Who Watches the Watchdogs? is an extremely interesting report but we produce reports and they are then often ignored Continue reading “Who watches the Watchdogs?”
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. She has worked on legislation like the Investigatory Powers Bill, raised the cases of victims of state power such as detained pregnant women, and defended the right to protest.
Reform of the House of Lords
Labour’s plan to axe peers there by birth is a blunt instrument. Only a fully elected second chamber will give us true democracy, without it the House will remain undemocratic, overcrowded, dominated by silly archaic practices and unrepresentative of the British population. We need a second chamber that is representative of the regions, elected by a form of proportional representation and operating in a modern parliamentary building Continue reading “Reform of the House of Lords”
Keeping Labour honest
Jenny aims to keep Labour honest! Pushing the government to provide proper funding for their new Anti-corruption Covid Commissioner in order to expose the true extent of corruption in Britain over last 14 years and the need for democratic safeguards. She says ‘it’s very important to clean up properly, corruption has to be seen as something that will be called out AND punished’.
Read the whole debate here
My response to the King’s Speech
There are a few issues that were not covered in the King’s Speech that ought to have been. I shall raise those and would like to hear the Government’s response and, hopefully, what they plan to do about them. Continue reading “My response to the King’s Speech”
Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill Second Reading
Fujitsu is still a major government contractor which gives money to the Conservative Party. Fujitsu should be in the dock and prosecutions should already have begun. If you let major corporations run your Government, taxpayers will be ripped off and find that they are paying out millions when things go wrong. Fujitsu should pay the costs back to sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses, not us taxpayers. Continue reading “Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill Second Reading”
My debate on Peaceful Protests
My Question for Short Debate: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Practical toolkit for law enforcement officials to promote and protect human rights in the context of peaceful protests, published on 7 March by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and how they intend to ensure that the United Kingdom aligns with United Nations standards on the use of surveillance technology at protests. Continue reading “My debate on Peaceful Protests”
Rwanda bill passed
It passed. We tried to stop the Rwanda bill with a Fatal Motion proposed by the Lib Dems back in January. We knew that the government would never listen to reasoned amendments. This was not in the Conservative Party manifesto. The Lords could have stopped it. Continue reading “Rwanda bill passed”
Victims and Prisoners Bill – IPP Prisoners
We cannot say that we have a justice system if we have an innate injustice like this. The sentencing and continued imprisonment of IPP prisoners has just been cruel. The lawyer and campaigner Peter Stefanovic put out an online video about it. Continue reading “Victims and Prisoners Bill – IPP Prisoners”
International Women’s Day
It is about a century since women got the vote—in 1919 for women with property and 1928 for all women—but society is still unequal, and women are still being left behind. The statistics speak for themselves. Women still do not have equal pay. Women do not have equal representation, whether in Westminster or in boardrooms. One in four women is subjected to domestic violence during her lifetime. The number of rape cases and domestic assault cases that come to court is abysmally low, which we as a society should be utterly ashamed of. Of course, many cases are never reported—why bother if it will take years for them to come to court? The levels of violence against women and girls are at epidemic proportions, and there is strong evidence that the media’s sexist portrayal of women is part of the problem. Continue reading “International Women’s Day”
Transitional Biomass Subsidies protest
On 5th March Biofuelwatch and the Stop Burning Trees Coalition held an emergency demo outside the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in response to the Government’s proposal to offer billions more in new ‘transitional’ subsidies for unabated wood biomass burning. This goes back on previously government policy to stop all subsidies for unabated biomass burning in 2027. The only two power stations eligible for these subsidies are Drax (the UK’s biggest carbon emitter) and Lynemouth. These subsidies have no clear end date in sight, so if approved, could lock us into decades more of forest destruction, pollution of communities and carbon emissions. We called on DESNZ to scrap these plans to keep funding tree burning, and invest in genuine renewables and climate action.
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 