BYM shortlisted for campaigning award
'The Police Bill Alliance was made up of many civil society networks, organisations and activists seeking to amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.'
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has been shortlisted for a major campaigning award as part of the Police Bill Alliance.
The alliance is one of three nominated in the National Campaigner Awards held each year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation for best coalition or collaboration.
The Police Bill Alliance was made up of many civil society networks, organisations and activists seeking to amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (known as the Police Bill).
The core group was made up of: Liberty; Quakers in Britain; Bond; Friends of the Earth; and Friends, Families and Travellers. The nomination also names Jessica Metheringham, Reading Quaker, for her work for the alliance.
The Police Bill Alliance ‘led to an extraordinary and unprecedented series of fourteen defeats for the Government in the House of Lords’, the citation reads.
The government lost nearly every one of the anti-protest measures it tried to add to the Police Bill, including protest-related stop and search, and Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (aka ‘Protest Banning Orders’).
The alliance engaged all-party parliamentary groups, select committees, UN special rapporteurs, businesses and former police chiefs. It secured high-profile media coverage and gathered 800,000 signatories for public actions.
Much of what was removed from the Police Bill has returned, however, in the Public Order Bill, which the Home Office pushed through days before the coronation. Police used these new powers to make some controversial arrests during the event. These included peaceful republican and climate protesters, journalists, and volunteers for a woman’s safety group.
The winners will be announced on 24 May.
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.