Hi folks, it’s your friendly neighbourhood writer here.

I’m currently looking at the iniquity of the new Police Bill, its powers to criminalise protest, and how that relates to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, the UK Human Rights Act, the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill – which goes through parliament today and which will deprive you – yes, you – of your right to shout and be heard when you protest.

I’m specifically looking at them with relevance to the issues we all saw on Clapham Common this weekend.

There may not be a full political analysis today, because I’ve decided that we all, in this current political climate need easy access to the relevant legislation about our human rights in simple to understand forms, and so today I am collating and putting that information on my blog – where, whatever else happens, it will always be freely available. This takes time, but I hope it will be useful.

So it may not be possible for me to do a detailed political news round up today because of the time I need to take researching background. It will cool my current political incandescence at the state of the nation (possibly from the 50,000 K of a blue supergiant to something approaching white hot instead) if I don’t feel I am letting you down by not having a fully analytical piece up today. The issues are complex, and I do not want to put up anything that is, as Shakespeare put it, “too rash, too ill-advised, too sudden” – I am not, after all a cabinet minister.

I have been increasingly concerned with the way politics in this country is going, and I do feel that, whether we like it or not, whether we feel ready for it or not, the time is rapidly approaching where we need to be loud and angry over the creeping erosion of our rights.

One of the dangers of emergency legislation such as has been promulgated – quite rightly – in order to deal with the pandemic, is that the temporary erosion of rights which we have suffered can easily, in the hands of an authoritarian government, turn into a permanent erosion of rights.

I want to make one thing very, very clear here.

I am not anti-lockdown. Science indicates that had we locked down sooner, we would have been able to stop this pandemic in its tracks, and had we suffered economic loss because of the lockdown, it would have been considerably less than the loss we have suffered – exacerbated by government corruption – because we did not lock down soon enough.

I am not anti-mask. Science supports the droplet and aerosol vectors for Covid infection, and I wish that we had utilised the French method of appealing to social responsibility I saw when I went into French supermarkets last September where every shop had a little, often home-made, sign, which said “the safety of all is the responsibility of all.”

I am not against any sensible decisions made in order to stop more people dying in an unprecedented time of emergency.

I am against any permanent increase in any erosion of rights, which, coupled with a slide into authoritarianism, seriously diminishes democracy and our rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and our right to be governed by an elected and fully accountable executive.

That’s why I want to take the time today to do my research in detail. There is nothing more serious than the loss of freedom. We must be prepared, and well-informed, and able to argue our case.

Image credit:

“Disk of Enheduanna” by Zunkir is licensed under CC BY 4.0