Mick Hartley

Another voice in the campaign against that bill – in the Telegraph:

The Government’s trans conversion therapy bill is “contrary to the rule of law”, a former director of public prosecutions has said.

Lord Macdonald said the bill was so unclear that parents would not be able to tell whether an honest conversation with their child could mean they had committed a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.

It is a principle of the rule of law that the public should be able to understand whether what they are doing is legal or not, the senior KC told The Telegraph….

Lord Macdonald, who led the Crown Prosecution Service from 2003 to 2008, has added his voice to the criticism, saying that everything covered by the conversion ban is already a criminal offence.

Instead, he argues, the bill seems to be an attempt by the trans lobby to get legislative changes “through the back door”. The Telegraph revealed last week that Stonewall, the contentious pro-trans charity, has helped to design the new law.

Lord Macdonald, who sits as a cross-bench peer, told The Telegraph: “I don’t think it criminalises anything that isn’t already criminal.

“The minister in the House of Lords was asked to explain what it was that was presently not criminal, that would be criminalised by the legislation. And he said that will come out in pre-legislative scrutiny, which, is unprecedented.

“If the minister can’t explain what it is that’s presently lawful that the bill is going to make unlawful, that that means there’s a serious problem with the bill, frankly.”…

“There’s a basic principle called legal certainty, which is a very important part of the rule of law, which means that people need to understand when they are breaking the law and when they’re not breaking the law.

“But I think those concepts of psychological or emotional pressure mean that it would be very difficult for parents to know when they’re talking to their children or for clinicians to know when they’re talking to their patients, whether they’re breaking the law or not.

“And that is obviously an unacceptable situation. It’s completely contrary to the rule of law.”…

Lord Macdonald said it appeared that this latest bill was being used as a “Trojan Horse”. He said: “I think there is a lobby pushing hard for this bill, which is the same lobby that wanted to argue in favour of self ID and the rights of trans women – biological males – to use women’s space and so on.

“I think the lobby that lost those arguments is now using this as a way to try to achieve some of what they wanted to achieve by the back door. It’s the same battle just in a different guise.”

He added: “The problem here is that we’re talking about criminalisation, which is much more serious. So, potentially you could be criminalising parents or clinicians on the grounds of psychological or emotional pressure who may be no more than having necessary and frank conversations with their children or their patients.”