Yes, technically a government can leave the European Convention on Human Rights. You just give six months’ notice, like quitting a gym membership. But instead of cancelling a spin class, you’re walking away from seventy years of legal stability and dropping yourself into the same company as Belarus and Russia. Not exactly the global alliance anyone sensible is queuing up to join.

Peace and Devolution in the Firing Line

The consequences would be chaos. Northern Ireland’s peace deal is underpinned by the ECHR. Pull that away and you’re not tweaking policy – you’re wrecking the Good Friday Agreement. Washington would rage, Dublin would be incandescent, Brussels would dust off its “we told you so” banners, and the whole thing would collapse into international crisis. Scotland and Wales wouldn’t be far behind, dragging Westminster through the courts and demanding answers on why their constitutional settlements had just been trashed for the sake of a cheap headline.

Trade and Trust Go Up in Smoke

Trade would suffer instantly. Human rights clauses are hardwired into most trade deals. Walk away from the ECHR and you’re telling the world you can’t be trusted to keep your word. The EU won’t play ball, and the rest of the world will treat Britain like a banana republic. Sovereignty doesn’t put food on shelves or customers on order books. Trust does – and without the ECHR, there’s none left.

A Gift-Wrapped Mess for Lawyers

At home, it would be a lawyers’ paradise. The Human Rights Act ties the ECHR into UK law. Pull it out and the whole system unravels. Every case becomes a bunfight over what rights still exist, every appeal drags through the courts, and the only people celebrating are barristers buying new yachts. This isn’t “cutting red tape.” It’s gift-wrapping the country in it.

The Deregulation Agenda

And here’s the truth: this whole “ditch the ECHR” circus has nothing to do with stopping small boats. That’s the distraction. The real game is mass deregulation. The people bankrolling Reform UK and their cheerleaders want rid of workers’ rights, environmental protections, health and safety laws, and the basic standards that stop Britain turning into a Wild West free-for-all. The regulations we already have are flimsy enough, but they’re still too much for the billionaire class who’d rather strip every last asset, offshore the profits, and pay nothing back. They don’t want freedom for you – they want freedom from you.

The Real Traitors

So let’s stop pretending this is about patriotism or sovereignty. The real traitors aren’t the people risking their lives in dinghies. The real traitors are Reform UK and the money behind them flogging our rights, our protections, and our future for a quick buck and a tax dodge.

Of course, some will still cheer it on, probably while waving a flag on a roundabout. But they’re cheering the end of their own rights. Rights they won’t notice have gone until they need them. By then, it’ll be too late. And the only ones celebrating will be Putin, a few offshore billionaires, and the lawyers popping champagne.

Hopefully British people will see sense and stop acting like they have been on the piss for ten years.