Please find below a template letter to ask your MP to vote against the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021.
This letter is particularly aimed at the residents of Altrincham and Sale, Bolton, Bury, Cheadle, Hazel Grove, Heywood and Middleton and Leigh, whose MPs have so far backed the new Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill despite significant opposition from local people. To ensure this legislation doesn’t become law, we need MPs who have voted for it on previous readings to change their vote.
You can copy this template text below and send it to your MP on WriteToThem. This is a simple tool that makes it easy for you to find and contact your MP by email. Just copy the below text, click here to go to WriteToThem, then go through the steps to find your MP and paste the copied text into the space for the letter. Feel free to add to and adapt this letter however you would like.
I am writing to you today as one of your constituents to ask you to vote against the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill on its next reading in Parliament, and to oppose it vocally whenever you can.
Greater Manchester and the North West have a proud history of protesting for civil rights and just causes. This Bill would be a threat to the right to protest. The right to protest is a fundamental part of a democratic society, and people from across the political spectrum choose to protest for things they believe in – including for universal suffrage and women’s right to vote, which were only won after long periods of protest and repression. Sometimes protest will cause “serious annoyance” and “serious inconvenience”, but that does not mean that it should not be allowed to happen.
Not only is the Bill a threat to our freedoms on principle, it would also be impossible to apply evenly and fairly, and therefore it would create friction and a loss of public trust around policing. Leading police officers such as chief superintendent Owen West have argued that the proposed Bill endangers the credibility of the police force. West has argued that it would cause “more physical conflict between the protest community and the police than we’ve ever seen before”.
I ask for you to stand on the right side of history and vote against the Bill. There are already more than adequate police powers enabling protests to be kept within legal bounds, and so this Bill is simply excessive and authoritarian. Voting for this Bill risks losing you the support of your constituents.
Please respond to me to let me know what you plan to do to oppose the Bill and protect the right to protest.
