Julian Huppert Mp

Why the ‘snooping’ Communications Data Bill will not pass through Parliament

From our UK edition

I believe in evidence-based policy, and if the Home Office or anyone else claims that they need new powers over the people of this country, the onus is on them to demonstrate what they need and why. They should never assume that they will always get what they want, simply because they ask for it. Politicians owe it to the people to question the needs, not just roll over and concede our hard-earned freedoms on request. Obviously there is always a balance to be struck when deciding how many powers to give the state. We benefit from having an effective police force - but give the police too many powers, and we put too many restrictions on people's freedoms. Orwell's 1984 is the terrible consequence.

The government needs to make cycling safer, and so do we all

From our UK edition

In the last week alone by winning Olympic gold and through his victory in the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins has single-handedly raised the profile of cycling in this country. Now our government needs to get further behind cycling and pump more money into our infrastructure and make safety improvements to promote our most efficient form of transport. Cycling is a relatively safe, environmentally-friendly activity for all ages and thankfully serious accidents are low in relation to the millions of journeys taken by cyclists. But there is more we can do to give cyclists greater protection on our roads.