Contributions
733 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)I acknowledge the huge contribution that the suffragists made, but the suffragettes brought the campaign to prominence. The words displayed by the statue of Millicent Fawcett in…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. Absolutely, we do not want to be a country that is seen to be oppressing its people. Those rights to protest are at first lost gradually,…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)Again, my hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We are the decision makers in this Parliament. We are the ones who make decisions that impact on people’s lives, so if we do not…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point. Yes, we should be allowed to come here. Nobody has prevented MPs from coming to Parliament since the civil war, and that right has…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)I use public transport—I am a London MP, so it is easier for me to do that to get here—but clearly MPs should have access to Parliament. I am not disputing that at all because we…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)My hon. Friend is entirely correct. It is a question of proportionality, and we need to make sure that we are allowed to get here as parliamentarians, but also that protesters are…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I do not think that we ever did, and that is part of the problem because there will be a disparity in how the Bill is implemented, which…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The term “serious unease” is vague. As MPs, we get, as the Minister has said, death threats and abuse, which we should not get, but…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Ninth sitting)My understanding is that the clauses will not affect people’s right to picket, but will the Minister provide reassurance that people’s right to picket or attend demonstrations…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)We support clause 67 and welcome that the charging regime for courses offered as an alternative to prosecution will be placed on a statutory footing. It makes a lot of sense that…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)As I have said, there are powers in place to deal with fly-tipping. Where people feel the need to secure certain sites, it is down to the local authority to deal with those…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)The situation that the right hon. Gentleman mentions would not be caught by the clause in this Bill anyway. On his wider point, it is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. If there…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)I have said previously that we certainly do not condone any antisocial behaviour or criminal activity, but this is one of the many prejudices that exist about the Gypsy, Roma and…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)My hon. Friend makes an interesting point, which is worthy of further discussion. I will run through a series of points the Minister for Crime and Policing made when responding to…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)Civil remedies would still be available for people who engage in antisocial behaviour, fly-tipping and so on. All we would be doing is criminalising a particular group of people.…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)Again, my hon. Friend makes a very good point. We want to make sure that people are free to enjoy the beautiful countryside we are lucky to have in the UK without fear of being…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)I entirely agree with the hon. Member’s comments. He is right: this measure is targeting a particular group for criminalisation, and that has to be totally wrong. As one…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)As I have said, there is no excuse for criminality, and the Gypsy and Traveller community is already overrepresented in the prison population, but I do not think that the two…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)Therein lies the problem: many people do not want to have Travellers anywhere near them, and that is partly why there are so few sites. If more sites were made available, that…08 Jun 2021HANSARDPolice, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (Tenth sitting)I agree that there is no excuse for antisocial behaviour or criminal activity, such as fly-tipping, which is wrong and needs to stop. Equally, where sites are provided, they…08 Jun 2021