Prior to that change, I saw how that right was stretched so far as to make it laughable and pitiful. I was involved in a case that involved the removal of a foreign criminal- a convicted drug smuggler – which should have been entirely straightforward. But because of the array of appeal rights, technical loopholes, and the backlog of cases in the courts system, it took nearly two years and thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to finally persuade the Court of Appeal that the public interest in deportation outweighed the human right to a family life in Britain. Thankfully, the number of such cases is now diminishing.