Real rights are equal for everyone. Only special privileges contradict each other. And when equal rights are degraded into special privileges, there is always a judge or a royal commission on hand to weigh them in the balance. Underneath all the pretence of even-handedness, what is really happening is not a compromise between competing rights, but the compromising of our rights and freedoms per se . Insisting on the meaning of rights is not semantics.
Real rights are under attack.
In the past year we have lost the rights to silence, to free assembly to protest and to move freely, all under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. Now the government is floating the idea of identity cards. The instinct of authorities everywhere has always been to undermine people's independence and impose restrictions. But the advantage for the authorities of the new language of rights is that it succeeds in undermining real rights at the same time as it seems to be extending rights. Freedom and exploitation One of the most effective ways that the appeal of real rights is undermined is by pointing out the shortcomings of equal rights.