The Conservatives claim their plan to scrap the Human Rights Act in favour of a British bill of rights will preserve Magna Carta’s principles (Report, 15 June). Was Cameron taught medieval history at Eton? Does he not know that Magna Carta applied to a minority of the population, that the crucial article 37 and others refer exclusively to “freemen”, who constituted only about a third of the population, the majority of which were “villeins” or serfs, who had no rights whatsoever. So the British bill of rights might be seen as a retreat, like so many other Tory policies, to a fantasised golden age. Human rights are not a convenience for a ruling class over its exploited subjects, but a universal statement of the needs that all human beings hold in common, which stands above the law systems of individual nation states.
Dr RL Symonds
Broadstairs, Kent
• Many thanks to David Cameron for trailing the likely direction of a British bill of rights. After all, Magna Carta protected the rights of the privileged. Which right in the Human Rights Act would Mr Cameron not wish for members of his family? Respect for private and family life? The right to a fair trial? The right not to be unlawfully killed? We can guess that a British bill would not limit the rights available, but rather those who can access them.
Gina Clayton
Chair, South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice
• Magna Carta was not an English document so much as a European one, debated in Norman French, written in Latin and informed by precursors from the continent as much as England (The idea of the Magna Carta is mainly myth, Editorial, 13 July). Its most radical provision was to grant the barons power to elect 25 of their number to hold the king and his officials to account (chapter 61), which is why it was promptly annulled by Pope Innocent III. But the Magna Carta myth has indeed inspired people over the centuries to demand greater rights and freedoms. Today the greatest threats to freedom come not from kings, but the rulers of global finance, trade and security. We need a global Magna Carta to bring these powers to account under laws made by the people, for the people. And this time the pope might be on the side of the people.
Titus Alexander
Democracy Matters @DemocracyM
• Re that certain Old Etonian’s ignorance of Magna Carta (Letters, 15 June): “Did she die in vain?”
Chris Osborne
West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire
