21 July  2014

What’s Coming Up 

Monday: The Lib Dem amendment on Revenge Porn put forward by Baroness

Grender, Lord Marks, Baroness Brinton & Baroness Barker will be debated. The

amendment seeks to ensure that images of an identifiable person which are of an

intimate or pornographic nature, published online without consent, are viewed as

criminal acts. An offence will only be committed where at the time of the images

being taken the person had a reasonable expectation that the image would remain

private. The offence will carry a maximum sentence of one year in prison.

Tuesday: The Wales Bill will come before the House for its

Second Reading after it was delayed last week to make way for

the emergency Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill. As

part of the debate Welsh Lib Dems Baroness Humphreys,

Baroness Randerson, Lord Roberts  & Lord Thomas  are all

speaking

Wednesday: Baroness Sharp is leading a debate on improving the quality of career’s

advice in schools.

Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank will be speaking in the debate of

support being offered to children and young people who have

suffered a stroke.

Thursday: Baroness Scott of Needham Market & Baroness

Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville are talking about the

important role the agricultural sector plays to their local areas (Suffolk & Somerset

respectively) in the debate on the importance of the agricultural industry to the UK

economy.

Lord Taverne & Baroness Miller will be debating the potential health benefits of

organic food following the publication of new research in the British Journal of

Nutrition. 

Full schedule here

Quote of the Week“…the noble Baroness, Lady

Masham, said that disabled

 people must not be made to feel

worthless. Well, this disabled

woman with a chronic life-

limiting illness, rheumatoid

arthritis, does not feel worthless

or worried because the

safeguards offered in the Bill are

so tightly drawn that it would

take major legislation to amend

them.”  

Baroness Brinton (@SalBrinton) 

makes her position clear when

it comes to assisted dying

legislation

Tweet of the Week

Nick Clegg (@Nick_Clegg) 

Does his own take on the Daily

Mail’s coverage of the reshuffle 

 

  This week’s bills 

Criminal Justice & Courts Bill

Committee Stage

• 

Wales Bill

Second Reading

Last Week’s Business 

DRIP is a win for Lib Dems on civil liberties

Ex-Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Met Police, Lord Paddick has

highlighted the careful balancing act between privacy and security and

the hard work the Lib Dems have put in to ensure that proper

safeguards exist.

Writing in The Guardian Lord Paddick said: “Liberal Democrats in

government have, since a recent judgment of the European court of

 justice, been negotiating hard to build in greater protections. We have

taken the opportunity that the judgment has given us to insist on a

 fundamental review of surveillance legislation to establish what the

current threats to security are, and what a proportionate response to

those threats might look like. To make sure this is done, no matter who

 forms the next government the new legislation will expire at the end of

2016.”  

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord

MacDonald, has argued that the important wins for

civil liberties would not be present were it not for the

Lib Dems in the Coalition. He said:

“These powerful reforms show balance and the

advantages of coalition. With respect to some of my

noble friends, I very much doubt that we would have

had these reforms without coalition. In combination, the Bill and these

reforms seem to herald an environment with more respect for the

appropriate relationship between national law enforcement imperatives

and the prize of personal freedom.”  

Assisted Dying – A Summary

Twelve Lib Dem peers spoke in the Assisted Dying Bill debate on Friday.

Lord Avebury gave an impassioned speech in the chamber. Lord

Avebury has been previously diagnosed with a rare form of blood

cancer. The treatment relies on stem cell transplants, a procedure not

recommend for patients older than 70. Lord Avebury said: “The

 prognosis is that either the bone marrow turns to fibre and blood cells

Ministers

Baroness Kramer visited Luton with

fellow Lib Dem Peer Lord Hussain to

launch a new £24 million Luton town

centre transport scheme. Including

almost £16 million of government

funding. The scheme will help to reduce

congestion on the town centre road

network and help regenerate the town,

encouraging economic growth and

inward investment. It will support a

number of developments delivering in

total some 4,000 new homes and

approximately 11,700 new jobs.

Lord Newby will be leading today’s

debate covering two statutory

instruments which define what must be

inside a ring-fenced bank and what must

be outside. They are the key detailed

provisions which implement the split

between retail and investment banking – 

a core Lib Dem policy put into effect in

Government.

Baroness Northover will be responding

to Tuesday’s Q uestion for Short Debate

on the status of women, gender equality

and the advancement of women in both

national and international policy.

Baroness Randerson travelled to the

Communities First scheme at Butetown

Community Centre, Cardiff to launch the

ground-breaking National Citizen Service

(NCS) in Wales, which has already seen

nearly 80,000 young people involved in

England and Northern Ireland since

2011.

 

are manufactured in the spleen which becomes enlarged, or, in some cases, MF can transform to acute myeloid

leukaemia, a serious blood and bone marrow cancer, which progresses quickly. These are unattractive prospects to

look forward to in the last weeks of my life. I would expect that, in agreeing to this Second Reading, your Lordships

would give the tens of thousands of people diagnosed with conditions that may similarly lead to weeks of torture

before they die the means of escape from that unnecessary fate.“  

Baroness Brinton argued that as a disabled and Christian woman she supports the proposed changes brought about

by the Bill, adding: “ The Bill will allow us to be honest —with ourselves, our families, our doctors and as a society. It

will allow the dying individual the choice, should he or she wish it, and will provide law to prevent abuse by others.”  

Baroness Nicholson used her speech to highlight her opposition to the Bill, raising concerns

that it will encourage medical professionals to encourage people to die in order to save money

and free up beds. She concluded her arguments saying: “Do not use my taxes on the proposed

state death department, with its inevitable growth in records of hits and misses, of targets and

bonuses for each bed emptied. Instead, spend funds on replicating the best of care offered by

the model across the bridge, by the hospice movement and other home-based forms of GP-led

 patient care. I profoundly oppose this Bill and strongly oppose the thinking behind it for the

malign actions that it would create.”  

On the blog this week:

o  Roger Roberts: exit checks and the Eurotunnel: a logistical nightmare 

o  Ken Macdonald: how the DRIP bill will help us convict criminals 

o 

Raj Loomba awarded honorary degree by University of Northampton 

o 

Paul Tyler: partial affections? 

o  Paul Tyler: progress in Magna Carta’s birthday year 

o  Brian Paddick: the surveillance law is a threat to criminals, not privacy 

o  Brian Paddick: the difficult balancing act between privacy and security 

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