Apparently ‘the fines start at the equivalent of £20 for individual comments and up to £1,000 for organisations that ‘promote LGBT’ culture and issues.’

You don’t need to be a lawyer to see that this is a horrific violation of human rights: freedom of expression and a right to family life. Russia is the signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, yet again politicians choose to ignore it.

As a Russian, I find it hugely embarrassing.

There is a serious problem with discrimination of gay people in Russia as it is. When I was at school, teachers often made really nasty jokes about gay culture so if anyone would be too scared to come out. Even gay grown-ups live in fear of being beaten up and abused.

For girls who are bi-sexual it is a bit easier because it is seen as sexy but anything more ‘extreme’ is considered out of order and something to be ashamed of.

This is without a doubt a leap to re-criminalisation of homosexuality (which only became legal 18 years ago).

Please join the campaign against this http://www.allout.org/en/actions/russia_silenced/taf

We mustn’t let this ‘bill to silence millions’ to pass.

Catherine Bearder had decided when she was first elected that a key area of focus for her was to fight modern day slavery. The goal of our first anti trafficking event was to arm the group attending with the tools to raise awareness in their areas and to begin to tackle the problem. Just last month two men were convicted of trafficking girls for the sex trade in Oxford, and this had actually been happening on the neighbouring street to Catherine’s. Two Community Against Trafficking groups (CATs) have been set up by Catherine, in her region, but the aim of the conference was to set up more. Police officers and charities stress the importance of active community engagement in the fight against trafficking.

Baroness Sally Hamwee talked to us about her work in the Lords on this issue, reminding us that someone is trafficked across a border every minute worldwide and that human trafficking was the third largest business in the world. She gave useful and moving case studies of people who have come to the UK full of hope only to find themselves trapped into a dreadful life of degradation and despair.

She was followed by a short thought provoking film “Behind the Smile” which asked the audience to consider why young Eastern European women might be working as prostitutes in their area.

Recently retired Superintendent Bernie Gravett from the Metropolitan Police then described Operation Golf, a joint investigation team founded by the EU. You may have seen the BBC programme on this subject and Bernie the following week. 26 Romanian gang members were charged in Romania with trafficking181 children into the UK for forced criminality, (begging, thieving, shoplifting) and 120 gang members were arrested and prosecuted in the UK for organised crime offences including the trafficking of children. These children can be moved around Europe, uneducated and neglected, and often start their lives as babies, being props for begging “mothers”

Julia Immonen, the founder of Sport Against Trafficking, and Debbie Beadle youth programme coordinator for ECPAT UK (End Child Prostitution Pornography and Trafficking) talked about their work and described their proposed row across the Atlantic in an attempt to raise a million pounds for ECPAT.

Our breakout groups in the afternoon followed a checklist, which asked us to consider what communities could do. Stop The Traffik offered advice: writing a letter to your local paper could be the way to start a group for example, telling the police about concerns about local houses, writing to your MP. The Oxford trafficking ring was discovered and eventually broken because a user of prostitutes was concerned that when the girl he had rung for appeared she seemed terrified and underage. He sent her back and after a few days thought was brave enough to contact the police.

OXCAT the local anti trafficking group raised their profile on antislavery day by “selling” women in cages in the market place, which attracted a significant amount of media attention; and Catherine had a good interview on the Sunday politics show.

Following the conference Reading has begun to set up a CAT group and Catherine is keen to hear from more people who would be interested in helping fight this dreadful trade in their area.

Contact Catherine Bearder at catherine@bearder.eu

Other useful contacts are

Stop the Traffic www.stopthetraffik.org Tel 0207 9214254

Anti-Slavery International www.antislavery.org Tel 0207 501 8920

ECPAT UK www.ecpat.org.uk

Eaves Poppy Project www.eaves4women.co.uk Tel 0207 735 2062

Women Liberal Democrats www.libdems.org.uk   Tel 0207 227 1208

Thank you to all our speakers, to Penta Hotels Reading, and particular thanks go to Julia Bricknell, the office coordinator of Women Liberal Democrats, to Louisa Winnick WLD Volunteer, and to Mark Wheeler and Sally Barnard from Catherine Bearder’s office for the organisation of such a successful and well-run event.’

