Rainbow warriors attack justice Bill: A week of action against the Criminal Justice Bill begins today, with judges and gypsies united in opposing what is regarded as a concerted assault on civil liberties. Heather Mills reports

LIZ FORD, a 43-year-old Essex mother, shares little in common with Lyn Lush, 29 and co-owner of Chill Out, an independent record label in Brixton, south London. But they will be hand in hand in protest on London's streets as part of the huge rainbow alliance which has sprung up against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill - regarded as one of the most concerted attacks on civil liberties this century.

Never before has a piece of legislation - not even the ill-fated poll tax - united in opposition people from such diverse backgrounds. Judges, ecologists, ravers, lawyers, squatters, MPs, travellers, bishops, gypsies, peers and trade unionists, have all voiced dissent against the Bill soon to become law. Liberty, the civil rights organisation, has threatened to take it to the European Court of Human Rights the moment that it is enacted.

The Bill, coupled with the equally controversial Police and Magistrates Courts Act, were twin pillars of the law-and-order policy of Michael Howard, the Home Secretary. Designed to regain ground lost to Labour, it was hastily put together and pitched at last year's Tory party conference as the most 'comprehensive package of action against crime'.

Among its 171 clauses it removes the 300-year-old right to silence and presumption of innocence; it introduces secure training units - dubbed child jails - for 12-14 year-olds; extends police stop and search powers; and provides for DNA testing for any offence.

The creation of new offences such as aggravated trespass will affect squatters, New Age travellers, gypsies, ravers, and hunt saboteurs. Police will also have sweeping powers to criminalise other forms of direct action and peaceful protest.

Among its diverse provisions, the Bill proposes greater prison privatisation, bans the use of egg cells from embryos, clamps down on video makers, reduces the age of homosexual consent and introduces electronic tagging. Greeted with roars of approval by the Tory faithful last October, the 'comprehensive' package has since proven one of the most comprehensively savaged and has indelibly stained Mr Howard's parliamentary reputation. Andrew Puddephatt of Liberty called it 'a collection of prejudices bundled together with no internal logic'. Mr Howard suffered no less than 40 defeats or concessions, forced by changing alliances of peers, lawyers, judges, police, clergy and magistrates.

It was changes forced in the Lords, some by Conservative peers, that delayed the Bill's implementation. Mr Howard had intended that it would be on the statute books before the summer recess. Most notably, the Lords blocked plans for reforming the criminal injuries compensation scheme which critics argued would leave many victims poorly compensated; they gave courts the choice of whether or not to send child offenders to the new secure units; and they delayed for five years plans to relieve councils of the duty of providing caravan sites for gypsies.

The Government is expected to seek to reverse these, and to introduce other 'tough' policies, such as making child offenders as young as 10 perform some kind of public work, when the Bill returns on October 19.

Despite the mauling, friends of Mr Howard say he is confident of grassroots support. It is for that reason that those opposed to the Bill intend constant protest - of the type to be criminalised under the Bill - in the coming weeks, culminating in a poll-tax-protest- size demonstration in central London on 12 October.

Ms Ford, fresh from candlelit vigils in protest at plans to close her local Romford hospital, will join the coalition because the Bill could outlaw such activity. It has prompted her to create a local branch of Liberty - the organization is attracting 90 new members a month as a direct result of the impending legislation.

Ms Lush will be there because she sees the Bill as a 'scary' attack on the young, the poor, and the less able. Never before politically active, it has already prompted her to dress as a suffragette and chain herself to the railings at the House of Commons. 'A fascist cleansing of the country is taking place,' she said.

Alongside, there will be members of human rights groups such as Liberty and Charter 88, Labour MPs, a Queen's Counsel or two, several victims of injustice, rave organisers, travellers, and eco- warriers - a medley of people to fight a hotch-potch of law.

(Photographs omitted)