Happy new year
Posted by David on Monday, 08 January 2007 10:35:42
So, this is my first post of 2007 - sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. Here are my answers to your latest questions.
1: Shameless dodging of Guido Fawkes question
I ’m sorry you feel I didn’t answer the question. These are the entities through which individuals – whom we have named – have chosen to lend us money.
Here is the link to the list of all our lenders and the amount they lent, as of March last year, which we published at the end of that month. This makes it quite clear who the individuals, the lenders, and the amounts are. Our lenders are also published on the Electoral Commission website.
You asked why the party accepted certain loans from particular sources. The answer is that we needed the money to fight the general election and rebuild the Party and we turned to well known long term party supporters. All these individuals were named in our March press release.
2: proposed legislation on ' violent pornography '
I think most people would agree that the pornography the Government wants to tackle is well beyond the pale. The kind of thing they say they are talking about is violence which is life threatening or likely to result in serious, disabling injury.
[update: following responses to this post we have deleted a section of David's response]
At the moment, everyone is able to report to the Internet Watch Foundation computer pornography which is criminally obscene and which is hosted in the UK.
But as you say, the Government now wants to legislate to ban the possession of extreme pornography, for example off the internet on sites from overseas. The Bill has yet to be introduced to Parliament but, once it is published, we will obviously consider the proposals very carefully. The Government says it has looked at things like human rights considerations. But with any new legislation, we will need to make sure it is necessary and that it will work properly and fairly before we decide whether or not to back it.
3: PROSTITUTION - should it be legalised?
It’s tragic that it took the recent appalling events you mention to cast a spotlight on what has long been a very serious social problem. It’s right that we all think about what can be done about it. But the short answer to your question is that I’m not convinced legalising prostitution is the way forward.
Instead I think we need to pay more attention to the factors which drive people into prostitution in the first place. That includes combating drug misuse, family breakdown, child abuse and debt. Nine in ten prostitutes are on drugs. Hearing some of the life stories of the women drawn into prostitution in Ipswich was a poignant reminder of just how important it is that we break that link - for example through drug treatment for prostitutes.
Of course we also need to combat kerb crawlers and take a tough approach to those who take advantage of and perpetuate the vicious circle of prostitution, drug abuse and serious crime. But without tackling the serious underlying social problems which underpin prostitution, the situation will simply get worse and we will be letting down some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our society.
There are other things we should do too. Thousands of women are victims of people trafficking and are being forced to work as prostitutes. We need to police our borders, prosecute traffickers, and protect victims, and David Davis announced proposals on this last week .
4:Question for David: Should the UK have new privacy laws to settle concerns about Big Brother?
I think there are two separate questions here.
Is the Government promoting too much intrusion into people’s private lives? Yes. From plans for a national ID cards database, through chips in wheelie bins to check your rubbish, to council tax inspectors knocking on your door, it’s clear that the liberties and privacy of honest law-abiding citizens are being eroded.
Of course that doesn’t mean people are against CCTV in their neighbourhoods where it helps tackle crime. But it does mean we should listen to the warning of the Government’s own Information Commissioner, who has said the country could “sleepwalk into a surveillance society”.
But the second question is whether a new law is necessarily the answer. I don’t think so. Simply bringing in another new law every time there is a problem is one of this Government’s failings. In fact often – like the legislation on ID cards – it is one of its laws which is the problem in the first place. What we need is a new approach, in which we emphasise the principle of liberty under the law and base our policies on that.
5: Political Correctness and British Pride
Well, Happy New Year!
You raise a lot of points.
We have to start by recognising that sometimes, what was labelled “political correctness” in the past was in fact simply a case of showing respect to other people. So in general I’m not one to jump up and down every day about “political correctness gone mad”. But we need to use common sense, and we shouldn’t go around looking for offence where none has been caused.
But you raise a more fundamental point about the nature of our society. Britain is rightly proud of its ethnically diverse society. That has long been an important aspect of our country which we are right to celebrate, and I’m sure the final paragraph of your question doesn’t imply otherwise. But maybe sometimes we need to focus a bit more on what unites us rather than what divides us all. There are no easy answers, but there are things we can do which can help bring people together – like citizenship ceremonies; teaching English to new arrivals; school exchanges; and a national school leaver programme that brings young people together from all parts of the country.
These are not really questions of being PC or non-PC, they are just ways to help us bring people and society together. I think that’s the best way to look at all this.
And please wish your Sociology teacher a Happy New Year too, on my behalf!
ask david, you, interactivity, 2007