We have December only to contact our MPs and register concerns about proposed laws and changes to laws that will effectively ban and stifle protest and freedom of expression in this country. As citizens, as feminists this will affect all of us. Any issue, anyone. Anything the Government or Local Authorities don't like - new offences - some up to 10 years in prison. It's disturbing even to write this. I'm just a very ordinary person. There is NO news about the fact that Priti Patel has put these amendments in at the last minute. No parliamentary oversight. All up to the House of Lords.
Please write to your MP, or better yet, call. Here is a template I've just written if you want to email.
Template letter
[Remember to give name and address in constituency.]
Dear [name of MP]
Please would you pass on to the Lords Minister of State, Baroness Williams, my concerns about Part 3 of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill.
As a citizen I am deeplyconcerned by how sweeping these laws are.
I do not want to be associated with the 'Kill the Bill' movement - I think that is hate filled, obscure and off-putting language. I do want to speak up for a country that respects democracy and freedom.We have responsibilities in society. We also have rights.
As a representative and Member of Parliament, please pass on my concerns and do what you can to ensure freedom of expression is not curtailed in the ways that are being proposed.
Specifically I refer to:
- Amendments 319 A, B, C, D, E and K
These amendments variously cover proposed new offences of ‘locking on’, ’being equipped for locking on’ - these terms could be interpreted so widely that holding hands at or even near a protest or having superglue on your person while standing near a protest could lead to a prison sentence. This is not good law-making.
Obstructing a highway needn’t necessarily mean sitting down in a road and blocking ambulances. It might mean walking down a street carrying a banner. The proposed ‘stop and search’ powers would mean that that anyone can be searched just for being near a gathering, on the basis of a suspicion. The gatherings this would affect need not be civil disobedience they might equally refer to any kind of protest or strike action.
The Serious Disruption Prevention Orders could see people being summoned to appear in front of authorities at any time once their name has been ‘marked’, for example, for trying to organise a gathering that people in Government or local authorise object to.
The Government must know these proposals are illegitimate as they have inserted them at the very last moment before the Bill is due to pass into law. The proposed changes will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and they have no place in a democracy.
Until now, I have been proud to tell my child that we live in a free country.
Please pass on my concerns to the Minister.
Yours sincerely,