Mr Justice Eady gave a speech at City University in London last Wednesday – the text of the speech is here – in which he, rather surprisingly, acknowledges that the introduction of the ECHR into English law has “undoubtedly [had] an inhibiting effect on the exercise of our freedom of expression”.

Press commentator Steven Glover in the Independent today (scroll down) compares Eady’s comments to Richard Dawkins suddenly contemplating the existence of God.

In relation to McKennitt v. Ash, Eady says (on p. 9) that the obligation on the English courts to apply “Strasbourg jurisprudence” in privacy cases like that, i.e. where no previous domestic rules existed, represented “a fresh breeze blowing from the continent”. I have to say, it didn’t feel particularly fresh at the time.