I said to the House: My Lords, last year the Government were found to have acted unlawfully in selling to Saudi Arabia Continue reading “Why is the government selling arms to Saudi Arabia again?”
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
Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination Bill Report Stage Day 2
Continue reading “Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination Bill Report Stage Day 2”
Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill
First day of the Report Stage of the Immigration and Social Security (EU Withdrawal) Bill…
Continue reading “Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill”
Will there ever be a review of Prevent?
Yesterday, the Lords debated the Counter Terrorism and Sentencing Bill. The government missed their legal deadline for carrying out a review of Prevent, their scheme for dealing with extremism. Jenny has repeatedly called for Prevent to be replaced by a more neutral approach to safeguarding the vulnerable. Continue reading “Will there ever be a review of Prevent?”
More organisations get snooping powers
One of the joys of being a peer is being able to give a completely fresh view of things that disrupts the accepted dialogue about a topic. Here I am raising objections to the Investigatory Power Bill at a meeting in the Grand Committee
Another Ministerial power grab
See video of my Parliamentary question here
The government have introduced another piece of legislation that will potentially give Ministers the power to make up laws? The Private International Law Bill appears to give Ministers the ability to make up new laws when seeking resolutions in disputes between individual and companies. I’ve been questioning the Minister about their intention to attach criminal fines and imprisonment to civil disputes. It is wrong in principle, for any secondary legislation to extend the provisions and powers in primary legislation. It becomes very dangerous if Ministers are doing this and making criminals of people.
Greens raise alarm about creation of parallel government machinery
The Green Party has raised serious concerns over Michael Gove’s appointment of four new non-execs to the Cabinet Office. [1]
It has been announced this week that Minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, has appointed Lord Hogan-Howe, Baroness Finn, Henry de Zoete and the Rt Hon Gisela Stuart as Non-Executive Board Members to the Cabinet Office, extending the role of non-accountable appointees at the heart of the government. Continue reading “Greens raise alarm about creation of parallel government machinery”
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Queen Speech: my response to the crime and justice sections
My Lords, it came as no surprise to me that there was nothing to delight my soul in the Government’s programme. For example, a fair justice system that keeps people safe takes more than a royal commission; it takes resources. When budgets have been cut by one-third, the system does not function well and justice suffers. I hope that the royal commission will examine the impact of austerity on fairness and access to justice. I also question any attempt to impose longer sentences when we are failing to deal with the care and rehabilitation of the large number of people already in the system. The probation service and the Prison Service are unable to cope properly with the existing numbers. If you add to that number, you are adding to those pressures and problems. Continue reading “Queen Speech: my response to the crime and justice sections”
Met Police acted unlawfully in Extinction rebellion ban
This is an historic win because for the first time we’ve challenged the police on overstepping their powers and we’ve won. It’s great.
This shows how the police have gone beyond their powers when dealing with peaceful environmental protests, There is a pattern in recent years of the police being under pressure from the government to help impose fracking on communities that don’t want it and to stop the highly successful Extinction Rebellion from raising the issue of climate change. Government Ministers were very vocal in wanting the police to clamp down on Extinction Rebellion’s October protests, after the summer protests led to Parliament passing a motion declaring a climate emergency.
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 