Xjyuk

What are the current progressive battlegrounds for “rights” in the UK?

The reason I ask is that all of the areas I can think of could be said to already be relatively “progressive.”

• The Abortion Act 1967 makes abortion legal until the end of the 24th week.


• The wage gap is close to zero (and negative in some age groups) when subjected to a multivariate analysis.


• The Communications Act 2003 prohibits incitement to violence and menacing trolling.


• The Equalities Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against all the protected groups.


• The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right to leave for child care (eg. 52 weeks for maternity) and to flexible working patterns.


• The Working Time Act 1998 mandates 28 days paid holidays, breaks from work and attempts to limit working hours.


• The Pensions Act 2008 gives the right to an occupational pension.


• The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 gives a minimum wage.

Abortion is legal until the end of the 24th week.

Not in Northern Ireland. UK progressiveness really ought to remember to look at the whole UK.

I would say that the big areas at the moment are:

• Preventing a regression of rights, especially in relation to Brexit; this might include employment rights, and definitely includes the rights of the 3m EU nationals here.




• Immigration rights more generally: treatment of asylum seekers etc. The Home Office has operated an increasingly expensive, punitive and arbitrary process for legal immigration over the past few years in an attempt to discourage people. This includes the restrictions on spousal visas as well.




• Rights for trans people: e.g. GRA Scotland consultation. There is a significant anti-trans media and social media campaign on at the moment.




• Benefits for disabled people: again subject to arbitrary and unfair bureaucratic processes. This attracted condemnation from the UN.




• The right not to burn to death: Grenfell and related issues of safety in social housing. Housing availability and affordability more generally is an area of concern.




• Extreme poverty: see the UN Special Rapporteur on the subject.

Access to legal aid, which is currently going backwards. While pjc50's answer is great, almost all of them will end up in court and without access to legal aid, anyone without significant reserves faces a severe disadvantage in the modern legal arena. Even an MP who originally supported and voted for the cuts has changed his mind.

Neill, a barrister, has said the original impulse may have been to cut down “on some instances of needless expenditure” but the pendulum has swung too far. “The evidence is pretty compelling that changes are needed … We cannot expect people who often have multiple problems in their lives necessarily to be able to resolve such things on their own,” he said.