WHILE the British media obsessed over seating arrangements on a train that the unelectable Jeremy Corbyn was taking to a debate with the equally unelectable Owen Wossisname as they contested leadership of the unelectable Labour party, the Tories were quietly getting on with the serious business of sticking a knife in the back of what’s left of British social democracy and overcrowding Westminster with their own supporters.

It was confirmed last week by UK Injustice Secretary Liz Truss that the Tories are to press ahead with the abolition of the Human Rights Act. The Conservatives want to replace it with a human rights act that’s more British, which presumably means redefining human as “a member of the British establishment”. Everyone else will be treated like cattle, just as they already are on Britain’s overcrowded railways. Actually it’s worse than that because cattle get a free ride, but the only ones on the most expensive rail network in Europe who get a free ride are the train operators.

Theresa May has ordered a review of the plans. The human rights plans that is; she doesn’t propose to do anything about Britain’s ludicrous railways which charge you more for a ticket from Glasgow to Birmingham than it costs to fly to somewhere you might actually want to visit. Theresa doesn’t think that the original plan to abolish the Human Rights Act was snooperish enough because it conceded that human rights laws in the UK would remain subject to the European Court of Human Rights. Theresa doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her right to read your emails so she can find out where you’re flying to instead of standing in a corridor on an overpriced privatised train to Birmingham.

The Tories aren’t noted for their concern for civil liberties. Neither are former home secretaries like Theresa May. Every new appointee to the post of home secretary ends up being described as the most authoritarian home secretary ever, and Theresa was no exception. She’s now been succeeded in the post of Most Authoritarian Home Secretary Ever by Amber Rudd, who’s going to be responsible along with Liz Truss for abolishing what’s left of our human rights.

The claim is made that the Human Rights Act needs to be abolished because it prevents the UK from deporting foreign criminals. But that’s not true. Foreign criminals can be deported, it’s just that they can’t be deported to countries where they’re going to be tortured or executed, which is perfectly reasonable because the UK doesn’t allow prisoners to be executed or tortured, much as certain right-wing newspapers would like them to be.

So what the abolition of the Human Rights Act will achieve is the deportation of foreign criminals to countries where they can be tortured. That’s not really a goal that’s worthy enough to destroy the human rights protections of UK citizens, but getting rid of foreign criminals was always only an excuse. The real reason the Tories want to abolish the Human Rights Act is that they can’t countenance anything that blocks the train corridor between them and absolute power and control, especially when what’s standing between them and their fetish of parliamentary sovereignty has European in its title.

Theresa May’s British Bill of Rights isn’t about human rights at all, because there’s no logical reason why the human rights of a British human need to be any different from the human rights of any other human. What Theresa’s British Bill of Rights is really about is the absolute power and sovereignty of the Westminster parliament. It’s the Westminster Bill of Rights, and the only humans whose rights have primacy are those who are in charge in the Westminster parliament. That would be Theresa and her pals.

Instead of enforcing an internationally recognised standard of human rights, the Tories are going to give us their own version of British rights. You’ll have the right to watch Strictly. You’ll have the right to vote for the X Factor. You’ll have the right to put up bunting when some minor royal marries another posh person. You’ll have the right to stand on a crowded train. You’ll have the right to work for a pittance in a low-paid job. You’ll have the right to trudge through the rain to a food bank after your benefits have been sanctioned. What you won’t have is the legal right to take any complaints to a forum which isn’t controlled by the Westminster parliament or those it appoints, because the right of Theresa May to tell you what to do is greater than any right you might imagine you might have to mount a legal challenge to her. That’s what a British Bill of Rights means. We might be called British citizens these days, but we’re still subjects.

Human rights legislation is enshrined in the Scotland Act. The Human Rights Act is part of the foundation of the Scottish Parliament along with the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the Sewell Convention, the Westminster Government can only make changes to the Scotland Act with the agreement of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government has already said that it’s not going to give consent. If the Tories want to strip UK citizens of their human rights and replace them with the right to do as the Tories tell us they can do so without Scotland’s cooperation. That means that the only way in which Theresa May can abolish the Human Rights Act is to ignore the Sewell Convention and impose it on an unwilling Holyrood. So much for treating Scotland as a respected and valued partner in a family of nations.

We live in a state where much of the media is more concerned about whether the number of seats on Jeremy Corbyn’s train proves that he’s a loser than it is about a government that’s whittling away the basic human rights of British citizens. Meanwhile there’s another train coming down the line that they’re all oblivious to, a Scotland that’s on the tracks to independence. When it collides with a British state hell bent on stripping Scots of their human rights protection, the only loser is going to be the UK.