So watching the (mostly dreadful) debate in Parliament today about the riots, Paul Graham Raven (@PaulGrahamRaven) made a comment in a tweet that hoping for progressive change in politics in the \u201clast decade feels like a litany of futility\u201d. Being more of a pint-half-full person and slightly obsessive about the details \u2013 I decided to check.<\/p>\n
There have been laws passed in the UK in the last decade that I believe are mistaken or downright stupid\/wrong [Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), Identity Cards Act (2006) \u2013 never implemented, various immigration, asylum and nationality acts, UK Borders Act (2007), Digital Economy Act 2010 are just a few of the examples] but in the interests of looking on the bright side \u2013 I thought I\u2019d take a look back at the bills passed by Parliament in the last ten years and highlight some of the good things that have come out of our legislature.<\/p>\n
This list excludes a lot of things (including many of the progressive changes in taxation and benefits introduced by Gordon Brown\/Alastair Darling \u2013 that would take an extensive analysis, probably at book length, on their own<\/em>). And I\u2019m not arguing that everything has been perfect or even that all these laws are problem free.<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t believe that nothing good has happened or that progressive causes have always lost. Could more have been done? Yes, probably. Should more have been tried? Yes, definitely. But has nothing been achieved? No, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n British Overseas Territories Act (2002)<\/strong> Female Genital Mutilation Act (2003)<\/strong> Local Government Act (2003)<\/strong> Sexual Offences Act (2003)<\/strong> Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004)<\/strong> Gangmasters (Licensing) Act (2004)<\/strong> Gender Recognition Act (2004)<\/strong> Housing Act (2004)<\/strong> Hunting Act (2004)<\/strong> Mental Capacity Act (2005)<\/strong> Animal Protection Act (2006)<\/strong> Childcare Act (2006)<\/strong> Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act (2006)<\/strong> Consumer Credit Act (2006)<\/strong> Equality Act (2006)<\/strong> Health Act (2006)<\/strong> Concessionary Bus Travel Act (2007)<\/strong> Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act (2007) Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act (2007)<\/strong> Sustainable Communities Act (2007)<\/strong> Climate Change Act (2008)<\/strong> Education and Skills Act (2008)<\/strong> Employment Rights Act (2008)<\/strong> Autism Act (2009)<\/strong> Green Energy Act (2009)<\/strong> Child Poverty Act (2010)<\/strong> Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (2010)<\/strong> Some of these changes have made significant differences to people\u2019s lives and have been significant steps forward for long term causes \u2013 the gender recognition act, the hunting act, the corporate manslaughter act. It might be that for every step forward there has been a step back, but it\u2019s not a record of constant retreat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So watching the (mostly dreadful) debate in Parliament today about the riots, Paul Graham Raven (@PaulGrahamRaven) made a comment in a tweet that hoping for progressive change in politics in the \u201clast decade feels like a litany of futility\u201d. Being more of a pint-half-full person and slightly obsessive about the details \u2013 I decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[25],"tags":[52,53,41,133],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-nh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAllowed citizens of these territories automatic UK citizenship.<\/p>\n
\nOutlawed female genital mutilation by UK citizens even outside UK borders.<\/p>\n
\nRepealed Section 28 laws prohibiting the \u201cpromotion of homosexuality\u201d<\/p>\n
\nUpdated the law on a range of sexual offences. Increased protection for victims.<\/p>\n
\nIncreased rights of unpaid carers of sick and elderly.<\/p>\n
\nProtection for vulnerable workers.<\/p>\n
\nAllows transsexual people to legally change their gender.<\/p>\n
\nGreater protection for tenants \u2013 including the Tenancy Deposit Schemes.<\/p>\n
\nOutlawed hunting with hounds.<\/p>\n
\nProtection for those with reduced mental capacity.<\/p>\n
\nIntroduced a positive duty of care for animal owners.<\/p>\n
\nBrought in greater local authority responsibility for childcare.<\/p>\n
\nDealing with microgeneration, fuel poverty and sets targets to cut carbon emissions.<\/p>\n
\nProtection for borrowers from unfair lending practices.<\/p>\n
\nOutlawed discrimination on goods and services on the grounds of religion and belief and created a public duty on government agencies to promote equality. Accompanied by the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.<\/p>\n
\nBanned smoking in public places.<\/p>\n
\nIntroduced national entitlement to free bus travel for those who are disabled or over 60.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Allowed corporations to be held responsible for actions causing death.<\/p>\n
\nTo assist victims of forced marriage, or those threatened with forced marriage.<\/p>\n
\nPrivate member\u2019s bill promoted by Local Works coalition \u2013 aimed to protect local communities.<\/p>\n
\nInteresting example of public campaign forcing a government to strengthen legislation.<\/p>\n
\nIntroduced training and skills entitlement for all young people up to 18.<\/p>\n
\nGreater protection for employees at work.<\/p>\n
\nProtection for people with autism.<\/p>\n
\nPromotes the generation of energy from renewables.<\/p>\n
\nSet government targets for \u201cthe eradication of child poverty\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nRemoved \u201cRoyal Perogative\u201d requiring\u00a0 treaties and declarations of war to be approved by Parliament.<\/p>\n