Patrick Stewart appears in comedy pro-ECHR video, but not all lawyers are impressed
Actor and star of internet memes Patrick Stewart has appeared in a humorous video in which he mocks the idea of scrapping the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Playing a fictional Brexit-advocating Prime Minister, the former Star Trek and X-Men actor deliberately presents himself as a ranting right-wing figure who longs for the good old days of Magna Carta and a future Bill of Rights that can be “hoisted on the Europeans”.
After his aides point out to him that the ECHR was in part drafted by the British, and is basically the same thing as his proposed Bill of Rights, Stewart — whose baldness gives him a passing resemblance to former justice secretary Chris Grayling — loses his temper and shouts, “Oh fuck off!”
The video (embedded above) appeared yesterday on The Guardian‘s YouTube channel and is expected to circulate widely in advance of the Brexit referendum on June 23.
However, not everyone is a fan. This morning leading human rights barrister Dinah Rose QC tweeted that the video was “a bit awful”, continuing:
I cringed when it was claimed that right to a fair trial is from ECHR.
Other top barristers, including Pump Court’s Matthew Scott, agreed that the video was “cringey”.