‘We would like to raise awareness of the issue and to help bring people together who want to see trafficking stopped.

Trafficking is happening all over the country, it could even be happening down your street. Would you like learn how to do something about it– if so please attend our conference, listen to our expert speakers and gain the tools so that you and your community can work together to make a difference.

To register for this event please email women@libdems.org.uk or call 020 7227 1208

Trafficking exists in your town.

What can your community do to help?

Speakers

Ret. Supt Bernie Gravett: MET Police
Julia Immonen: Sport Against Trafficking
Debbie Beadle: ECPAT UK
OXCAT’

I am really looking forward to it! Hope to see some of you there! If you can’t make it to Reading, come back here for the report of the conference.

I absolutely agree with her on that. I also agree with Jason Hunter who said that Labour had 13 years to do it. Why didn’t they make it happen?

Labour made up 3000 new crimes while in power.  ‘Impersonating a traffic warden; selling a grey squirrel; detonating a nuclear bomb’ (link) and protesting outside of Parliament without permission.

Yet no one thought of making stalking a crime?! So many people have suffered from it and now with the internet, it is easier than ever.

Yet another reason not to trust Labour! They might sound good at times out of office but when in power the only thing they deliver is authoritarianism and not actual protection of people and their liberties.

It is the top news story on the BBC.

It is not even news for me.

As a Russian, I find it very depressing to say that it feels like it really does not matter who is the president at the moment or in the next 20 years, Putin will be in charge of the country. That’s how most people I speak with feel.

The parts of the country that are still like the third world will remain like the third world. The billionaires who are in power now will remain in power.

The word ‘democracy’ is like a joke in Russia, only no one is laughing.

It ‘requires party members to disclose personal data to the police and which is designed to enable the police to advise that certain party members should not be allowed to attend. ‘

I can’t think of more eloquent way to describe it other than just crazy.

We are the party who live and breathe liberal values and already delivering some of them in government – such as banning ID cards. Why don’t we apply those to our own conference?

I decided not to partake in this nonsense and watch the conference on TV.

I don’t however encourage others to stay home because as President Bartlett said ‘Decisions are made by those who show up’.  Or in this case by those who get permission by from the police. So those of you who do decide to go please vote on the motion that Gareth Epps and others are proposing against these crazy illiberal rules.

I would go just for this motion but don’t have funds to afford such gesture.

Sorry to all my dear friends who I won’t see this year but I just can’t get myself to go through with it – it is against everything I believe in.

This is a topic close to my heart as despite my tutor’s advice ‘don’t work for dodgy lawyers’ I very briefly was an intern at one of those ‘personal injury firms’.

One of the things I was helping with was finding Russian-speaking clients so I was coming up to people and saying something very similar to: ‘if your friend, colleague or family member had an accident, you can earn 200 pounds for referring him/her to us’.

Response was very interesting. Some people, rightly, looked down on me. They said that if something was to happen to their loved one, calling people like me would be the last thing they would want to do.

But some were very excited with the opportunity of earning extra cash. So we signed lots of people up.

I left that firm after three days because I hated the concept and didn’t want to be one of those ‘ambulance-chasers’.

When I first saw this news on BBC, I was delighted – I really don’t like this system. However, not long after, my liberal instincts kicked in. I am against banning anything unless it harms others. The rise of insurance prices and annoying text messages trying to sign people up don’t constitute sufficient harm as far as I am concerned.

Also some people actually have series accidents and injuries (caused by asbestos for example) and those personal injury firms with their referral system raised awareness of those health risks and helped a lot of people.  Maybe that is enough of justification for their aggressive marketing and sending out troops of annoying people like I was for three days.

I would welcome a discussion and will wholeheartedly support the ban if I was presented with a case on how this system can seriously harm anyone.

But for now: there you go: this is just another example of things that should not be banned just because we don’t like it.