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Government accused of gagging activists and charities with rushed bill
The UK government is currently attempting to introduce a law that could potentially reduce a lot of political commentary and scrutiny during the 12 months before a general election.
The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill is designed to introduce a statutory register for lobbyists and to make trade union funding more transparent. However, campaign group 38 Degrees and lawyers argue it will also limit the ability of charities and other non-party organisations to campaign on political issues in the run up to a general election...
...Controversially, the bill was introduced on 17 July 2013, the last day before the parliamentary recess, and is one of the first to be discussed in the timetable immediately after the recess, meaning that it has bypassed consultative stages and so there has been very little scrutiny of the bill.
"The government hasn't even explained what the problem [that this bill is designed to solve] is," says an exasperated-sounding Babbs.
The government's new gagging law is a serious attack on Britain's civil society
While doing virtually nothing to fix the real problems of money in politics, the government is trying to introduce a new law that will shut down vast swathes of political commentary and scrutiny for a whole year before general elections.
Ministers make U-turn over 'gagging' anti-lobbying laws after public outcry
Liberal Democrat sources said the government will retreat on some parts of the lobbying bill as early as next week, after charities raised serious concerns that it would have a "chilling effect" on their ability to campaign...
...It is understood the government will offer to remove several controversial clauses, including ones that said campaigning could count as political if it procures success for a candidate, even if it does not endorse a specific party. Charities from Oxfam to the Royal British Legion feared this could make them subject to spending limits on political campaigning in the year before an election...
...Even with the concessions, the lobbying bill will still mean third parties are subject to tougher restrictions on political campaigning...
...The Electoral Commission has warned the new spending limits could mean it would have to ask groups in breach of the law to take down blogs or stop political rallies. The watchdog said the bill would create a high degree of uncertainty...