Liberty is the central theme of Debbie Hicks’ campaign to get elected to Parliament.

Ms Hicks, a 49-year-old teacher is the independent candidate standing in Swindon North at the general election who has entered an alliance with the independent in Swindon South Martin Costello.

She has come up with what appears to be disparate set of policies; she’s against Net Zero targets and would oppose the imposition of ultra-low emission zones in Swindon but would allow the council to take over empty houses to provide shelter for the homeless, for example.

But she says the underlying them is civil liberties, and she is very concerned that they have been curtailed and will be so even further.

“We’re losing the freedom of speech, the Online Safety Act is an attack on freedom of speech on the internet, we are losing the freedom to assemble and protest in the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. It gives too many powers to stop protests on very vague grounds.

“And the Human Rights Act is one of the biggest examples. We are losing the sense of proportionality in the case of activists.

“It doesn’t matter what the cause is, whether it’s Just Stop Oil, or Gaza protesters. I certainly don’t approve of what Just Stop Oil want, I don’t agree with them, but we must all have the freedom to protest.”

Ms Hicks was convicted in 2022 of public order offences relating to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Covid-19 regulations.

She says: “Yes, I have two convictions because, look at me I’m so dangerous.”

She sees her anti-lockdown activism as being of a piece with her campaign: “The lockdowns and other restrictions were some of the greatest restrictions of our rights and freedoms since the Second World War. And I’m proud of my activism, I think I’ve been vindicated now.”

The reference to war is not an accident: “Governments in the west were trying to see what they could get away with in preparation for war, NATO-allied forces going to war against Russia and possibly China.

“War is coming, and some of the restrictions in the pandemic were just preparation for it.”

Standing as an independent candidate against the main parties is nearly always a thankless task – but what Ms Hicks sees as a uniformity of opinion in the parties makes it necessary: “Nobody in the mainstream is opposing it, or looking to do something different.

With domestic policies, Ms Hicks again sees the mainstream parties as too aligned. She advocates bringing all public services, the NHS, utilities and services provided by both government and local authorities back into public ownership.

“This can be paid for by making sure corporations pay their fair share of tax and removing compulsory competitive tendering and outsourcing of services to the myriad of trusts and companies taking most of our money in profits and for shareholders and trustees.

“Instead that money should be spent on the essential services we need. The NHS must be completely overhauled and reinvented - end PFI, use of agency staff, reinstate nurses’ bursaries and increase junior doctors’ salary.”

“I’m standing because we need independent voices to be able to call out what’s going wrong and not be beholden to parties of the money people behind them.

“I’m not willing to play the mainstream game, if I were, I’d be an MP by now – but I’m offering an alternative to represent what the people want and not party interests.”

Also standing in Swindon North Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson, Labour’s Will Stone, the Green Party candidate Andy Bentley, Les Willis of Reform UK, Trades Union and Socialist Coalition candidate Scott Hunter and the Liberal Democrat Flo Clucas.