A NEW WATERSHED IN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW:

George Blake, who spied for the Soviet Union, won a human rights claim against the British Government yesterday, 40 years after he escaped from prison in London and fled to Moscow.

Britain was ordered by judges in Strasbourg to pay 84-year-old Blake £3,350 in damages and £1,340 costs for breaching his right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time.

It took the European Court of Human Rights five years and eight months to decide Blake’s case.

Blake, a double agent, had complained that legal action brought by the Attorney General in the English courts to stop him profiting from his autobiography had taken more than nine years to resolve.

Nice to see that they’re on the job in Strasbourg.