Ms. Badenoch was scathing about the online harm law, which sought to protect Internet users, and children in particular, from sexual abuse, terrorists and other online harm.
“This is something I’m very happy to be able to talk about now because I’m not a minister, so there’s no more collective responsibility,” he said.
“We had an online harms bill, which was supposed to address very serious crime, online terrorism, child pornography and deal with it, and now it’s grown. It’s trying to fix a lot. other problems that were not initially intended to be solved. Legislation is not always the answer. “
Ms Badenoch added: “We have now reached a point where we are legislating for hurt feelings. I think it will have major issues of freedom of expression.”
Risk of criminalizing “statements of fact”
Ms. Badenoch, who has been vilified by pro-trans campaigns for her opposition to gender-neutral toilets, warned that the government runs the risk of criminalizing “statements of fact” about biology and sex.
“One of the things I see is that people say women are adult biological women is a harmful speech. We can’t legislate for something that creates a crime from such a simple and done statement. And these are the things I think we are doing wrong.
“If I were prime minister, I would really cut this bill to focus on what I had to do. And that’s what I mean by lean government. Fix the problem.”
Ms. Badenoch, whose pre-political work included working as a secretary, math tutor, store clerk, and software engineer, added that her philosophy of “lean government” stems from “the way I think things “.
“I’m a trained engineer, and that’s how I see things. Analyze the root cause of a problem and try to fix it from there before moving on. “
“Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions”
How did he get the government to deviate so far from the core conservative values that Johnson championed during his leadership campaign and the 2019 election?
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” he said. “It’s always about trying to make everyone happy. And I think that’s been one of the hardest things to deal with as you have a growing majority. You’re creating a broader coalition and it’s hard to keep everyone happy.
“We need to be able to set an agenda, [not] Ask everyone what they want and then try to please everyone. I think that’s the kind of example of what happens when you do it. “
Ms Badenoch fears that Theresa May, the former prime minister, has enshrined the UK’s global goal of climate change without a sufficient plan to actually reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
“I think we were wrong to set a goal without having a clear cost plan and knowing what it would entail,” Ms. Badenoch said. “Setting an arbitrary goal like this is the wrong way to go.
“I am not someone who does not believe in climate change. I can see. But there is a better way to do these things. “