Forgotten Ideals

Amongst the personal papers of David Maxwell Fyfe unearthed in the vaults of Allen & Overy 25 years ago was a transcript of a speech that he made in Brussels in December 1947. Its uncanny understanding of the consequences of tyranny, both mundane and inhumane, has provided a guide over the past decade, as authoritarianism has crept into the government of our country. Tom Blackmore returns to its wisdom in light of recent events.

The JCHR’s analysis strikes me as measured and convincing. Contrary to the Prime Minister’s view that if the Bill ‘went further’ it would breach international law, the Committee’s analysis suggests that the Bill as drafted is ‘already’ incompatible with international law.

Professor Mark Elliott on the Joint Committee Human Rights scrutiny of the Safety of Rwanda Bill

One of the advantages of our uncodified constitution is the unfettered power of our sovereign parliament to create law

Robert Jenrick MP on his resignation as Immigration Minister

We tell the story of the birth of modern human rights through the eyes of one its artisans, David Maxwell Fyfe. David was first a prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and then a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.  The first role gave him a unique insight into the Nazi mind which bred barbarity and terror, and the second a platform to champion the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe

We perform Dreams of Peace & Freedom to tell that story of David Maxwell Fyfe’s journey from Nuremberg to Strasbourg in his own words and the words that inspired him set to music by Sue Casson, and to protest.

On 23^rd December 1947 David said in a speech :

Mankind is at the crossroads that leads either to sanity or destruction.

In one sense Nuremberg did express a triumph of the human spirit – to the extent that it stated what humanity could not tolerate and more gropingly some things for which humanity stands.

 Yet I am haunted by some words from a song to which we used to listen in more carefree days : On fait des serments, et simplement, on les oublie’ 

Having propounded high ideals in defeated Germany I feel the responsibility for doing my part to see that they are not forgotten by the victors.

David Maxwell Fyfe, speech in 1947, at Union Belge Britanique, Brussels

Those ‘high ideals’ forged in Nuremberg formed the foundation of the European Convention on Human Rights. In 1947 the United Nations were preparing to publish their Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a groundbreaking assertion of the rights and freedoms of the people of the world. The UDHR spawned both further global Conventions protecting vulnerable groups including refugees, and regional instruments of which the ECHR was a prominent example, uniquely establishing a court at which nations could be held to account.

In the ECHR the ‘high ideals’ are shaken into a simple list of rights and freedoms: the right to life and liberty, freedom from torture, slavery, inhuman treatment, and forced labour; the freedom from punishment without the law and the right to a fair trial; freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression, and assembly; freedom to marry and the right to a private family life; and freedom from discrimination before the law. The right to education and the holding of property were added in later protocols. This short list sketches ‘some of the things for which humanity stands.’

The foundation of the Convention is that these rights are universal and inalienable. As Maxwell Fyfe later wrote:

Your idealist… takes the view that there are certain rights and freedoms not created by lawyers but to which mankind as such are heir and which cannot be alienated.

David Maxwell Fyfe 1950 Speech at the Athenaeum

Before the Universal Declaration and the Convention, freedom and rights were protected distinctively in different domains. In each state the freedoms were ancient and took shape through a blend of judicial and parliamentary agency. They were not  the product of the unfettered power of a sovereign parliament. As Maxwell Fyfe wrote as the Convention was being drafted:

It should moreover be remembered that substantial part of the liberties enjoyed in countries with long established judicial systems are derived as much from the accumulated precedents of court decisions over a period of years, as from precise laws passed by parliaments.

David Maxwell Fyfe, working papers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

And he believed that in the same way it would take time for the European Court to mature:

The legal interpretation of a new code, however well-defined would present many difficulties. In fact, it is more than possible that the system would not work with full efficacy until a body of European Case Law had been built up and that might take a considerable time.

Those ideals are now under concerted attack, as is the Convention itself. Each piece of recent migration legislation has corroded the freedoms and rights of all while stripping humanity from refugees and migrants seeking sanctuary.

