Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

November 30, 2006

Impressive support for Stop the Bill Lobby

Yesterday's lobby of Parliament was a great launch, within Parliament, of Napo's campaign against the Offender Management Bill. Over 250 members from across England and Wales turned out to see their MPs and to cram into Committee Room 14 in the House of Commons to hear MPs, Peers and other supporters condemn the Government's plans and pledge support.

As Judy McKnight said in her speech at the rally, "when we know the breadth of support we’ve got it is just the boost we need to keep up this fight."

She continued: "Because there is no doubt the message we have to give today to Tony Blair, to John Reid, to Gerry Sutcliffe – they’re all banking on the fact that after all these years, nearly 3 years now that the Carter report came out, they’re probably assuming that we’re going to start to give up... But we are still here, we haven’t flagged, we will stay fighting our corner, defending our service, speaking out for what is proper, what is just, what is evidence based and what is true.”

Speakers at the rally included Tony Benn, Lord Ramsbotham, Baroness Stern, Frances Crook (Howard League), Brendan Barber (TUC), Martin Wargent (PBA), and MPs Neil Gerrard, John Grogan, David Drew, Elfyn Llwyd, John McDonnell, Austin Mitchell and Nick Clegg, and Judy McKnight and Harry Fletcher from Napo.

Baroness Stern, who is a member of the Board advising the Scottish Executive on the setting up of Community Justice Authorities, told members of the 'new levels of cooperation' in the Scottish system, contrasting this to the Home Office's belief that 'competition will drive up performance'. Read her speech in full here.

More pictures and speeches to follow over the next few days.

Posted by kfalcon at November 30, 2006 12:01 PM