The Guardian View on Criminalising Protest: The Lords Must Take a Stand

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The attempt to evade parliamentary scrutiny over curbing the right to protest should be resisted

Checks and balances are built into every democracy. On Monday, the House of Lords has the chance to show how much this matters and why. Amendments added to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill by the government late last year would restrict the right to protest beyond the measures already debated by MPs, and criminalise trespass. The new powers granted to the police by these extra clauses, along with sentences of up to a year for offences such as obstructing “nationally significant infrastructure” including roads and airports, are an assault on civil liberties. Freedom of expression, including the freedom of assembly, is central to a liberal democracy. Governments often need to hear what protesters have to say. For ministers to attack them is particularly worrying at a time when some senior Conservatives are pushing back against environmentalism more broadly, as well as against anti-racist initiatives. » | Editorial | Thursday, January 13, 2022

The Guardian View on the Police Bill: A Fight for the Right to Protest

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: Labour and the Lords must take a stand against the draconian crackdown on demonstrators proposed by ministers

Insulate Britain activists protest in London last month. Photograph: Belinda Jiao/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock
An already illiberal police and crime bill threatens to become even more so, if 18 pages of amendments added to it by the government in the House of Lords last month are accepted. A new criminal offence of obstructing major transport works, the expansion of stop and search powers and a new power for police to ban named people from demonstrations are clearly intended to strangle off what ministers are worried could be a new line in disruptive climate protests, after two months of roadblocks organised by the direct-action group Insulate Britain – and a decision by the supreme court earlier this year reaffirming the right of protesters to cause disruption.

Emboldened by the angry response to Insulate Britain from some members of the public, and criticism from paramedics about delays to ambulances, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and her colleagues have calculated that they can risk bypassing the scrutiny by MPs that is an essential part of our parliamentary process. In January, the Lords will have the opportunity to prove them wrong by rejecting these tacked-on, kneejerk measures.

The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill was bad enough before, as was vividly illustrated by criticism of it from David Blunkett and Theresa May – neither of whom remotely resembles the stereotype of the out-of-touch-with-public-opinion, human-rights-obsessed liberal that some on the right love to hate. The bill, wrote Lord Blunkett earlier this year, would make Britain “more like Putin’s Russia”. More than 600,000 people signed a petition objecting to it. » | Editorial | Sunday, December 19, 2021