right to protest
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🛑 Defending our right to protest – Before it’s too late
Environmental campaigners Chris Packham CBE and Gaie Delap are mounting a legal challenge to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSCA) — a sweeping and oppressive law that redefines peaceful protest as “public nuisance” and carries prison sentences of up to 10 years. Continue reading
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The case against a “statutory right to protest”
One of the only protest-related amendments to Labour’s Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently under scrutiny in the House of Commons, proposes the creation of a “statutory right to protest”. Continue reading
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EXPLAINER: The Public Order Bill 2022
Having successfully passed one piece of vague, draconian public order legislation, the government is already embarking on the introduction of another. Continue reading
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EXPLAINER: what are the government’s latest proposals for punishing protesters?
On Sunday at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the latest punitive proposals for new police powers in her ongoing vendetta against political and social movements the government refuses to engage with. Continue reading
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Draconian new legislation set to shut down protest at Scottish Parliament ahead of COP26
Campaigners have condemned controversial new legislation designed to shut down protests outside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh, warning new police powers will have a “chilling effect” on the right to protest. The timing of this new legislation – just months before COP26 arrives in Scotland – is significant. Continue reading
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Proposal for ‘Code for the Policing of Protest’ is Netpol’s Charter in all but name
An Inquiry report published today by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution has endorsed the demand – by local and national organisations and tens of thousands of members of the public who have supported Netpol’s Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights – for clear guidelines on the way protests are policing. Continue reading
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UK: Take Action This Weekend to Kill The Bill!
Last night over 130 people joined our urgent briefing exploring why we all have a duty to take action and Kill The Bill. As a movement we must demand nothing less than a complete rejection of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Our fantastic panel gave us crucial insights into the public health dangers of… Continue reading
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EXPLAINER: What does the new policing bill say about restricting protests?
Since the confrontational crackdown by the Metropolitan Police on women holding a vigil for Sarah Everard at Clapham Common on 13 March, a growing movement has condemned police intolerance to the right to protest and warned this will only become worse with the passing of the government’s 307 page Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.… Continue reading
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Know Your Rights: Fixed Penalty Notices and Protests
One of the potential consequences for people taking part in protests against the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, or other protests in the coming months, is receiving a fixed penalty notice (FPN) for allegedly breaching health protection regulations. Continue reading
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Democracy: Is Political leafleting now banned as well?
The election of Boris Johnson has ended up with the prime Minister using special Covid legislation to entrench power not seen since the times of Henry VIII. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a stark warning to anyone who doubts that assertion. In the meantime, democracy is being slowly chipped away behind the… Continue reading
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Stop police crushing protests – take action now
Campaigners are demanding the National Police Chief’s Council stops cracking down on the right to protest. Will you join us? Continue reading
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Are you seriously annoying?
The UK government is rushing through new anti-protest laws which could ban protests that are too noisy or annoying – surely the definition of a good protest? The ridiculous and outrageous proposals would “make a dictator blush”, according to one MP, but last night Conservative MPs voted them through their first stage in parliament. Continue reading
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UK: Do we still want to have a right to protest in 2022?
This Bill would in effect remove the right to protest. It would give police officers the power to ban or place restrictions of their choice upon public demonstrations. Continue reading
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Tens of thousands join the call to protect our #FreedomToProtest
Over 100,000 people have now signed our petition opposing the government’s new Policing Bill and calling on the National Police Chiefs Council to adopt our Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights, setting out how police should protect, not restrict, the right to protest. Continue reading
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Government announces new restrictions to the right to protest
The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on our ability to take to the streets. Now the Home Office is busy preparing, in readiness for when public health restrictions start to ease, to make sweeping changes to public order legislation that will give the police extra powers to restrict future protests. Continue reading
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UK: The government wants to silence dissent
Other than at a General Election – an event occurring at five-yearly intervals that hands unconstrained power to a Party that wins a majority – a citizen has but one way of registering dissent at what is done in their name: the right to protest. Yesterday the Government announced its intention to legislate that right out of… Continue reading
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Democracy – “this is another attack on our ability to stand up to power”
“New laws to curb protests which threaten democracy” is quite the phrase. We have a five-yearly democratic event which hands absolute power to the Government. In the years that follow, the right to protest is all there is of democracy. Be very afraid.” Continue reading
The New Dark Age 