The New Dark Age

Our State of Protest 2024 report, This is Repression, concluded that Britain now exists in a state of repression in its treatment of protest rights. This year’s report, How Repression Became Routine, builds on that work to uncover what’s happened since.

Between July 2025 and February 2026, Netpol conducted in-depth qualitative research within protest movements, drawing on interviews, testimonies, legal observer notes, court records, police and government data, media coverage and 21 Freedom of Information requests.

Our findings show that repression has become routine in British protest policing: new and overlapping laws, combined with a growing tendency to treat protest as a security issue, have normalised surveillance, heavy-handed policing, and punishment, with harm concentrated on marginalised groups. Protest is increasingly policed as a matter of threat management rather than democratic expression.

There will be events in Manchester, Brighton & London. More details coming soon. The report will be launched in a free livestream on Wednesday 25th of March 2026 at 7pm.