The five campaigns that I am going to discuss are Sarah’s Law, Clare’s Law, the Double Jeopardy Law, the
Assisted Dying campaign and Brexit.
The campaign for Sarah’s Law came about after an 8-year-old girl (Sarah Payne) was abducted on the 1 st
July 2000 while she and her parents (Sara and Michael) were visiting other family members. Sarah’s
body was found on the 17th July after a search spanning over 2 weeks, leading her mother to start
campaigning for justice. It was found that Roy Whiting had abducted, abused and then murdered Sarah
before leaving her body behind. Whiting had previous convictions for abducting and sexually assaulting
another young girl. Sara insisted that if she knew someone with such a previous conviction was in the
area, she would never have let her daughter play in the local fields without an adult present to
supervise. In this way the Sarah’s Law campaign is similar to the Double Jeopardy Law. This campaign
was started by Ann Ming, another grieving mother whose daughter was also killed in tragic
circumstances when her partner, Billy Dunlop, was charged with her murder and appeared in two trials
where the jury failed to reach a decision. He later confessed to killing Julie Hogg, thinking he was
protected by the Double Jeopardy Law but when it changed, he became the first person to be charged
under the new rules. Both of these campaigns are also somewhat similar to Clare’s Law, especially the
Double Jeopardy Law, as this campaign was started by another grieving parent. Clare Wood died at the
hands of her ex-partner George Appleton in February 2009 when she tried to end their relationship after
finding out he had a severe history of violence against women. Clare’s father, Michael, believed Clare
could have been saved if she had the knowledge of Appleton’s violent past and so began campaigning
for a police disclosure scheme. Both Brexit and the Assisted Dying campaign contrast the Double
Jeopardy campaign as Brexit came about when Prime Minister David Cameron held a referendum as a
means to defeat the anti-EU faction within his own party and the Assisted Dying campaign was not
started by one single incident, and therefore differs to the other four campaigns as it came about when
Diane Pretty, Tony Nicklinson and Debbie Purdy made applications to the High Court seeking the right to
die at the time and method of their choosing. My campaign will differ from all of these, as there has
been no significant event or trauma in my life that has led me to creating a campaign aiming to create a
law on charging honour crimes.
The main driving forces of the Assisted Dying campaign were Diane Pretty, Tony Nicklinson and Debbie
Purdy, who all wanted the right to die at the time and method of their choosing. These are people who
would feel the effects of the change they are campaigning for first-hand, which differs from Sarah’s Law,
Clare’s Law and the Double Jeopardy campaign where the driving forces were grieving parents who had
all lost their daughters in tragic circumstances. With Sarah’s Law, Sara and Michael Payne drove their
campaign forwards. Sara spoke at several conferences and fundraising events that further publicised her
campaign. Similarly, the Double Jeopardy Law campaign was led by Ann Ming, who sought justice for her
daughter and spent 17 years campaigning to overturn the out-dated law along with her husband Charlie.
Clare’s Law was launched by Clare’s father, Michael Brown in 2009 for which he won several awards
recognising his efforts in raising awareness of Clare’s Law and domestic violence. On the other hand, the
Brexit campaign was spearheaded by Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson along with other
politicians such as Michael Gove, Dave Frost and Kier Starmer. Many celebrities also involved
themselves with the campaign and gave their public support including Michael Caine, Joan Collins and
Ringo Starr. My campaign again differs from these, as I have no close relations with anyone who has
been a victim of or has witnessed an honour crime, nor have I been affected by one myself.
