In a chilling erosion of our freedom of expression, ministers will have the power to suppress any protest they don’t agree with
Tucked away in the government’s 300-page police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, are various clauses which will have serious implications for the right to protest. The bill seeks to quietly criminalise “serious annoyance”, increase police powers to restrict protests, and give the home secretary discretion over what types of protests are allowed.
It is striking that such an enormous bill had its second reading less than a week after it was published and was only allocated two days of debate. It appears that the government had hoped to pass it quickly and without fanfare, but instead the introduction of the bill coincided with the fallout from the police response to the Sarah Everard vigil and ultimately sparked in Bristol the very thing it sought to limit: protests.
