Why quitting the ECHR would be a bad idea - Yorkshire Post Letters

In his letter “Quit the ECHR “ (The Yorkshire Post, June 20) Clark Cross asked why politicians were not shouting from the rooftops about Professor Matt Goodwin's recent report that claimed that white British people would become a minority in Britain by 2063.

The reason is quite simple…Professor Goodwin’s figures are questionable at best.

Professor Goodwin defines “white British people” as “people who do not have an immigrant parent”. Not only has this definition never been used before it would include such people as Winston Churchill, Nigel Farage’s children, England football captain Harry Kane, England cricket captain Ben Stokes, former ERG chair Mark Francois, comedian Jim Davidson and King Charles.

Goodwin has “controversial” views on race and immigration, so could this definition of “white British” be designed to produce the answer he wanted?

To pick up on some other points, most refugees do stay in the first safe country they come to. The two countries housing the highest number of refugees in the world are Iran and Turkey. In Europe the country with the most refugees is Germany, and both Poland and France host more than the UK.

The statistics quoted regarding the number of children in the UK living in temporary accommodation is shocking. However, that is more to do with 14 years of austerity and a failure to invest in the country’s housing by the central government.

Lastly, the writer calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR was formed after the Second World War, written by a British judge and is designed to protect citizens from the actions of their own government.

Anybody who does not accept they may need protection from their government only need look to the United States, where masked ICE agents are on the streets arresting people and deporting them with no due process.

There is a reason why the only countries in Europe that are not part of the ECHR are Russia and Belarus. Do we really want to be like them?