same problems complicate
consideration of the more detailed human legal rights.
For example the rights to freedom of expression and to
personal liberty may, inter alia, compete with the rights
of women and children to human dignity and respect
when pornography is in issue; rights of people of
different races to dignity and respect are put in issue by
racialist remarks; rights of persons of various religions to
respect for their cherished central beliefs are put in issue
with remarks or literature attacking these; rights of all
not to have their lives disrupted or property damaged
are at risk if disorder may be provoked by public
meetings or processions; and rights of non-striking
workers to work without intimidation are at stake with
massive picketing.
A further complication comes from changes in the
significance and nature of issues, although some issues
remain constant—the poor are always with us. Yet, even
in respect of the poor, conceptions are changing, with a
growing recognition that poverty is not merely economic,
but that it is a state of exclusion, humiliation and
degradation. Similarly, recognition that others are being