Michael Meacher MP

Michael Meacher MP (Labour) for Oldham West and Royton. First elected in 1970. He is not afraid to criticise government policy. He last held a ministerial position in 2003. His attacks on the government over its record on the environment and his direct attacks on Blair have upset some of his Labour colleagues. He is a possible leadership and deputy leadership candidate. Has been a long proponent of independent science and scientists even if he did not always like the results.

Digital Economy Bill

call 0161 626 5779 for details of surgeries

Freedom of Information

In favour of freedom of information, upset about the governments attempts to reduce freedom of information powers.

Electronic Voting

Wrote an article for the Guardian in February 2005 with a strap line The government is keen to deploy e-voting despite evidence of ballot rigging

He also wrote in the New Statesman in November 2004

Now allegations are surfacing that the use of electronic voting systems and optical scanning devices may have had a significant influence on the result. Computer security experts insist that such systems are not secure and not tamper-proof, yet they were used to count a third of the votes across 37 states.

He is also campaigning for election reform to proportional representation.

Identity cards

23 November 2006 House of Commons

There have been dozens of criminal justice and law enforcement Bills over the past decade—all in the name of protecting, very sincerely, the freedoms of our society. Those Bills have been so wide ranging, so unremitting in their clampdown on so many aspects of our society and so intrusive into the reality of some of our traditional liberties that we are seriously at risk of undermining the very freedoms that we profess to be preserving.
I refer—hon. Members know this very well—to the use of control orders, the introduction of identity cards, the reduction of jury trials, the limitations on the right to protest, the extension of stop-and-search powers, the anti-terrorism Acts that allow an 82-year-old man to be bundled out of a hall for heckling, a highly unequal US-UK extradition treaty and now, apparently, the attempt to reverse a clear decision of Parliament taken only a few months ago and to extend the 28-day limit on detention without charge to90 days. I beg the Government to look again and to consider whether that is not the wrong way forward.

Links

News

2006-11-21 - Michael Meacher Blog - Challenge Freedom of Information changes
Author: Michael Meacher MP
Summary: Worryingly the government is making these changes without a formal consultation. The Campaign for Freedom of Information have challenged the basis for the Government's proposals and are asking people to make informal responses as the Government has said these would be considered.
2006-10-23 - Michael Meacher Blog - How free is information?
Author: Michael Meacher MP
Summary: Now, to cap it all , the Government is cracking down. Not on deceit, but on the Freedom of Information Act which it itself introduced (and very welcome at that) by imposing a very tight cost cap which, by aggregating requests across a period or organisation is likely to ensure that requests for more contentious information are rejected as too expensive.
2005-02-02 - Guardian - Political machinations
Author: Michael Meacher MP
Summary: The government is keen to deploy e-voting despite evidence of ballot rigging.
2004-11-29 - New Statesman - Did Dubbya rig the election?
Author: Michael Meacher MP
Summary: Now allegations are surfacing that the use of electronic voting systems and optical scanning devices may have had a significant influence on the result. Computer security experts insist that such systems are not secure and not tamper-proof, yet they were used to count a third of the votes across 37 states.
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