Coalition Against Secret Evidence

Your vote is sought. You will ask questions, but what answers will you get back?

You may have an opportunity to question the man or woman who wishes to have your vote.

You will have questions about your job, or that you don’t have a job paying a decent living wage.  You’ll want to know about affordable housing, access to health care, the governance of the financial system, our involvement in war or the ecological degradation across the entire planet.  All important questions, do ask them.

The use of secret evidence is another crucial matter upon which you may want to question the candidate at your door.  What answers will you get if you ask the person seeking to speak and act in your name:

• Do you support indefinite curtailment of an individual’s liberty and family life without that individual (or their freely appointed legal representative) being made aware of the nature and extent of the evidence upon which their liberty has been curtailed and to challenge such interference.

• Do you support the deportation of an individual to a country they have already been granted asylum from or where it can be shown that torture is systemic and carried out directly or indirectly by its government.

• Do you agree with the conclusions of the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) March 2010 report on the effectiveness and abuse of current anti-terrorism legislation.

• To what extent do you believe that a Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and the national governments of Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Jordan meet the UK’s obligations to protect the fundamental human rights of an individual that is to be deported to one of these countries

• Do you believe that the use of secret evidence has a role in employment tribunals, parole hearings, anti-social behavior proceedings, planning applications, enforcement of local by-laws concerning litter, noise and other environmental concerns.

Write to the election campaign office of the person or the local constituency office if they are already an MP, the address  should be on any election material they send you.   Ask these questions of the people helping to run the candidate’s election campaign, they too should know the views of the person who wishes to speak and act in your name.