How we became a dictatorship. Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill,

I’m sure we’re all aware of this gross infringement on our civil liberties.

This weekend (23 March) is resist anti trespass day

If you’re not aware of this you really ought to be if you’re keen on your freedoms.

Read this by George Monbiot

There are various petitions, here's one started by Netpol:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-the-freedom-to-protest

The same bill includes policing protests as well as encampments, and other less related things.

If you have a Conservative MP please write to them. (So far none have rebelled in the vote - but we know some still believe in a liberal democracy with its associated freedom to protest.)

I found this plain English summary useful
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9158/

It’s obvious that this government can do whatever it likes. The apathy shown by people directly impacted by some of the proposed new powers is bizarre.

Covid has been used to sneak so much under the radar and most of it we have fuck all to kick on. It’s really worrying

When was the act proposed?

There was an attempt to contact MPs, but there was such apathy.

You may not realise but one element of this proposed bill is to criminalise trespass.
This will have a massive impact on where you ride. If you took a footpath to link two bridleways you commit trespass. At present if the owner was concerned they could take an action against you. Highly unlikely in most events, but even if it happened you would only be liable to compensate the landowner for loss they could demonstrate.
Once this act goes through parliament that will be a wholly different matter. You would be committing a crime.
Same if you were found wild camping during your overnight hike or ride (anyone stopping to kip during a long ride?) the landowner could cause you to be charged with a crime.
A crime to sleep out in our country. A crime to ride along a track that has no rights to cycle on.
We are sleepwalking into the most draconian change to our rights in over 200 years.

^^^ this

We realise, plenty of us. We responded to the consultation. We petitioned. Even the police don't want this bill. And what are we supposed to do about it? Talk to our MPs? Wave placards? When was the last time that worked?

Until we're willing to do more, I don't believe anything is going to change.

And what are we supposed to do about it?

Make your voices heard in a peaceful, lawful, democratic way. Think of positions of power you have in society: you’re not just a citizen, you’re a neighbour, you’re a parent, you’re a consumer, you’re an advertising target, you’re a social media participant... Social media and numbers are force multipliers for your efforts.

If you think something is important:

Tell your neighbours, send short and sweet group letters to your MP clearly saying that you oppose the bill and they will lose your vote if they support it. Try to avoid emails because they are easier to ignore, and visuals of bags and bags of mail get the attention of politicians and the media.

Tell your parents association, tell your friends, tell the guy who serves you coffee. Get kids to send letters to your MP, take mosaic pictures and send to a newspaper. This is your kids’ future too, and whole families carrying placards attract more media attention than working class adults.

Find out who the local and corporate sponsors of your MP and each party are. Tell local businesses about the bill, ask for their support. Check online to see which companies donate to which party, and tell them on their social media that they will lose your business if they support this kind bill and its proponents. For example, Regatta Ltd., an outdoor clothes company, donated £20,000 (correction: £25,000) to the Conservative party recently. My gf bought some £10 waterproof trousers from them, but I’m blotting out the outer label and never buying from them again, hypocrites. Find out who retails or is in business with those donor companies, and ask them flat out if they, like their business partner, support that sort of initiative too. Tell them they, like their business partner, will lose your business if they do.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/financial-reporting/donations-and-loans/view-donations-and-loans/donations-accepted

Put all of this online. Tag every public person aligned with these companies and brands, and ask them if they support this. Tell them your business, your attention, your money is going somewhere else if they do.

What do people in power care about? Your obedience? Your silence? Your money? That’s where our collective power is.

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Until we're willing to do more, I don't believe anything is going to change.

We have to try.

In one way, the criminalisation of trespass is good. Stops the urban explorers breaking in to properties and farm land and barns, which is how the act is being spun.

Also not just wild camping it is also people who are vehicle dwellers (there must be a better term) that the vehicles that they live in can be impounded and destroyed.

@lynx Is stopping people being able to access farm land a good thing?

If I go for a walk in the countryside and intentionally take a short cut that's not a footpath, that would be criminal. It's an absolute tragedy - how is that proportionate? Similarly, what harm do I do wild camping (which is now effectively criminalised)?

Sorry, on reading again maybe we agree - I just don't see the upside and the reference to farmland seemed ridiculously broad.

Yeah seems dumb and as usual easier to get people for daft stuff than actually get people for real crimes

Is stopping people being able to access farm land a good thing?

Yes and No. Having lived in a vehicle and stored vehicles on farm land have had them broken in to and things stolen from the vehicles, then yes I want that stopped.

When talking about farmland is there a difference cultivated farm land, pasture farm land and wooded land.

Also you are right as the flipside is not just wild camping that has been affected the act goes alot further, to affect people who live in vehicles too. Looks like another attempt to get rid of homeless living in tents in parks and public ground.

Also how will affect Audaxers having a nap? That will be criminal too.

IMO the act is a very bad idea, even the way we are being told the upside of what it will stop, with out the downsides.

had them broken in to and things stolen from the vehicles

Already criminal offenses.

.

Same as if you were assaulted and it wasn’t caught on camera, you’ve got a bloody nose, they say they didn’t do it. Doesn’t mean you should make it a criminal offence for anyone to come into your vicinity.

Having property damaged or broken is already a crime

thank you

Within 2m then yes! ;)

Serious answer

This act is an infringement of civil liberties. Can we agree on this?

I was making a point of something that has happened to me, and how the act is said to deter people from doing these things but forgetting or glossing over what the act will criminalise.

I totally understand where you were coming from.
Most laws to an extent infringe on somebodies ability to do something. But most of them do so because the something has a negative effect on others (assault, theft, murder etc)
But walking on land doesn’t impact anybody other than the people who will now be criminalised for doing it.
The scales are heavily tipped in the wrong direction.

Ignoring for a second all the other human rights and liberties the bill infringes on that is

I agree.