Magna Carta 800

Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the Magna Carta 800^th anniversary Committee, told FPA members that commemorations were going on across the Commonwealth especially in India, Australia and the West Indies, as well as elsewhere in the world. He outlined the main events of 2015 which include an exhibition at the British Library and international conferences in the United States and Eastern Europe.

Sir Robert Worcester

Magna Carta had resonance outside Great Britain and the English-speaking world. It was Britain’s greatest export and Sir Robert said he was proud that he himself had first seen the Lincoln Magna Carta at an exhibition in New York in 1940 at the age of seven. 

Sir Robert Worcester and FPA President Paola Totaro

Peter Kellner of YouGov on the General Election

YouGov's Peter Kellner with FPA President Paola Totaro

YouGov President Peter Kellner told FPA members he had never before felt so uncertain about the outcome of a General Election. Looking at the polls he was prepared to predict the following numbers: Conservatives would win 293 seats; Labour 277; Lib-Dems 30. He thought UKIP might win about 5 seats and the SNP 23 seats. These figures, he said, would of course be wrong and to make election night even more excruciating fun, a difference in any direction of about 10 seats could change everything. The election was going to be very tense and very tight and he would be very surprised if there was outright victory for either Conservatives or Labour. These figures, though, indicated another Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government after May the 7th. 

FPA visit to Brussels

FPA members visited Brussels from January 21 – January 23 for a series of briefings by senior officials at the European Commission, European Parliament, and Council of the European Union. They heard from - among others - Margaritis Schinas, Chief Spokesperson for the Commission; Jean Lambert, British Green MEP; and Fabian Zuleeg from the European Policy Centre think tank. The visit was hosted by the European Journalism Centre. 

Withdrawal from the European Human Rights Convention: the case for and against

Philippe Sands QC and Martin Howe QC, both members of the Government’s 2012 Commission on a Bill of Rights, briefed FPA members on their strongly opposing views on the issue of a possible withdrawal by a future Conservative government from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

In Martin Howe’s view, the central problem is that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has developed its interpretation of the ECHR in directions contrary to the original intention.

Philippe Sands believed that a country couldn’t be a member of the European Union and withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights at the same time, and membership of the EU was what the Conservative plans were really about. There was also a real danger that withdrawal from the ECHR would undermine the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.