I got the chills reading @GeorgeMonbiot's latest column on the draconian police powers of the new ‘Public Order Bill’.
But to understand how we got here we need to take a step back and look at the way these laws have been called into being. It's a wild story🤯
🧵
@GeorgeMonbiot 2/ Let's start in May 2019:
Following @XRebellionUK's actions in London- in which thousands of peaceful protestors engaged in the largest acts of civil disobedience in the UK for a generation- Parliament declares a #ClimateEmergency.
A key demand of the protestors had been met
@GeorgeMonbiot @XRebellionUK 3/ The establishment was alarmed.
July 2019: Conservative think tank 'Policy Exchange' hastily put out a report concluding "legislation relating to public protest needs to be urgently reformed in order to strengthen the ability of police to place restrictions on planned protest"
@GeorgeMonbiot @XRebellionUK 4/ 'Policy Exchange' charged XR with being 'extremists' in order to justify the crackdown on their peaceful protests.
But it was clear that "This accusation is baseless" as academics @simon_mair & @JKSteinberger pointed out at the time in @openDemocracy
opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/…
5/ The conservative press then promoted the findings of the Policy Exchange report.
For example the Telegraph gave the reports author Richard Walton a column to repeat his call for a crackdown...
5b/ (Digression) - Yes, this is the same Richard Walton who was suspended from the Met over the Stephen Lawrence spying debacle.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
6/ The dodgy report was also platformed on the BBC’s flagship radio news program:
7/ As @XRebellionUK spokesperson @RupertRead explained at the time…
"The funders of Policy Exchange are completely non-transparent, but I bet you if we were to find out who they were, we would find out in whose interests it is to undermine XR"
vice.com/en/article/ywa…
8/ And lo and behold - it subsequently came to light that Policy Exchange had received funding from the oil giant Exxon Mobil:
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
9/ But over the coming months we would hear repeated calls in the billionaire owned press echoing the report’s call for a clamp down on civil-liberties.
10/ LBC's Nick Ferrari even launched a campaign:
"to give police greater powers when dealing with protests which cause serious public disorder, such as Extinction Rebellion."
11/ By spring 2021 the government had introduced a new ‘Police, Crime &Sentencing Bill’.
Meanwhile, human rights & civil liberties groups were warning that the government's bill was “an attack on some of the most fundamental rights of citizens”
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…
12/ Ultimately, after much public outcry, the House of Lords defeated some of the worst amendments to the bill.
But a still draconian ‘Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act’ was passed in April 2022.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
13/ Policy Exchange celebrated their victory:
policyexchange.org.uk/blogs/the-quee…
14/ Then the whole process started up again.
Nov 2022: Policy Exchange published another report calling for yet more authoritarian legislation:
"It is time for authorities to step up. Policy Exchange proposes new legislation which Parliament should enact"
15/ The billionaire owned papers again went into overdrive...
16/ Human rights lawyers and civil liberties groups warn once again of the perils to democracy of granting the police such powers:
edition.cnn.com/2023/01/17/uk/…
17/ May 2023:
The ‘New Public Order Act’ comes into force, and immediately (as @GeorgeMonbiot reports in his column) we see the police abusing their new powers...
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
18/ And are the billionaire- press satisfied?
No! Immediately they are out baying for yet more blood.
Dragging us ever-further into authoritarian rule.
19/ All in an effort to prop up an unsustainable status quo:
“governments don’t act on climate without pressure from civil society: threatening & silencing activists thus seems to be a new form of anti-democratic refusal to act on climate"
theguardian.com/environment/20…
20/ The international community is aghast at the new legislation.
With the UN Human Rights Chief calling the 'Public Order Act' "Deeply troubling":
21/ @CIVICUSalliance is warning the UK is “increasingly authoritarian”.
Explaining in a new report that they have downgraded the UKs status due to the "worrying trends we are seeing in restrictions across civil society that are threatening our democracy"
22/ If we value democracy and are committed to securing a sustainable future, we are going to have to refuse to be cowed by these attacks on our freedom.
We're going to have to fight back and force the next government to repeal these unjust and anti-democratic laws.
23/ I feel we should all take courage from…
… the fact that leading criminologists have pledged to
"lend our full support to climate defenders who are criminalised by the state."
24/ …the fact that lawyers are increasingly refusing to prosecute peaceful climate activists...
25/ …the fact that @JustStop_Oil are showing tremendous courage and spirit and are still out on the streets.
They need our solidarity! 💚✊
26/ We have to take a stand against the authoritarian turn of British politics & the continuation of the fossil fuelled death project.
Protest rights and functional democracy are fundamental to securing a livable planet for all.
/END
P.S. If you want to learn more of the wholly inappropriate relationship between the government and Murdoch press, you might want to check this out...
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