As Mark Elliott says above, the Safety of Rwanda Bill puts the government in clear breach of international law and applies ‘looking glass’ measures to curb our own judiciary. Robert Jenrick’s suggestion that parliament is ‘unfettered’ is simply wrong. No agency of government in Britain is unfettered. There are checks and balances which are vital to protect democracy. This legislation is being described as ‘emergency’ but it has rather created an emergency and we must make an urgent response.

We are back at the crossroads where we can choose sanity or destruction. Our story tells of when the nations of Europe chose sanity. The past demands to be heard.

For better or worse we as a people have a present sense of history. I believe that it is of the utmost value because you cannot understand the present except in the light of the past.

David Maxwell Fyfe, Speech to the Walter Scott Society 1956

Find out more about Dreams of Peace & Freedom here.

Discover our story at our YouTube channel here.

Watch the song inspired by Maxwell Fyfe’s Forgotten speech here.

Read further excerpts from the Forgotten speech here.

Waking us from sleeping

As the Supreme Court considers whether Rwanda is a safe country, and the political parties meet in conference Tom Blackmore explains why English Cabaret continue their vigil for justice, humanity, and human rights.

A vigil is an act of watchful attention in the face of sleep, and in our case, it is prompted by the restless but finally soporific public response to the seismic corrosion of freedom by the government over the past decade under the veil of chaos.

The immediate stability of our membership of the Council of Europe and our subscription to the ECHR will be decided over the coming weeks and our vigil centres on performances of Dreams of Peace & Freedom, which tells the story of the birth of the ECHR through the eyes of one of its creators, David Maxwell Fyfe. We join him on his journey from Nuremberg to Strasbourg, listen to his words and the words that inspired him set to music by Sue Casson.

Foremost amongst those words of inspiration are the War Sonnets of Rupert Brooke to which he constantly alluded in his Closing at the Nuremberg, quoting the final lines of The Soldier as part of his first definition of human rights at the end of that speech. He stated that they were taking

‘a step towards the universal recognition that:

sights and sounds, dreams happy as her day,
And laughter learnt of friends, and gentleness,
In hearts at peace.

Are not the prerogative of any one country.  They are the inalienable heritage of mankind.’

Earlier in the trial, Maxwell Fyfe cross-examined Hermann Goering. It was a pivotal moment in the proceedings and Maxwell Fyfe’s life. We chose lines from Peace (Rupert Brooke’s War Sonnet 1)

Now God be Thanked, who has matched us with his hour
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping!

Although Brooke was writing of the moment of poise before going into battle, the words catch the spirit of ambition at Nuremberg, where ‘the sick hearts that honour could not move’ were finally condemned, and justice, democracy and the rule of the law were awakened, offering a fresh start for the warring nations:

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping.

Our vigil began on December 10^th last year in response to Conservative attacks on the ECHR as they introduced the Illegal Migration Bill.

So far, we have failed.

It has been spelt out very clearly by survivors of the Holocaust and others that the removal of fundamental freedoms and human rights from migrants seeking sanctuary makes them less human than the rest of us who live and breathe on our soil. Equally the militant language employed by members of the party of government has echoed the tyrannical diktat of the past. The House of Lords repeatedly rejected many aspects of the legislation and explicitly called it out as unethical and immoral.

Nevertheless, the Illegal Migration Act is now law, and we are less than we were.

The government does seem to have learnt the lesson about language as every one of their moves now are described as ‘reasonable,’ ‘measured’ and ‘fair,’ even when they are nothing of the sort.

At present its’ ability to act is delayed by the ruling from the Supreme Court. But reports say that they are optimistic that the Home Secretary will this year get her longed-for Christmas dream – a plane filled with migrants taking off en route to Kigali. And we will be diminished further, with ‘barbarism rising up from underneath us,’ as Maxwell Fyfe foretold.

Should the Home Secretary’s hopes be dashed we are promised a full-frontal assault on the ECHR. Demands to derogate will thunder, and those writing the Conservative manifesto will be under immense pressure to include withdrawal from the Convention in their plans.

Both these scenarios represent a failure on behalf of the many, including us, who have sought to halt this very bad idea.

