Some more good ideas from the Your Freedom site

I've just been having a look around Your Freedom, the site set up at the instigation of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg where we are asked for our suggestions of unnecessary laws to repeal in the Freedom Bill to be published in the next session of Parliament.

Here are some ideas I've come across that I think are worth considering:

A couple of weeks ago I had a prescription to pick up. I went to the pharmacy but was told I'd have to wait an hour or so because the locum pharmacist was on lunch. Fair enough. When I returned, the pharmacist had indeed returned from lunch, but had disappeared, nobody knew where, from the shop floor. They couldn't simply give me the medication which the pharmacist had made up and sealed because they weren't qualified to do so. When the pharmacist eventually re-appeared some 10 minutes later, the assistant behind the counter went and got my medicine and handed it to me. The pharmacist had no input into this transaction whatsoever. She could have given me anybody's medicine. Requiring the pharmacist to oversee all transactions seems to be one of these pieces of bureaucracy we could do without. I certainly wasn't any safer for his presence and it was time consuming and inconvenient. I wasn't surprised to see that someone else had already suggested repeal on Your Freedom.

Then there's this excellent contribution from Mike Brady of Baby Milk Action who calls for a simplification of the Infant Formula and Follow on Formula Regulations in order to bring it into line with the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. This is long overdue. I am fed up of going into supermarkets and seeing promotions and displays of formula that I am fairly certain aren't legal and nothing can be done about. I was really annoyed a few years ago when Katie Price did an interview with OK Magazine which extolled the virtues of formula and around it were advertisements for the brand she was using but the Advertising Standards authority and Trading Standards between them didn't have enough power, and there were sufficient loopholes in the legislation so nothing was done. I felt that that formula manufacturer and the publisher were basically laughing at the Code.

Formula promotion undermines breastfeeding and Mike Brady's proposal shows how much money the NHS could save even if there was a modest increase in breastfeeding rates.

Imagine if you made some mistakes early in y our life which resulted in you getting a  criminal record. You want to lead a law abiding life, but what chance do you have if potential employers reject you simply on the basis of you declaring your previous offences as you are required to do by law? This proposal suggests that employers should not be allowed to reject someone purely on the basis of their declared, unspent convictions.  I'm not sure whether that would actually result in more ex offenders getting jobs, but I think it's worth looking at barriers to employment ex offenders face. It's a big success if someone is able to turn their life around and if we believe in rehabilitation, as I do, we have to help people get into work. Obviously there are some offences which would mean that it's not appropriate for someone to work with vulnerable people, whether children or the elderly, but this proposal is a good starting point to considering how we can help ex offenders re-establish themselves.

I include this idea on dealing with homophobic bullying at school to highlight the fact that the Coalition Agreement specifically includes help for schools to tackle this. This is something else that Liberal Democrats can be proud of because I doubt the Tories would have introduced this on their own.

The abolition of control orders is for me a must. Detention without trial or charge or even knowing why the order has been issued is so fundamentally unjust and this practice must be stopped.

A proposal for an evidence based drugs policy is exactly what we need. The alternative point of view has been failing for too long.

Ending 28 day detention without charge- which is, by the way, Liberal Democrat policy. This is as good a time as any to point out the excellent speech made by Julian Huppert, new Lib Dem MP for Cambridge on the subject a few weeks ago when he concluded:

"We do face a serious situation, and we do need to have the right tools to combat terrorism, but 28-day detention without trial is not the right one. It causes too much collateral damage in its effect on our civil liberties and the message that we send to others who might be considering such issues and those who look up to us from other countries. I urge hon. Members to reject 28 days."

The Government is currently reviewing this provision and should report back in the Autumn with future proposals.

I hope you've found this interesting and that it's encouraged and inspired you to put your ideas up on this site for discussion.

Ten great ideas from Nick Clegg's Your Freedom

Last week Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg set up the Your Freedom website, inviting people to give their ideas to restore and improve freedom for individuals and businesses. As he says:

We're working to create a more open and less intrusive society through our Programme for Government. We want to restore Britain’s traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations – both for individuals and businesses.

This site gives you the chance to tell us which laws and regulations you think we should get rid of. Your feedback will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law. We've had an excellent response so far, receiving thousands of ideas, comments and votes.

I thought I'd keep my eye on it and do an occasional list what I think are the 10 best ideas I can find.

It's a bit of a no brainer, but getting rid of the Digital Economy Act figures highly and would be well up my list of priorities.

At the moment in England women have the protection of the law if the choose to breastfeed their babies in public up to the age of just 6 months. In Scotland it's two years. I think that the decision about how long to nurse should be up to mothers and their children, not the state so I'd like to see the age limits taken out of both these laws. If you agree, rate this idea.

Stop the Police apprehending people who are perfectly legitimately taking photographs of public buildings.

Disestablish the Church of England - how can we, in a free society, give one religious institution a special place in our Government?

I will declare an interest in the next one because it's another from my husband - businesses have to spend a fortune making sure anyone who uses a computer complies with the law in terms of the set up of their workstation and shelling out for free eye tests. Given that most of the workforce now uses smartphones and home PCs there's an argument for these regulations to be repealed.

