Holding the Line Against Tyranny and Anarchy (Constitution Committee Report)

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Moraes, and I join other noble Lords in paying tribute to our much-loved noble friend, the late Lord Mackay of Clashfern. I also congratulate my noble friend Lord Strathclyde on the powerful call to action that he and his committee have produced in this report.

Naturally I agree with my former tutor and noble friend Lord Norton of Louth that this is a major report, not just in terms of its 93 pages and almost 30 recommendations but in its significance. It does, as noble Lords and my noble friend have said, deserve a wide audience. In the few minutes allocated, I will focus on the conclusions and recommendations that relate to a section of society all too often regarded as insignificant. This is absolutely not a criticism of the report, but it underlines my point because, as far as I can see, disabled people did not figure in it at all. I am not suggesting that there should be some tokenistic checklist of protected characteristic groups who must always be mentioned, regardless of the subject matter. Rather, I would suggest that many disabled people’s life experiences would actually support some of the report’s observations, conclusions and recommendations.

I will focus my remarks on paragraphs 26, 49 and 50 in particular. With regards to paragraph 26 and the role everyone has to play in upholding the rule of law and the importance of our understanding

“what a society that displays the rule of law looks like in practice”,

paragraph 49 hits the nail on the head. It states that it is about the value system that underpins the rule of law. It is surely sadly right that, as the report argues, if the core values of equality, fairness and justice

“are not present (or are perceived not to be present) in our society, then the rule of law … is liable to be degraded and to break down”.

I give one pertinent example of a wheelchair user, dressed in a suit and tie, who was wheeling across Parliament Square only last month. Three teenage lads passed by; each laughed at him in turn, and one was heard to say to the other two, “Have you seen that video?”—shocking perhaps, but not unusual for this individual and, I would suggest, for many disabled people whose disability makes them look different. What was clear in that moment was that these young people had absolutely no concept of the values of respect, equality and fairness that inform the rule of law culture. Indeed, such concepts might just as well have been so abstract as to be completely alien to their thinking.

That is how far we have regressed as a society in the 31 years since your Lordships’ House passed the Disability Discrimination Act. That is how much the rule of law culture has been degraded, undoubtedly aided by the subversive subculture of ridicule and hatred spawned by social media, whose role in misinformation is highlighted in paragraph 117. Social media seemingly grants a licence to laugh at and, in some cases, to dehumanise other human beings on account of their difference. Being a Peer of the realm affords no protection from prejudice. I know because I was the wheelchair user being laughed at.

I also relate, as someone with a mobility impairment, to paragraph 50 and how confidence in the rule of law is challenged by perceptions of disrespect for the law, particularly when this is seen within those institutions that play a role in upholding the rule of law, such as law enforcement. I know I am not the only Member of your Lordships’ House who must wonder why on earth the police, for whom I have the greatest respect, are failing to enforce the law with regard to cyclists going through red lights and cycling on pavements, both of which pose an enormous risk to disabled people and non-disabled people and both of which are illegal. It would only take an inexpensive, well-publicised social media campaign, backed up with real penalties, rather than just warnings, being awarded to law-breaking cyclists, including those using e-bikes, for the public to get the message: this is the rule of law on the roads, enforced by those with responsibility to uphold it—the police. You have absolutely nothing to fear as long as you do not break it.

In conclusion, the judiciary is quite rightly at the apex of society; it deserves our respect. But surely an equally crucial indicator of how much the rule of law is respected in practice is the degree to which it, and the culture and value system underpinning it, are upheld in situations affecting the most vulnerable members of society, not those with the most power. The report may not mention disabled people specifically, but that does not make its conclusions and recommendations any less relevant or important. I thank the Constitution Committee for its work and hope very much that the Minister will show in her reply that the Government are determined to respond positively in practice.