Last night the government severely curbed civil liberties, free speech and democracy

Yesterday was a dreadful day for democracy and free speech in the UK. Last night, after weeks of wrangling, a Bill with a spectacularly Orwellian name –  the “Lobbying and Transparency Bill”, which neither substantially curbs lobbying and which will make politics less transparent – passed through the Lords. Well, I say “passed”, because what actually happened was that the final vote was tied 245 in favour to 245 votes against, so it passed by default.

As if attacking free speech wasn’t bad enough, the government got away with it on a technicality.

But surely this Bill can’t be that bad, right? Well it’s managed to unite every major charity in in the UK against it. It’s managed to unite 38 degrees and the Taxpayers Alliance. Opposition to the bill brought together LabourList with Conhome and Political Scrapbook with Guido Fawkes. This is a bill that anyone who cares about politics and campaigning should find abhorrent. As I wrote back in August:

“It’s an outright attack on Civil Society and free speech. And it could mean every majority charity, community group and campaigning organisation in the country could be restricted in how they campaign…This is the politics of the repressive regime. This is deeply illiberal. This is not meant to be how we do things in Britain.”

Indeed, it’s the politics of the banana republic. Charities and campaign groups will be stifled with bureaucracy and spending limits – and that’s before we even get into the government snooping on trade unions and their members. Criticism of government plans will be neutered and blogs like LabourList would be forced to ask permission from the Labour Party to even exist. Again, as I wrote last year:

“As we write predominantly about the politics of the Labour Party, and are supportive (but not uncritical) of the party, if we spend over £32,000 during election year, we would need – under the law – to ask the permission of the Labour Party to continue operating. Why’s that? Because above that level we’d be considered, under this new legislation, as part of the Labour Party’s election spending. The same principle would also apply to the likes of ConservativeHome and LibDemVoice too…But if the government honestly think they can force me to go and ask permission from Ed Miliband to carry on blogging in election year – or for other bloggers to do likewise – they can get lost. I’d rather break electoral law and get arrested than surrender the independence of this blog, thank you very much.”

Lets hope it doesn’t come to that. The government may think they can silence critical voices with gagging legislation, but all they’ll do is force us to develop more inventive ways of campaigning to get around their legislation. That process of civil disobedience and red-tape avoidance is starting in earnest today. But it’s not big organisations or even political organisations I worry about. Those groups will be able to find ways to carry on their work.

What scares me is the way this legislation could snuff out campaigns by volunteers in local communities.

Does your MP support fracking in your local area? You’re going to find it harder to oppose them. Did your MP promise to oppose tuition fees then vote to treble them? Good luck campaigning against them in 2015. Anti-cuts group? I hope you enjoy jumping through the government’s hoops. Conservation group? I hope you realise the government thinks you’re a regulated part of the political process.

Once upon a time the Tories talked about the Big Society. It would be these groups, separate from government or parties who would stand up for the people and deliver a brave new Britain. The only problem is, the government heard what the Big Society had to say, didn’t like it and gagged it. And the so-called “Liberal” Democrats joined in enthusiastically. The next time some pious Lib Dem tries to tell me about Labour’s curbs on civil liberties – remind me to ram this gagging legislation down their throat…