The British government is trying to make protest illegal

[sabotabby]

George Monbiot is doing some excellent reporting on it. The gist is that the extremist right British government is trying to ram through legislation that would ban locking on, obstruct transport, expand stop-and-search, ban specific people from protesting, and jail protesters for up to 51 weeks. It's also very vaguely worded.

If you're wondering, this is targeted at the left, particularly climate justice and racial justice groups. I'm not sure how much of a problem far-right protests like the ones we see here are in the UK, but you can bet that these draconian restrictions won't be applied to them anyway. And, of course, racialized people will be targeted the most, because they always are.

This is part of a larger attack on democracy there, which includes attacks on voting rights and further restrictions on what's left of a free press.

We should all be very concerned, even if we're not in the UK. Other far-right governments look to what's allowed there to determine what they can get away with doing in their own countries. I know that many of us live in places that are along the same path, and I can recall very well the police state that my own city experienced during the G20.

If you're in the UK, here are some things you can do. If you're not, please spread the word. Don't expect the Freezed Peach sorts to show up to help because they never do.

Comments

[smhwpf]

It's horrific. There are a lot of civil society groups making noise about it, but it's barely entering the mainstream. I think Labour might be opposing it in theory, but they're not making a big thing of it, sounding the alarm or anything. (Apart from the 30 or so left-wing MPs). OK, David Lammy is one front-bencher who's been quite strong about it. But generally, crickets.

Hoping either the Lords or the Supreme Court will at least put some restraints on it. As for the left, we can protest, but the government with it's 80-seat majority won't give a damn, and we haven't got the numbers to cause serious problems.

[sabotabby]

Weird to think that the Lords would save everyone. Fuck.

[dewline]

I'm not counting on it. Not with "cash for peerages" being an ongoing scandal.

[smhwpf]

Well, the Commons can (rightly) overturn anything the Lords does, but rejection by the Lords, especially if they do it the full three times before the Government can invoke the Parliament Act to ignore them, would give opportunity for further opposition, might make some Tory MPs who are uneasy about the bill think twice about it (or at least support some of the Lords' amendments), make the government think that some of it's not worth the hassle, and so on. But it's a rather think thread.

[minoanmiss]

Oh fun! Various states in my natal Union are doing so as well.

[sabotabby]

Of course they are.

Here they tend to just do it illegally and pay the fines in the courts long after it's ruined everyone's lives. But I actually worry that some of the legislation around safe zones for hospitals will backfire.

[dewline]

I'd heard about this through my own channels, and I've been Twitter-following Mr. Monbiot as a matter of survival routine since getting my own account. And I consider this Johnsonite legislation to be part of the larger global attack on democratic societies because the International Democrat Union is still a real thing in this world.

[sabotabby]

Pretty sure all of these assholes have kompromat on each other.

[dewline]

Such revelations will not surprise me.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Well that sucks. But it's not exactly surprising. V For Vendetta is looking more prophetic than ever.

[sabotabby]

I don't even think it was prophetic—they were just trying this shit back then too.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

You know, you're right. Cue Alan Moore with a "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit" sign.