It's not so much the substance of this idea that I think is worth promoting, but the fact that its proposer has, like many others, had the complete run around from the Child Support Agency. We need to get the public services we provide to be more efficient, competent and user friendly and this lady's story shows why.

I've always said that it's ridiculous that if I hit Stephen who is more than able to defend himself, I'd find myself banged up in no time, but if I hit my daughter, that would be perfectly legitimate. I'm glad to see that someone wants to outlaw corporal punishment in the household.

Related to this is the idea that England should follow Scotland's example and raise the criminal age of responsibility.

Right to die. This is something I've struggled with over the years. I'm keen to avoid a situation where people are pressurised to end their lives before they want to but have come to the conclusion that there is more than enough cultural and religious pressure the other way which could do with being balanced. I can't go through all the issues in a paragraph, but I think it's time we had a proper debate on the subject. We're trying, up here, with Margo MacDonald's bill, but I don't think we've got past the knee jerk reaction part yet. Religious organisations have been quick to condemn, but not to offer compassion and understanding.

Reform the libel laws which effectively allow rich, powerful corporations to escape legitimate scrutiny and curtail press freedom with secret super injunctions.

That's a diverse range of opinion to be going along with. If you've seen any good ideas to add to this list, please put them in the comments with links to the Your Freedom site - and if your idea isn't on there yet, add it.

What's the point of fire extinguishers?

Following on from my post on Friday, about Nick Clegg's Your Freedom site, where we're all invited to give our suggestions about what laws we want to see repealed, I thought I'd flag up another suggestion on the site.

There are some special sorts of "pleasures" about being married to a health and safety adviser. For example, know how to tell when scaffolding is not erected properly, or when those working on it aren't wearing the proper safety equipment because it's just not possible for him to walk past a building site without having a look at what's going on.

Despite that, he's generally a practical and pragmatic and sensible kind of guy. I'm the one that tends to panic about things while he's takes a much more common sense and dispassionate approach to risk. That's a good thing, because if it were left to me, I doubt our daughter would have learnt to climb trees as well as she can.

Anyway, his sugggestion surprised me, given that he automatically checks every fire extinguisher he comes across in whatever environment to check whether it's in date. He thinks that the requirements regarding fire extinguishers in low risk environments such as offices should be relaxed. Fires in offices are extremely rare, especially during the day when people are in. I don't think I've ever heard of one. Certainly if it happened where I was working, I think I'd just get out rather than hang around trying to put it out.

As Bob says, the most common use of fire extinguishers I've ever seen is as rather expensive door stops. It may well be that most places of work would choose to have one anyway, but is it necessary for this to be a legal requirement?

Your Freedom and Nick Clegg - and my admission to a criminal past

"Be demanding about your liberty. Be insistent about your rights. This is your chance to have your say."

So says Nick Clegg in the video launching the Government's Your Freedom website in which citizens are asked for their ideas to increase their freedom and reduce state intervention. Ahead of the Freedom Bill (or Great Repeal Bill if you're a Tory), they are looking for laws to get rid of. Here's what Nick said.



Just to be contrary, my suggestion was actually a law to retain. I suspect that tobacco companies and smokers' organisations will be getting as many of their supporters as possible to call for an end to the smoking ban. In my view, this is one of the most liberating laws ever passed. I am so glad I am not forced to breathe in other people's toxic fumes any more. To me, the balance of smokers' and others' liberties is best maintained by keeping this Bill. So if you agree with me, please comment and rate my suggestion here. I just felt it was important to have a positive call to retain it to balance the inevitable calls for its repeal. I spoke in favour of the ban at the Scottish Conference where it was adopted as Scottish Liberal Democrat policy. At the time, I said that if this was about banning smoking, then I'd be the first to take it up again as a form of protest. It's not just about smokers, though. Mill's Harm Principle applies and so in my view the maintenance of the ban is essential.

The other obvious things are in there - repeal of the deeply illiberal Digital Economy Act and its replacement with something better, getting rid of the obscenity laws, libel reform. Others have suggested that we can't really be free until there is one form of marriage applicable to everyone - and I quite agree. JaeKay's propoosal got 5 stars from me.

Given Labour's attitude of opposing absolutely everything the Government does, even if it was in their own manifesto, I fully expect to see them mount a campaign to keep the law that says you have to report it if you see a grey squirrel in your garden which Nick highlighted yesterday on the BBC. This is a law, I have to confess, I have breached many, many times. Maybe I shouldn't have written that without finding out what the penalty is.............

Seriously, though, Nick's campaign is there to redress the balance in the relationship between the citizen and the State. If you want to read his whole speech from yesterday, you can do so here. I'm sure that there will be some excellent ideas put forward. I like this consulting of real people about things, which he's also doing to ask public service workers to suggest ways savings can be made.

I also suspect Dr Pack will be annoyed that the search engine optimisation on this site isn't that great - it took me a while to find it.

And finally, can I suggest that all you Lib Dem campaigners put a Your Freedom box on Focus leaflets this Summer. Not everyone has access to the internet and they shouldn't be denied the chance to participate in this.