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“Police have been given new powers to crack down on antisocial protestors” blazed the headlines this morning. If that rang a few bells for you, you weren’t the one. In fact, this is the second time in under a year that the Government has introduced a range of measures designed to make it more difficult for anti-social protestors to disrupt everyday life in Britain.
The announcement today is essentially designed to beef up the measures introduced in the Public Order Act 2023.
In short: demonstrators flouting an order to remove their mask could be jailed for a month and fined up to £1,000; anyone joining a protest will also be banned from carrying pyrotechnics, including fireworks, flares and smoke, and those using them could be arrested, and anyone caught climbing on war memorials could be arrested.
All very laudable, you may think. But there is a long road ahead before we get to a situation where protestors actually feel the effects of this announcement.
The announcement today is designed to beef up the measures introduced in the Public Order Act 2023
PA
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First, the Government must overcome the hurdle of the House of Lords. When then Home Secretary Suella Braverman introduced similar legislation last year, it was met with consternation in the Lords.
Peers on both sides of the house argued that the measures would curtail free speech and would ultimately undermine civil liberties.
The Government hit back and managed to squeak through most of the Bill, but some of the most radical measures had to be watered down or else ditched altogether. The Government must brace itself for similar pushback from the Lords this time round.
And even if the Lords do sign off the legislation, there is a big question mark over whether these new measures are practical.
The Met police is already stretched to breaking point dealing with the pro Palestine protests in London: around 27million has already been spent on policing the capital since October, and on multiple occasions the force have had to draft in officers from around the country to help them out.
What’s more, it’s not clear that the Met police has the appetite to get tougher on protestors.
In fact, just a few months ago the Prime Minister felt the need to write to assistant commissioner Mark Rowley to remind him that the police can apply to the government to prevent the marches from taking place for reasons like not having enough staff to ensure safety, which was done in 2011 for an English Defence League march.
The Government is keen to prove to the public that it’s prepared to get tough on anti-social protestors. The question is, do these measures have teeth or does it just come down to posturing?
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