Today, as has been widely reported in the MSM, Nick Clegg launched the Coalition Government’s “Your Freedom” initiative, where they are asking us to tell them what laws we want repealed, where the Government is snooping too much, strangling us in red tape, and so on. All to the good on the face of it. I say “on the face of it” because I’m cynical about the delivery, especially given the sheer scale of the task. It may well be unfair to the new Government, but I can’t help remembering the petitions on the No10 website that were ignored, the Countryside March, the anti-Iraq War march, and so on: millions of people totally ignored.
There’s a new website for us to use to pass on our views, and I suggest anyone with strong views on something gets over there for a look, not least to see the short film of Nick Clegg introducing the initiative. I’ve included below some extracts from the front page, to give a flavour of what they’re looking for.
- The Coalition Government is committed to restoring and defending your freedom – and we’re asking you to participate.
We’re working to create a more open and less intrusive society through our Programme for Government. We want to restore Britain’s traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations – both for individuals and businesses.
This site gives you the chance to submit, comment on, or vote for ideas about how we can do this. Your ideas will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law.
So if there are any laws or regulations you’d like us to do away with, then submit your idea. If you see ideas here already that you like the look of, then rate them and get them moved up the list. And if there’s more you’d like to say, then talk to others in the comments section for each proposal.
It’s time to have your say. After all – it’s your freedom.
1. Which current laws would you like to remove or change because they restrict your civil liberties?
2. Which offences do you think we should remove or change, and why?
3. Which regulations do you think should be removed or changed to make running your business or organisation as simple as possible?
So what are we unhappy about? Specifically, what do we want repealed and so on? There’s a lot to think about here.
A very good start would be to go to, read, and participate in the wiki for the Great Repeal Bill. This was first proposed by Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan in their book, The Plan: 12 months to renew Britain, and has grown to a long, exhaustive list of things that are wrong in our nation today, caused by poor legislation. It is also a terrible and chilling indictment of the Labour Government, and the destruction it has wrought on our society, finances, and culture.
It is, however, just a start… Anyone heard of the Abolition of Freedom Act 2009? Google throws up many references including this one from the Gruaniad in February 2009 which sums it up very well:
- A report on the loss of civil liberties was launched yesterday and will be sent to Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Jacqui Smith and others identified as “the 10 enemies of freedom”. The Abolition of Freedom Act 2009 was produced by the University College London Students’ Human Rights programme. It shows how “the liberties that we assumed were somehow guaranteed by British culture have been compromised”. The report comes ahead of the Convention on Modern Liberty, which takes place on Saturday at the Institute of Education, London.
Essentially, it is a catalogue of the myriad ways in which our liberties have been taken from us, both overtly, and surreptitiously (mostly the latter). There is a huge amount of legislation here that needs addressing, and the article details it all very well indeed. The document is available in several places on the net: the authors’ website has the PDF as does the modernliberty.net site which also includes the whole document inline.
Here’s an extract from the foreword:
- “It is a profoundly disturbing document, even for those who thought they knew about the subject, for it not only describes the wholesale removal of rights that were apparently protected by the HRA and set down nearly 800 years ago in Magna Carta, it also shows how the unarticulated liberties that we assumed were somehow guaranteed by British culture have been compromised. The same is true of constitutional safeguards that were once considered beyond the reach of a democratically elected legislature.”
It has taken as its basis, both the Human Rights Act and various much earlier laws, such as Magna Carta. It has taken the elements of the Human Rights Act 1998 which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law for Section 1, and in Section2, it looks at Uncodified Rights and Constitutional Safeguards, ie. the liberties we have taken for granted for generations.
I strongly recommend reading the full article, but here I’ve taken the headings, and the law that denied or compromised the rights under that heading. It’s a long list, and deeply worrying.
We owe it to ourselves and our children to use the opportunity the Coalition Government has given us to try to right these wrongs, and to regain some of our lost liberties. It can only make for a better nation and society.
Section1: European Convention on Human Rights
Life, Article 2, ECHR; “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally”
Inquiries Act 2005,
Coroners and Justice Bill 2009.
No Torture, Article 3, ECHR; “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
Liberty, Article 5, ECHR; Article 5(1), Right to Liberty and Security of the Person
Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005,
UK Borders Act 2007,
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004,
Terrorism Act 2000 and Anti-Terrorism,
Crime and Security Act 2001,
Terrorism Act 2006,
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
Fair Trial, Article 6 ECHR & Criminal Standard of proof, Article 6(1)
Crime and Disorder Act 1998,
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008,
Serious Crime Act 2007.
The presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, ECHR, Article 6(2)
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004,
Counter-Terrorism Act 2008.
Right to a lawyer of ones own choosing, ECHR, Article 6(3)(c)
Counter-Terrorism Act 2008,
Terrorism Act 2000.
Article 8, ECHR, Privacy; “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004,
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000,
Coroners and Justice Bill 2009.
Collection and Acquisition of private data
Identity Cards Act 2006,
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000,
Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data) (Additional Functions and Amendment) Order 2006/1878,
Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Maintenance of Interception Capability) Order 2002/1931,
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act (2006),
Immigration and Police (Passenger, Crew and Service Information) Order 2008 /5,
Draft (Partial) Immigration and Citizenship Bill 2008,
Immigration and Asylum Act 2002,
Immigration and Asylum Act 1999,
Immigration (Provision of Physical Data) Regulations 2006/1743,
Detention Centre Rules 2001/ 238,
Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 ,
Counter-Terrorism Act 2008,
Children Act 2004,
Criminal, Justice and Police Act 2001,
UK Borders Act 2007 & Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2008/3048,
Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 & Education (Parenting Contracts and Parenting Orders) (England) Regulations 2007/1869,
Police Act 1997.
Freedom of Expression, ECHR, Article 10; “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
Coroners and Justice Bill 2009,
Terrorism Act 2006,
Counter-Terrorism Act 2008.
Freedom of Assembly, ECHR, Article 11; “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003,
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005,
Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 amending the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994,
Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006.
Freedom of Association, ECHR, Article 11; “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008,
Terrorism Act 2000.
Marriage, ECHR, Article 12; “Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right.”
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.
Property, ECHR, Protocol 1, Article 1; “Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.”
Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007,
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 /Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003,
Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001,
Landsbanki Freezing Order 2008/2668,
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 & the Detention Centre Rules 2001/238.
Emergency Powers- Derogating from ECHR Rights, ECHR, Article 15; “In time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation any High Contracting Party may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation”
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004.
Section 2: Uncodified Rights and Constitutional Safeguards
Freedom of Movement
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act (2006).
Citizenship
Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
Jury Trial
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004,
Coroners and Justice Bill 2009.
Public Inquiries
Inquiries Act 2005.
Go on, read the whole article…
When you’ve done that, google for “Abolition of Parliament Act“, and be afraid, very afraid of what these people, New Labour, have been trying to do to us…
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