Dear Alan, Urgent: today, the House of Lords votes on whether to put the brakes on the government’s plans to silence criticism in the year before an election. [1] The ministers behind it, Andrew Lansley MP and Lord Wallace, want the Lords to think all the problems with the law are fixed. But they aren’t. Legal advice and an expert civil society commission say the gagging law urgently needs to be changed: so let’s trumpet that call loud and clear. [2] If hundreds of thousands of us sign a petition telling the government to fix or scrap the gagging law, Lords will walk into today’s vote - and every vote after that - with a worried eye on the climbing numbers. At a glance, the strength of feeling will be clear. Please tell Lord Wallace and Andrew Lansley to fix the gagging law or, failing that, scrap it. Click here to sign the petition now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/scrap-the-gagging-law The last three months of campaigning - adverts, leaflets, tetchy public meetings - have turned up the heat. There are whispers that the government’s commitment to the law is wobbling. But they’re hanging on and hoping they can rush the law through before the public outcry becomes impossible to ignore. We may not elect the Lords, but they’re not immune to what ordinary people think. And right now, we need to make the outcry so big they can’t see past it. Let’s show them that it’s not just charity head offices who care about this law - ordinary people all across the country also want to protect their freedom of speech. How do we do this? The old-fashioned way: by weight of numbers. And at 38 Degrees, we have numbers: there are nearly 2 million of us. If we make this petition big enough, we’ll be impossible to ignore. Fix or scrap the gagging law: add your name to the petition today: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/scrap-the-gagging-law Thanks for being involved, Susannah, James, Blanche and the 38 Degrees team NOTES [1] Parliament website, Bill timetable: services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/transparencyoflobbyingnonpartycampaigningandtradeunionadministration.html [2] Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement: ‘Non-party Campaigning Ahead of Elections’: civilsocietycommission.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/civil-society-commission-report-WEB.pdf
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:43:05 +0000
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