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This from Maggie Nelmes, Ventnor. Ed
Not only was Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely’s part in the MPs’ rebellion against new government restrictions to deal with the ‘omicron emergency’ misguided and reckless, it also distracts from the Government’s real and repeated assaults on our freedoms, which are largely ignored by the mainstream media and the government Opposition.
Although human rights may appear to be about non-interference by the state in our freedoms, in an emergency, where our lives are endangered, the state’s duty to protect us is paramount.
Exploiting the majority
The real threats to our civil liberties are made possible by Boris Johnson’s government’s huge majority in Parliament, entrusted, two years ago, with the need to ‘get Brexit done’.
They are now exploiting this majority to undermine a number of our democratic rights, rushing four new Bills through Parliament in six months.
The Health and Care Bill
The Health and Care Bill, would give access to our medical records to private companies, and allow representatives of private companies to sit on new regional NHS health boards to decide on the allocation of limited funding.
Choosing which medical conditions would be funded and which would not, would force some patients to seek private treatment or go without.
An unexpected public outcry and demand to opt out of medical data sharing put too much pressure on GP surgeries, and this scheme was suspended.
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill seeks to criminalise our ancestors’ hard-won democratic right to protest.
To this, arguably the most oppressive legislation since the end of the Second World War, the Government has sneakily, in my view, added a series of extreme amendments after the Bill passed through Parliament, a new offence of interfering with the operation of key infrastructure, such as roads, railways, airports, oil refineries and printing presses carrying a maximum prison sentence of nearly a year.
Someone could be arrested and detained merely on the suspicion that they might be about to break the law.
The Elections Bill
The Elections Bill seeks to make reforms where none are needed, and not to reform what is urgently needed. By forcing voters to bring a photo identity card to their polling station, the Government is seeking to discriminate against the poorest in society who cannot afford foreign holidays and don’t drive, so don’t have ID.
They would have to take time off work or caring duties to travel to their council offices to apply for an electoral card. As electoral fraud is extremely low in the UK, this measure will create an unnecessary barrier to voting, when we should be encouraging more people to exercise this democratic right. But the Tories benefit from a low turnout and the Government is therefore willing to spend up to £20 million of taxpayers’ money per election on this scheme.
Intent on weakening the power of the elections watchdog
Reform of the Electoral Commission is also unnecessary, but the Government is intent on weakening the power of the elections watchdog to rig the political process even more in the Tories’ favour.
The undemocratic First-Past-The-Post voting system plays into their hands and should be replaced with one of the most democratic forms of proportional representation.
Whole sectors of civil society could be banned from taking part
Not only will The Cabinet Minister be able to set the agenda and purview of elections if this new legislation is passed, but they will also decide which organisations and campaign activities are permitted. They could ban whole sectors of civil society, including trade unions and charities, from taking part in elections, through campaigning or donating.
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper MP says,
“This is an assault on British democracy and part of Boris Johnson’s attempts to rip up the very fabric of our liberal democracy. This is something I would expect from Putin, not from a British Prime Minister.”
The Nationality and Borders bill
And, finally, the Nationality and Borders bill, makes it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK without permission, maximum sentence four years. Having neglected to help Afghans who worked for the British to get out when the Taliban took over, will the Government now criminalise them when, traumatized, they finally escape and reach our shores?
Asylum seekers could be sent to a third country to be detained and processed, following the disastrous Australian model, where refugees were left for years in limbo, in vastly overcrowded conditions on small Pacific islands, shattering their dreams of rebuilding their lives.
Stripped of British citizenship without notice
And thirdly, another provision quietly added to the Bill after it had passed through the Commons: The Home Secretary can strip anyone of their British citizenship without notice, in the public interest.
This could affect some six million Britons who were born elsewhere or have another nationality. As these powers are framed widely, they could be applied to other scenarios than just the national security emergency. And the decision is that of the Home Secretary alone, not obtained from any court.
Shocking audacity
The sheer audacity of these four bills is shocking indeed. Yet few people are aware of this deliberate and systematic assault on our democracy, due to media and Labour Party silence.
Most people are taken in by Boris Johnson’s playing the role of an affable clown. Exploiting his charismatic, celebrity status and his huge majority, he and his cabinet ministers are swiftly turning the mother of all parliaments from a vaguely democratic nation without a written constitution into a dictatorship.
The silence is deafening. How will we explain our inaction to our country’s children when they grow up?
Image: Shane Rounce under CC BY 2.0
