Freedom Bill

Two days ago, the deals made by the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party when forming the new coalition Government were revealed. They’re listed on the Liberal Democrat’s website and include the intention to pass a Freedom, or Great Repeal Bill, under the heading of civil liberties.

They also state the intention to scrap the identity card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database – and they work fast: the Home Office page about identity cards is currently displaying a 404 error.

The list continues with:

• outlawing finger-printing of school children without parental permission
• extending the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency
• adopting the Scottish approach of not retaining the DNA of innocent people
• protecting our human right to a trial by jury when accused
• restoring and protecting the right to non-violent protest
• reviewing libel laws with the intention of protecting freedom of speech
• safeguarding against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation, such as police officers using Section 44 against photographers
• regulating the use of CCTV more
• an end to the storage of Internet and email records without good reason
• preventing the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
• ending the detention of children for immigration purposes

This sort of thing makes a civil liberties and human rights campaigner like myself very happy.

It is not, of course, the end of the road, and does not mean that people like me will not need to campaign anymore, because of course, we need to ensure that this sort of thing keeps happening and that the Government doesn’t take steps backwards – but, regardless, it is a Very Positive Thing.

Many are showing reluctance to get too excited about this and reserving judgment until the details of the proposed Bill become public, and perhaps they are right to with obvious omissions such as repealing the Digital Economy Act, making the NHS Summary Care Records scheme opt-in instead of opt-out and several other things, as pointed out by Richard King.
Still, I’m willing to stick my neck out here and say that I think the fact that the Bill has even been proposed is fantastic news after 13 years of a Labour Government systematically destroying civil liberties and rights – and, of course, we have something to celebrate in the death of identity cards.