Category Archives: Society

Britain, Government, Legal, Politics, Society

Society calls on UK Government to keep the Human Rights Act

BILL OF RIGHTS

MORE than 150 civil society groups have written to the UK Government urging a commitment to retaining the Human Rights Act and rule out its replacement by a British bill of rights.

The position of the prime minister in regard to the proposed legislation is in doubt but Dominic Raab, having been reappointed as justice secretary, appears adamant to push through the new laws. It had previously been shelved under Liz Truss’s leadership.

The British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and 157 other organisations including Amnesty International UK, Human Rights Watch, Liberty, Child Poverty Action Group, End Violence Against Women Coalition, and Unison, have written to Rishi Sunak calling on him to abandon the plans to scrap the HRA once and for all.

The letter, which was written to coordinate with global human rights day – Saturday, 10 December – says they “write with heavy hearts that the UK government’s approach to our domestic law risks taking us further and further away from the legal protection of human rights”.

It continues: “Human rights laws are, necessarily, uncomfortable for governments because they set limits on the exercise of power, limits which are for the benefit of people.

“No UK government need fear this … [it] should embrace the fact that our Human Rights Act provides universal protections for everyone and ensures those with public power are accountable.”

The 1998 legislation incorporated into domestic law rights are set out in the European convention on human rights. The convention, which was ratified by 46 member states (including the UK), was intended to ensure governments could not dehumanise and abuse individuals’ rights.

Giving evidence to parliament’s justice committee, Mr Raab, who has also returned to the role of deputy prime minister, said the bill of rights would “restore some common sense to articulate a more UK-wide set of priorities for human rights and to curb some of the abuses of it”.

He also claimed it would protect victims and the public “perhaps more than was possible under the HRA,” for instance by boosting free speech.

But critics of the proposals have called it a “rights removal bill”. The BIHR specifically highlights several weaknesses and says it would:

. Fundamentally weaken the right to respect for private and family life.

. Remove the legal duty on courts and public bodies to interpret other laws compatibly with human rights, exposing people to the arbitrary use of laws with no checks.

. Limit access to justice by adding barriers to bringing a human rights case to court.

. Destroy the positive obligation on public bodies to take proactive steps to protect people from harm, including protecting domestic and child abuse survivors.

Sanchita Hosali, the chief executive of the BIHR, said: “Despite the rhetoric, even a cursory reading of the rights removal bill shows it does not create new rights or strengthen existing protections. It does the exact opposite, weakening people’s current rights and access to them.

“The rights removal bill is unprincipled, unevidenced, unworkable and unnecessary.”

BIHR said the signatories represented the interests of millions of people across the UK.

Other organisations that have put their names to the letter include Stonewall, the Muslim Council of Britain, Freedom from Torture, the Runnymede Trust, Rethink Mental Illness, Parkinson’s UK, and the Prison Reform Trust.

A spokesperson for the government said: “The government is committed to protecting human rights and will always continue to champion them internationally and at home.”

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Arts, Society

Overcome animosity and be better for it

CHARACTER

IT’S a very rare group, family, or community, where everyone likes each other, and everyone gets on. So, what do you do when you find yourself in a gathering with that one person?

We should all know that we are expected to make the effort, but why can’t we just do what is best for us instead of always having to do the right thing? Actually, as usual, they are the same thing.

We could walk away, ignore them, be snobbish or snooty. But anyone could do that. And most people would do it, because it’s the easy thing to do.

Speaking to someone when you don’t want to? Being pleasant to someone who isn’t and least deserving? Turning animosity into friendship? That’s so difficult that most people would rather not even try. Then they blame it on the other person.

You could do that. Or you could do the right thing. The difficult thing. Overcoming your doubts, animosity and the challenge.

The group will be better off. The other individual might (or might not) appreciate it. But you will be a much better person because of it.

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Science, Society

Can I learn to be better at multitasking?

MULTITASKING

Intro: It’s time to nail this myth once and for all – the scientific fact is that your brain is simply not wired for multitasking

WE make the mistake of thinking that our grey matter is like a computer – but try as we may, our conscious thinking powers cannot be split along separate paths in the way that a computer can run multiple programs simultaneously.

It takes between a few milliseconds to several minutes for the brain to fully orientate to a new task, depending on the task’s complexity. When we dart like a butterfly beween tasks, the vast majority of us end up not doing any of them well: we make more mistakes, and become less able to remember new things. By continually switching focus – and maybe buzzing on stress-induced adrenaline – we can be blind to how unproductive we’re being. Those who think they’re experts at multitasking are actually the worst at it, thanks to the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is the human curse of exaggerarting our own abilities and no one is immune. The only way to gain a realistic insight into your skills is to be independently assessed.

To work with, not against, your brain, prioritise tasks so you know what needs to get done first, cut those email notifications, and avoid starting a job until you’ve prepared what you need to complete it.

SUPERTASKERS

A plucky 2.5% of us take multitasking to the next level: these supertaskers are, for example, able to take charge of a hospital Accident & Emergency Department, and not be fazed by a ward full of patients in pain, a crowd of relatives clamouring for attention, and another ambulance due to arrive in the next five minutes.

Somehow, the decision-making cabling in the supertasker’s brain is able to fire with great efficiency – doing more work with less effort. Supertasker’s can filter out unwanted distractions, remember details easily, and stay as cool as a cucumber when under extreme pressure.

You might wish you were one of this elite breed, but it seems to be impossible to learn these skills – being a supertasker may simply be down to your genetic “dice” rolling a double six.

CONCENTRATION

Complimentary to this topic is the issue of concentration and scientists have been thorough in their research in addressing the oft quoted question, ‘Will listening to music improve my concentration?’

Listening to music certainly nudges the brain during tedious work, but it remains a myth that listening to classical music will make you smarter.

First coined in 1991, the “Mozart Effect” became a craze among parents and students after a series of short experiments showed that some students performed slightly better in certain types of tests when taken shortly after a music lesson or listening to classical music. Newspapers and the media loved the story, whipping up these findings into “listening to Mozart makes you smarter” – which was a bold stretch of the imagination.

Since then, further research has shown that while background music does give a slight boost to spatial reasoning (the ability to imagine and answer questions about 2D and 3D objects), it doesn’t improve your score in IQ or academic tests. Even then, the improvement doesn’t last long, and the music doesn’t even need to be classical – any pleasant background sound helps you stay focused, and lively pop and rock tunes tend to come out best of all. So if you are undertaking spatial reasoning tasks such as repairing a gadget, map-reading, or video gaming, put on your favourite upbeat track.

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