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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
A declaration of war on our right to protest
The Policing Bill represents another step towards authoritarianism — it must be scrapped, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

LAST week every single Conservative MP voted in favour of a piece of legislation that would not look out of place within the world’s most authoritarian regimes.

Significant concerns have been raised by human-rights groups, lawyers and activists that the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill constitutes a significant reduction in established freedom to protest. The Bill includes measures to “strengthen police powers to tackle non-violent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on access to Parliament.”

The Metropolitan Police’s awful mismanagement of Saturday’s peaceful vigil in memory of Sarah Everard should remind the government that the police do not need any more powers to suppress our democratic rights of free assembly and peaceful protest. If anything, now is the time for the rights of protesters to be broadened and strengthened.

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