Protection of Freedoms Bill at Report Stage today


As you can see via the Order of Business for Monday 10 October 2011, today and tomorrow will see the Protection of Freedoms Bill in Report Stage in the Commons. I served on the Bill committee which examined the Bill clause-by-clause. You can find the record here.

I found the Bill to be “radical only in its moderation and extreme only in its conservatism”. I was particularly struck by how hard it is to protect freedoms in an atmosphere of fear and utilitarianism over courage and principle.  The result is a very modest Bill whose crowning achievement is the prohibition of a mechanism for the protection of property rights (wheel clamping) coupled with the use of government data for private enforcement…

Still, I look forward to the debate later.

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