Aylesbury Liberal Democrats welcomed Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary to their annual constituency dinner on Friday at Hardings restaurant in Aylesbury College.

During the evening Chris spent time talking to local party members about the Liberal Democrat Freedom Bill, detailing how the party plans to roll back the authoritarian laws passed by both Labour and Conservative governments.

Chris said “the old parties have undermined civil liberties and day by day more of our personal freedoms are being eroded. The Freedom Bill will redress the balance back to the individual. With one small change after another over the last 20 years, the cumulative loss of civil liberties is huge.

The Government has presided over the slow death by a thousand cuts of our hard-won British freedoms. Our forebears who fought so hard to establish our rights under the law would be shocked at what we have lost. The Freedom Bill will repeal 20 years of attacks on our civil liberties from both Labour and Tory governments.”

Chris also spoke about the national economy and drew comparisons between Vince Cable who from 1990 worked for Shell International and from 1995 was Shell’s Chief Economist; and George Osborne who has only has a political career working for the Tory party or as an MP.

“It goes to show that Vince Cable really knows what it is like to meet a pay roll demand, and what real business goes through in this recession, rather than someone who has just been in politics” said Chris.

Hosting the event, Julian Newman, the chairman of Aylesbury Liberal Democrats said “we were pleased that Chris came and spoke to the Aylesbury Liberal Democrats about his Freedom bill and the national economic problems. Buckinghamshire Liberal Democrats have the fastest growing membership in the country and are offering a real alternative to one party rule in Bucks.”

Aylesbury Local Liberal Youth members were also at the event and speaking afterwards Alexander Turner from Aylesbury Liberal Youth said “Chris Huhne really inspired me when he talked about our civil freedoms. It made me realise how important the Liberal Democrats are to modern politics.”

Notes for editors
The 20 measures contained in the draft legislation will:
• Cut the maximum pre-charge detention period from 28 to 14 days
• Abolish the veto in the Freedom of Information Act that allows ministers to keep information secret
• Scrap the ID card scheme
• Remove all innocent people from the DNA database, except for those tried for a violent or sexual offence
• Stop councils and others snooping by restricting the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to serious and terrorist offences
• Regulate CCTV to protect privacy following a Royal Commission on the use of cameras
Further information can be found at www.freedom.libdems.org.uk/petition