Conservative Party

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1 Recent
2 Policies
3 Party Info
- 3.1 Blogs
- 3.2 Events

[edit] Recent

Monday June 26, 2006 David Cameron's speech.

Sceptical about some of the new powers for government in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
Reiterated that the Conservatives are strongly opposed to Labour's plans for ID cards.
Has problems with the Human Rights Act.
Proposes a British Bill of Rights and says he wants to make the bill extremely hard to amend or repeal.

[edit] Policies

[edit] Identity cards

Conservatives are strongly oppose to Labour's plans for ID cards and say they will get rid of them if they are voted into power.

2007-02-05 Conservatives formally pledge to cancel ID card scheme

2006-10-01 David Cameron MP "ID cards are wrong, they're a waste of money, and we will abolish them."

David Davis MP "The Home Secretary likes to brag about customer satisfaction with the UK Passport Agency. This first instalment of the plastic poll tax that is the ID card system will completely undermine that."

2006-06-26 David Cameron "we strongly oppose Labour's plans for ID cards. This is a measure that fails on every count. It would impose a burden on citizens and intrude upon their privacy. Yet it would do little to protect them from harm."

[edit] Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

2006-06-26 David Cameron "We were sceptical about some of the new powers for government in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act."

2006-05-10 Bob Spink MP (Mole Valley) (Con) brought forward a motion to increasing the sentence up to ten years for suspected paedophiles who withheld encryption keys because for a paedophile the alternative penalty, if the information was turned over, would often be five years or more and, frequently, having to go on the sex offenders list. The government said they liked the idea and that it was time to activate Part 3 of the act but that there should be a consultation first, Bob Spink agreed and withdrew the motion.

[edit] Computer Misuse Act

Conservative Lord The Earl of Northesk has been tireless in his efforts over a period of years to provide a usable and sane Computer Misuse Act. He has put forward several amendments to the Computer Misuse Act portion of the Police and Justice Bill 2006 currently in the Lords Committee stage.

[edit] Internet Censorship

The Conservatives are against censorship of the internet.

[edit] Data Retention

Conservatives made up part of the very small number of MEPs to vote against the IPRED2 directive. Conservative MEPs followed Malcolm Harbour on this decision.

[edit] DNA database

Conservatives are against innocent people being held on the database. They have called for a parliamentary vote on whether details of people who were innocent or not charged should be included against their wishes.

Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield) (Con) is continuing with the national campaign, "Children off the National DNA Database"

Damian Green (Ashford)(Con)(Shadow Minister for Immigration)(at the time of this quote he was the Conservative Home Affairs spokesman) "We do have concerns about the Government including on the database the DNA and fingerprints of completely innocent people. More than 100,000 law-abiding citizens have been added to the database since last year even though they have not been charged with a crime." "We need a proper public debate about whether we should be building up such a huge database. If the Government wants a database which has the details of everyone, not just criminals, they should be honest about it and not construct it by stealth."

[edit] British Bill Of Rights

2006-06-26 David Cameron

"A modern British Bill of Rights needs to define the core values which give us our identity as a free nation."
"It should spell out the fundamental duties and responsibilities of people living in this country both as citizens and foreign nationals."
"And it should guide the judiciary and the Government in applying human rights law when the lack of responsibility of some individuals threatens the rights of others."
"It should enshrine and protect fundamental liberties such as jury trial, equality under the law and civil rights."
"And it should protect the fundamental rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights in clearer and more precise terms."

The bill should be extremely hard to amend or repeal. "One of the options is the removal of powers under the Parliament Act for the House of Commons alone to amend or repeal the Bill of Rights"

2006-06-26 - Times - Bill of Rights 'won't change anything' (Frances Gibb)

[edit] Human Rights Act

They do not want to abolish the Human Rights Act.

2006-06-26 David Cameron

"Even without actual litigation, some public bodies are now so frightened of being sued under the Human Rights Act that they try to protect themselves by making decisions that are often absurd and occasionally dangerous."
"The Human Rights Act has made it harder to protect our security."
"And it's done little to protect some of our liberties."
"It is hampering the fight against crime and terrorism."
"And it has helped to create a culture of rights without responsibilities."

The reason for this is not human rights act its self but due to the fact that European Court of Human Rights has no legal document in Britain that it can use as a guide for what rights and responsibilities people in Britain can expect. In Germany, the existence of the Basic Law - a clearly codified constitutional document - provides a different solution. The European Court, through what is known as the "margin of appreciation", tends to defer to any clearly set out domestic constitutional doctrine.

Because of this reason and a what they see as a clear demand from the public they wish the create a BRITISH BILL OF RIGHTS.

[edit] IPRED2

Conservatives MEPs deferred to Malcolm Harbour on IP decisions. He is believed to be pro IPRED2 but this needs to be confirmed.

[edit] Software Patents

Conservatives MEPs normally deferred to Malcolm Harbour on IP decisions. He is pro Software Patents. Not all MEPs followed him on this issue. This issue is not black and white as Malcolm publicly says he is only in favour of Software Patents when used in industrial situations but the consensus is that his voting pattern was in favour of all software patents.

[edit] NHS National Programme for IT

Richard Bacon MP for South Norfolk called for the NPfIT to be scrapped. "The billions of pounds already spent could have been used to run 10 district general hospitals for a year," he told the Observer. "Now it is clear that patient safety and public health could be at risk. It is time to halt this programme before things get worse."

[edit] Children's Digital Rights

The Times report in Child database under threat after security fiasco 23 November 2007

The Conservatives have demanded the immediate suspension of a new government electronic database containing personal details of all 11 million children in England.

2006-10-01 David Cameron MP

And then perhaps the greatest challenge of all. The challenge of bringing up children in a world that often seems fraught with risk and danger. There is nothing that matters more to me than the safety and happiness of my family. Of course it's right that government should be on parents' side. But Labour take it way too far. A national database of every child. ...