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16 Mar, 4 tweets, 1 min read
About to talk to Sky News about the right to protest
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More from @AdamWagner1

Adam Wagner Profile picture
16 Mar
Judgment out: Elliott's appeal against HS2 allowed on sentence, halved from 6 to 3 months (suspended) because judge's starting point was too high and did not properly take into account the "Cuadrilla discount" for people engaged in civil disobedience bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/… Image
Heather Williams Q.C. of @DoughtyStPublic led me, instructed by Nicola Hall @RobertLizarLaw.

Disappointed other grounds (boundaries & knowledge of order) refused but important Court of Appeal cemented principle that non-violent protesters treated more leniently in sentencing.
Also credit to @Kirsty_Brimelow (leading me and Richard Brigden) for establishing the "Cuadrilla principle" in that other important Court of Appeal case from last year - including a quote from John Rawls who I think was the philosopher who led me into law bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/… Image
Read 6 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
13 Mar
Some thoughts.

The right to protest is the lifeblood of democracy.

During this deadly pandemic, every aspect of our social lives has been affected, and it is right that a deadly infectious virus will make us protest differently, as it makes us work and socialise differently.
But.

Protest has never been explicitly banned by Parliament, even during the lockdown.

The problem is that police forces have behaved as if it is has.

It is unacceptable that police have exercised this kind of authority without explicit authorisation from Parliament.
The police cannot be the gatekeepers of our rights to protest. They are not fit for that task for many reasons.
Read 13 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
12 Mar
Have to log out but this is the point:

At 3pm today every police force in England was saying protest could never be lawful under Covid regs.

The position now, because of the ruling, is protest can in principle be lawful and it is up to the police to assess the proportionality
The only reason judge didn't make declaration we wanted (that the right to protest has to be part of every decision made by police re protest) is the police conceded the point just before the hearing, contrary to their policy which we had and also their statements to our clients.
Absolutely amazing effort by @ReclaimTS - we are lucky to have such amazing publicly minded women in our society.

Legal team @TomRHickman @PippaWoodrow @jpormerod John Halford, Theodora Middleton @BindmansLLP put together case in 24 hours.

Will have a big impact, trust me
Read 5 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
11 Mar
UPDATE

After the below tweets I spent much of today speaking to women across England about their plans to organise #ReclaimTheseStreets vigils.

All plans include social distancing & masks

It turned out that police were generally saying that all such gatherings were illegal /1
The organisers could face £10k fines, and participants could be prosecuted or face fines of £100s.

@metpoliceuk initially told @ReclaimTS organisers they wanted to allow it to happen but late this afternoon reversed their position and said that their "hands were tied" /2
A great team at @BindmansLLP @BlackstoneChbrs @DoughtyStreet and I are working to get urgent hearing before High Court tomorrow to declare Met Police misunderstood their duties under Human Rights Act.

The case needs urgent support crowdjustice.com/case/reclaimth… /3
Read 5 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
11 Mar
Interested to see how the @metpoliceuk police this. In the current lockdown they seem to have been treating protest as essentially banned. I think that is legally wrong. Outdoor socially distanced protest should be permitted under the Covid regulations.
In the circumstances, the @metpoliceuk should confirm publicly that the protest will be permitted. However, if they do, it will be an exception to the policy they seem to have applied through the rest of the lockdown. This shows the problem with the policy.
The police should never be in the position of deciding which causes they prefer to permit to protest. Anyway, watch this space for more on that
Read 6 tweets
Adam Wagner Profile picture
5 Mar
🚨Changes to lockdown and face covering regulations coming into force this Monday 8th just published

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place and Restrictions: All Tiers) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/247/…
Brief explanatory note

First important change - to the face covering regulations.

Basically trying to prevent face covering rules being “exercised so as to prevent a voter who is otherwise entitled to vote… from doing so”. What does that mean, exactly?

Sounds pretty circular to me.

Read 17 tweets

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