The ECHR - A Little Bit Of The Tragic History.

'Few question the list of fundamental freedoms in the European Convention. The problem lies with Strasbourg’s role. This was predicted by the Attlee government in 1950. The Foreign Office feared the court would become a “small paradise” for claims from “communists, crooks and cranks of every type”. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Jowitt, warned: “The real vice of the document… consists in its lack of precision. It completely passes the wit of man to guess what results would be arrived at by a tribunal composed of elected persons who need not even be lawyers.” As a consequence, Attlee signed up to the Convention, but not the Court. It was not until 1966 that Harold Wilson submitted Britain to Strasbourg’s jurisdiction.' (Telegraph.)