Category: Civil liberties

Government, the police and intelligence services are too easily given sweeping powers that they too often abuse

Jenny works with campaigners to defend our civil liberties

Read on for her latest posts on this topic

Police Bill day 7 of Committee Stage in Lords

Published on by jonesjb

Mandatory prison sentences could lead to a repeat of what happens in the USA with their obscene rates of incarceration: nearly 1% of the American population is in prison or jail, and this is very racially unbalanced. It is easy for the Government to increase prison sentences and set mandatory minimum sentences; it is much more difficult, but more important, to deliver real rehabilitation and diversion so that people do not reoffend and we do not take up huge amounts of taxpayers’ money keeping them in prison. Continue reading “Police Bill day 7 of Committee Stage in Lords” →

Police Bill Day 6 of Committee Stage in the Lords – Road danger

Published on by jonesjb

At some point in history, it became acceptable for people to be killed by cars—pedestrians and cyclists. Other drivers just became collateral damage for our car-obsessed culture. There seems to be a horrific gap between the penalties for killing someone with your car and killing someone in any other way.

Road safety campaigners ask that we do not use the word “accident”, because that presupposes that it was accidental. It prejudges the situation, and that is clearly not right when something might come to court. They ask instead that we use the words “incident”, “collision” or even “crash”, but not “accident”. There is also an argument for saying that we should not use the words “road safety”, because that is the solution to the problem; the problem itself is “road danger”. We have to get our head around these differences, because it changes the way we perceive such situations.

Continue reading “Police Bill Day 6 of Committee Stage in the Lords – Road danger” →

Police Bill – Day 5 of Committee Stage in the Lords

Published on by jonesjb

I had to laugh when I saw the amendments on duty of candour, because you sort of assume you can expect a duty of candour for the police; it really should not have to be emphasised in the way that it has been here.

As regards the criminalisation of trespass, it is wonderful to see such a huge coalition of Peers tabling amendments and speaking on this issue. I imagine that Gypsy and Roma Travellers, peaceful protesters, van-lifers, wild campers and anyone else threatened by this proposed legislation will be glad to see the opposition that is coalescing in this House. Far from criminalising trespass, we should be opening up more land for access to the public and enhancing our enjoyment of our magnificent countryside. This is a nasty section of the Bill, it is discriminatory and dangerous, we should remove these clauses completely.

Continue reading “Police Bill – Day 5 of Committee Stage in the Lords” →

Police Bill – Day 4 of Committee Stage in the Lords

Published on by jonesjb

We need a statutory, judge-led inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard. It cannot be allowed to drift past without real challenge by a judge. This was not somebody pretending to be a police officer: this was a real police officer abusing his position to abduct, rape and kill. The fact that he had a reputation already in the police is extremely damaging. This is a culture that we all know exists, and it should be fixed.

Continue reading “Police Bill – Day 4 of Committee Stage in the Lords” →

Police Bill – Days 2&3 of Committee Stage in the Lords: Amendments on Privacy and Serious Violence

Published on by jonesjb

I have made no secret of the fact that I think that this is an appalling Bill. When I started looking at the amendments, I had to struggle not to sign up to all of them, because they all made sense.

Continue reading “Police Bill – Days 2&3 of Committee Stage in the Lords: Amendments on Privacy and Serious Violence” →

Death with dignity

Published on by jonesjb

Natalie and Jenny wrote for Green World

Yesterday outside parliament there was a large, silent, dignified crowd. Among the placards were those reading “choice, compassion, dignity”, some bearing the pictures of loved ones who’d inspired its members to campaign.

They were sending a message to 126 peers debating the second reading of the Assisted Dying Bill, a private member’s bill put forward by crossbench peer Baroness Meacher, who put her case for the Bill on the Today programme yesterday  morning. The Bill would enable adults of sound mind, with six months or less to live, to be provided with life-ending medication with the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge. A public consultation on a similar Bill began in Scotland last month. Continue reading “Death with dignity” →

Pregnant prisoners shouldn’t be treated this way

Published on by greenlordsmedia

The government is failing to increase the number of Mother and Baby Units, despite a planned increase of 500 places in women’s prisons. In answer to my written question I discovered that they keep no records of how many women and trans men are pregnant in Britain’s jails, nor do they have any idea of how many pregnant prisoners in individual facilities.

Continue reading “Pregnant prisoners shouldn’t be treated this way” →

Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill arrives in Lords

Published on by jonesjb

Every time I have worked on a Bill since I arrived in the House of Lords nearly eight years ago, I have thought, “This is the worst Bill I have ever seen”, and every one is, but this is a stinker and it is quite obviously not going to help the police. If you produce a policing Bill and you cannot get former police chiefs, UN special rapporteurs, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law on your side, something is wrong with it.

Continue reading “Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill arrives in Lords” →

We still need a ban on Fracking

Published on by jonesjb

I have tabled this amendment with a view to banning fracking once and for all. In doing so, I want to celebrate all the hard work of campaigners and activists across the country who delivered massive opposition against this dirty and dangerous polluting industry, often in the face of poor policy decisions by the Government and the fracking industry’s might-is-right attempts to quash them. In particular, I applaud the Preston New Road campaign in Lancashire. It was a thousand days of protest by the anti-fracking Nanas, a bunch of mainly older women led by Tina Rothery. They fought so hard in the face of well-financed and rather nasty, threatening behaviour by Cuadrilla. Continue reading “We still need a ban on Fracking” →