Our contribution is founded on a quotation from Maxwell Fyfe

For better or worse we as a people have a present sense of history. I believe that it is of the utmost value because you cannot understand the present except in the light of the past.

Maxwell Fyfe’s speech to the Walter Scott Society 1956

Arguments abound that the European Convention belongs to another time and is now out of date. However, the visceral response to Dreams of Peace & Freedom at a recent performance we gave at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, Fyfe’s alma mater, suggested a shared common understanding of the need for a ‘call to action’ at this time. This, despite the grand setting and company of VIPs was an electric evening, marked by the interest and enthusiasm shown by the young people there.It suggests that the history is very close, and of immediate and pressing significance.

There’s a quote in Field of Dreams, part of the blistering soliloquy delivered by James Earl Jones at the heart of the film. He says that the past reminds us:

Of all that once was good and could be again.

The horror of war, terror, and mass murder during thirty years of the last century is historical fact, as is the heroism of those who fought and served. But as important, and perhaps more important to those who fought and served was the rebuilding after bloodshed. It was human and flawed but it was a response to something terrible, and it was good, and it could be again. Our story is about that.

We have not moved on much in the past eight decades. Certainly, technology has speeded up a bit, and we are more comfortable. But we are still banging on about sovereignty, the nation, influence, and power. The good stuff in the past decades has been the slow emergence of equality, the freedom and respect for identity and individual choice, and the openness of society. Now they feel at risk. If they are diminished, then we slide back to where we started.

The corrosion is not yet fully established. As Maxwell Fyfe put it:

Mankind is standing at the crossroads that leads either to sanity or destruction.

Speech to the Union Belge Britannique 23rd December 1947

We must strive to urge humanity towards sanity. And we must keep up our vigil.

Dreams of Peace & Freedom was conceived as a reflection and commemoration. But as Helen Mountfield, the principal of Mansfield College said after a performance last May:

What began as a celebration is now a call to arms.

Our commemorative song cycle runs up against the issues that swirl against today’s world.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it was quickly identified that there was no court that could try Putin and other leaders for the crime of aggression. In calling for a Tribunal that would conduct that case the protagonists were inspired by the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, and the trial of leading Nazis for Crimes against Peace. We stand by Justice for Ukraine.

We were delighted to contribute to the Holocaust Memorial Day national event in 2020, creating a flame that stood for ‘shining a light on the evidence of Nuremberg’. One of the lessons of that evidence was the way in which, early on the German state defined their Jewish citizens as something distinct and less than the remaining German population and were therefore able to shed them of their possessions, rights, freedoms and finally their lives. One purpose of the recognition of universal and inalienable rights is to ensure that this cannot happen again, that all humanity is protected. The government’s treatment of migrants imperils universalism today.

The Convention on the Human Rights and Freedoms in Europe (ECHR) protects the rights of all on European soil. Governments who challenge the Convention are looking for ways to do things that the articles will not allow. Sidestepping those articles undermines the rights of some, corrodes democracy and weakens the rule of law. A government who does this is sliding towards authoritarianism. In this way the Convention is a beacon or lighthouse warning of approaching danger. Despite the Prime Minister’s public and explicit reaffirmation of the Convention in Reykjavik in May, plans for withdrawal, often but not always attached to issues of migration, are widespread.

These are now expressed in reasonable and measured tones of regret and pragmatism which throws a blanket over their intentions.

In response to present governmental plans, we are returning to the road to perform as a call to action.

It feels hopeless at present, but I am invigorated by a further quotation from Maxwell Fyfe’s speech to the Walter Scott Society:

The ability to weigh a chance and still embark on a desperate resolve is an aspect of the Scottish character which is sometimes forgotten by those outside our country.

Our vigil is an act of watchful attention in the face of sleep, and I stand with David Lammy in his 2018 tweet in the midst of Brexit stasis:

I just want to run through the corridors shouting ‘Wake the **** up people’ but I am stuck in Parliament and would likely get arrested.

So we will sing.

Follow our vigil through our social media storytelling :

@officialthint on Instagram/threads

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