Clegg promises liberties restoration
Nick Clegg promised government that will restore individual liberties and value dissent this morning, as he set out his Deputy Prime Minster's brief to repeal Labour laws this morning. Setting out what he called a "big bang approach to political reform", he said illiberal and intrusive laws will be scrapped. Most of Clegg's …
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Also
Also holding my "being impressed" mode until they do something about the extra ten metric fuck tonnes of vetting needed to get a job working within 10 miles of "vulnerable people or children"
He is getting there
Not allowing the Tories to repeal the Human Rights act was a good start.
The reason for the current Human Rights mess, Health and Safety Mess, Equality mess, etc is all actually in the way Labour has been implementing Britain's international obligations including the European Convention of Human Rights. It was practicing a "pix-n-mix" approach as previously used by Brezhnev's Soviet Union.
These conventions are logically and legally complete structures. You either accept them as a whole or you do not accept them at all. If you pull a particular bit out the entire thing falls apart as a house of cards.
Human Rights is a prime example here. Britain has chosen not to implement the most supreme of all rights in that convention - the right to be innocent until proven guilty. If that was implemented, all terror laws, the H&S act, the vetting and plenty of other typical Labour law and ordnances would have been automatically invalid.
By the way, that was exactly the moment when I decided that I am definitely not voting Tory - when Cameron said that he intends to repeal the act. The act needs not be repealed. It needs to be amended so that the whole convention is accepted as a _WHOLE_. Unconditionally. Then it will work. Repealing it is a knee jerk reaction which shows a basic failure to understand why it is going wrong.
Bravo Nick Clegg!
I was worried that a coalition between the Tories and the Lib Dems would end up as a one-sided affair with all the power in the Blue camp, but this sort of thing shows that the Tories *are* actually willing to be reasonable in their exercise of coalition power.
BTW To anyone who wants to write to Tory MPs urging them to get rid of (amongst other things) the Extreme Porn legislation, just point out that there would have been more "No" votes in the House of Lords (possibly enough to defeat it) if it hadn't been for the fact, as one Tory Peer admitted to me: "We don't vote on Lib Dem amendments".
Well now it's not a Lib Dem amendment, so let's see them prove that they really care about Freedom of Expression and get rid of that damned stupid law!
eh?
So Cleggy's getting all the credit for rolling back the state, which if I remember correctly, was also a key part of the Tory manifesto..
Some ferkin short memories around here....
@ElFatbob
Ask the Tories where they pinched their ideas from...
(PS And do the words "I agree with Nick" ring any bells?)
They could also......
stop the DVLA from selling your personal details to any wheel-clamping crook who asks for them.
He's still...
... being a bit vague about DNA.
Nick :- immediate destruction of the DNA of anybody who has not been convicted, please; anything else is not good enough.
Erm, wouldn't that kill them?
but seriously, why not the Scottish/Elsewhere practice of holding on a bit longer for violent or sexual arrests.
The Digital Economy Bill
With any luck, Lord Voldemort's attempt at making the internet in China appear unrestricted will find itself unceremoniously heaved on to the HMSO bonfire.
How about repealing the 'Cartoon Pr0n' law..?
...because, along with the idiocy of the 'extreme pr0n' law, this also strikes me as a complete injustice - the very fact that citizens can be charged and prosecuted as 'sex offenders' for being in possession of drawings of wholly fictional (that's to say 'not real' in any sense of the meaning) kids is anathema both to justice and common sense. To be able to ruin lives in such a manner is spiteful, vindictive, bullying and downright cruel.
But I doubt we'll see any movement there, tbh. Does anyone imagine any of these politicians have the backbone to take on the vested interests in police and advocacy that have bequeathed us these terrible laws..?
Woo Hoo!
But let's wait and see if it actually happens.
Though it was nice to see FORMER Home Secretary Alan Johnson having a wee rant on the Beeb:
Quote from BBC website-
"accused Mr Clegg of using "rampant hyperbole" when talking about surveillance and added that the previous government's law and order reforms had public backing.
He said: "If he [Mr Clegg] wants to ask the public which laws to get rid of, he should also ask which laws they would like to keep." "
'S funny, I don't remember him or his cohorts giving a fucking TOSS about public opinion when they were trying to stitch us up into the State of NuLabouria.
Dear Alan, YOU created our surveillance society! Now FUCK OFF you knobhead.
Good as this all sounds
It's still all talk until it actually happens.
I've also got a nagging feeling that we're being softened up for the bad news that is sure to come in the very near future.
Good luck
Our last "regime change" stateside has been quite underwhelming from a civil liberties standpoint. I hope you fair better.
That's because...
... your previous regime did such a royal job of f**king the economy, wrecking everything it could before it skulked out the door, that the incoming administration hasn't had time to deal with anything else.
Brave.....
If he survives to see only part of this through, he'll have achieved his place in history. I'm not sure it can be done in a single repeal bill though as I think some of the damage done by the New Labour project runs deeper than mere legislation.
Every last law from 97 onwards
Every law from 97 onwards needs to be reviewed and in the majority of cases repealed.
Most were thought up on the spot as a knee jerk reaction to a news story and duplicated existing laws - knife crime was already illegal, it has since been made doubly and even triply illegal. Duplication of laws doesn't reduce crime or make prosecution easier, it gives the defence even more loop holes to exploit.
Even those laws which were planned in advance, where so shoddily drafted that in many cases have been applied to areas they were never claimed to target. We never quite know if this was incompetence or intentional given so many Labour MPs supposedly had a legal background.
While your at it...
can you also repeal that pesky bit on CRB that means the chief constable can (at his descretion...) state any old gossip/"police intelligence"/outright lies as non-conviction data.
ta very muchly
Still Opposition to Civil Liberties Reform
There are still groups opposed to allowing us more freedom from intrusive surveillance & powers curbing our freedom- namely the police & security services. Came across an interesting article from the New Scientist that suggests that the Interception Modernisation Programme is still favoured by GCHQ & MI5:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesword/2010/05/will-sir-humphrey-and-the-spoo.html
I am sceptical whether this will be watered down. IMP shouldn't go ahead simply on a cost basis. Even if it doesn't it's still reckoned that deep packet inspection technology will still be deployed across the internet.
@ kevin 3
"Why not the Scottish/Elsewhere practice of holding [DNA profiles] bit longer for violent or sexual arrests."
Because presumption of innocence doesn't work unless it is applied across the board.
And...
Get rid of avg speed cameras
Get rid of for-profit speed cameras
Put the police back into being servants to the public
Give kids a choice e.g. National Service at 16 or higher education, then the chavs can get shot or something.
Yeah it's been one of THOSE days today...
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