Alistair Carmichael (Letters, 19 October) claims the Liberal Democrats are the only party standing up for civil liberties, but he knows that isn’t true. In both the House of Commons and the House of Lords we Greens have been fighting the government as it tries to push through its privacy-invading investigatory powers bill.
Has he forgotten that we worked with the Lib Dems in the Lords to fight for strong safeguards in the bill? Or that we voted against the bill in parliament?
The Green party has worked with the Lib Dems to try to defeat the Conservatives. The unfair electoral system and absurdity of the House of Lords might mean we only have one representative in each, but we’re using our position to make a real stand on civil liberties. Where there is obvious common ground it must be celebrated and used to our advantage – not ignored for the sake of political point-scoring.
While the Labour safeguards to the bill are welcome improvements, they ignore the hard lessons from the scandals of recent years, such as blacklisting, the use of undercover officers and the domestic extremism database. All of these have shown the police systematically evading the rules.
It is essential the bill has the proper safeguards that we’ve argued for in the Lords. Without significant changes, the bill remains a draconian piece of legislation from a government that has given us the Orwellian Prevent strategy, refugee snatch squads and a declared intention of leaving the European convention on human rights. It’s not every day that a country hands huge powers to the state and effectively ends privacy. We need real opposition, if liberty and democracy are going to thrive.
Jonathan Bartley Co-leader, Green party
Caroline Lucas Co-leader, Green party, and MP Brighton Pavilion
Baroness Jenny Jones House of Lords