{"id":5417,"date":"2021-12-02T14:03:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5417"},"modified":"2021-12-02T14:03:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:03:16","slug":"jailed-for-51-weeks-for-protesting-britain-is-becoming-a-police-state-by-stealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/archives\/5417","title":{"rendered":"Jailed for 51 weeks for protesting? Britain is becoming a police state by stealth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Jailed for 51 weeks for protesting? Britain is becoming a police state by stealth<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

George Monbiot<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"George<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s back-door amendments to the policing bill are tyrannical. We should be on the streets in our millions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\u2018Among the new amendments are measures that would ban protesters from attaching themselves to another person, to an object, or to land.\u2019 Insulate Britain protesters glued to the road outside parliament. Photograph: Thomas Krych\/SOPA Images\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wed 1 Dec 2021 06.00 GMT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is proper police state stuff. The last-minute amendments crowbarred by the government into the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill<\/a> are a blatant attempt to stifle protest, of the kind you might expect in Russia or Egypt. Priti Patel, the home secretary, shoved 18 extra pages<\/a> into the bill after it had passed through the Commons, and after the second reading in the House of Lords. It looks like a deliberate ploy to avoid effective parliamentary scrutiny. Yet in most of the media there\u2019s a resounding silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the new amendments are measures that would ban protesters from attaching themselves to another person, to an object, or to land. Not only would they make locking on \u2013 a crucial tool of protest the world over \u2013 illegal, but they are so loosely drafted that they could apply to anyone holding on to anything, on pain of up to 51 weeks\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also become a criminal offence to obstruct in any way major transport works from being carried out, again with a maximum sentence of 51 weeks. This looks like an attempt to end meaningful protest against road-building and airport expansion. Other amendments would greatly expand police stop and search powers. The police would be entitled to stop and search people or vehicles if they suspect they might be carrying any article that could be used in the newly prohibited protests, presumably including placards, flyers and banners. Other new powers would grant police the right to stop and search people without suspicion, if they believe that protest will occur \u201cin that area\u201d. Anyone who resists being searched could be imprisoned for \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 up to 51 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing stop and search powers are used disproportionately against Black and Brown people, who are six times as likely<\/a> to be stopped as white people. The new powers would create an even greater disincentive for people of colour to protest. Then the media can continue to berate protest movements for being overwhelmingly white and unrepresentative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps most outrageously, the amendments contain new powers to ban named people from protesting. The grounds are extraordinary, in a nation that claims to be democratic. We can be banned if we have previously committed \u201cprotest-related offences\u201d. Thanks to the draconian measures in the rest of the bill \u2013 many of which pre-date these amendments<\/a> \u2013 it will now be difficult to attend a protest without committing an offence. Or we can be banned if we have attended or \u201ccontributed to\u201d a protest that was \u201clikely to result in serious disruption\u201d. Serious disruption, as the bill stands, could mean almost anything, including being noisy<\/a>. If you post something on social media that encourages people to turn up, you could find yourself on the list. Anyone subject to one of these orders, like a paroled prisoner, might be required to present themselves to the authorities at \u201cparticular times on particular days\u201d. You can also be banned from associating with particular people or \u201cusing the internet to facilitate or encourage\u201d a \u201cprotest-related offence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are dictators\u2019 powers. The country should be in uproar over them, but we hear barely a squeak. The Kill the Bill<\/a> protesters have tried valiantly to draw our attention to this tyrant\u2019s gambit, and have been demonised for their pains<\/a>. Otherwise, you would barely know it was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protest is an essential corrective to the mistakes of government. Had it not been for the tactics Patel now seeks to ban, the pointless and destructive road-building programme the government began in the early 1990s would have continued: eventually John Major\u2019s government conceded it was a mistake, and dropped it. Now governments are making the greatest mistake in human history \u2013 driving us towards systemic environmental collapse \u2013 and Boris Johnson\u2019s administration is seeking to ensure that there is nothing we can do to stop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government knows the new powers are illegitimate, otherwise it would not have tried to avoid parliamentary scrutiny. These brutal amendments sit alongside Johnson\u2019s other attacks on democracy, such as the proposed requirement for voter ID<\/a>, which could deter 2 million potential electors, most of whom are poor and marginalised; the planned curtailment of the Electoral Commission<\/a>; the assault on citizens\u2019 rights to mount legal challenges<\/a> to government policy; and the proposed \u201ccivil orders<\/a>\u201d that could see journalists treated as spies and banned from meeting certain people and visiting certain places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where is everyone? Why isn\u2019t this all over the front pages? Why aren\u2019t we out on the streets in our millions, protesting while we still can? We use our freedoms or we lose them. And we are very close to losing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n