Nick Clegg Invites Public to Scrap Laws
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is now asking the public to nominate regulations, laws and offences that they want to be abolished or changed. He has launched a ‘Your Freedom’ campaign with a website that allows people to propose ways to reduce bureaucracy.
In a statement, Clegg promised the public unscripted, raucous debates that will propose the best ideas. He believes that people are the best judges of which laws are unnecessary and should be replaced, not policy-makers. Clegg is overseeing the government’s political reform program, and he has previously promised that he will create the largest shake-up of democracy in the UK since the Great Reform Act of 1832. He says the best suggestions will be taken into account when they publish the Freedom Bill this fall.
The Your Freedom website will ask people 3 questions about which laws they want removed or changed because they restrict their civil liberties, which regulations to make operating organizations or businesses more simply, and which offences and why. There have already been almost 350 ideas posted on the site so far. These include calls to abolish the smoking ban, the sections of counter-terrorism laws that allow the arrest or harassment of innocent photographers and a review of speeding laws.
Clegg said in his speech that he believes this process will identify the laws that make residents feel threatened and don’t really serve a purpose. Even though the government won’t be duty bound to act on some suggestions, all the ideas will be considered, he added.