Monday, October 06, 2025
Labour's authoritarian drift
We already have the proposal by Labour ministers to introduce compulsory ID cards, with all the potential for linking up databases into one insecure one and the creation of a surveillance state, now, the Guardian reports that Labour Ministers are to give police new powers to target repeated protests, aimed particularly at cracking down on demonstrations connected to Gaza. So much for free speech and the right to protest.
The paper says that the announcement, made the morning after almost 500 people were arrested in London for expressing support for Palestine Action, a proscribed organisation, could allow police to order regular protests to take place at a different site, with home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, also looking at all anti-protest laws, with the possibility that powers to ban some protests outright could be strengthened.
The Home Secretary is no stranger to protest, as illustrated below, however now she is in power, she wishes to restrict that right for others:
Under the planned powers, Mahmood will push through rapid changes to the Public Order Act 1986, allowing police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated protests. Details will be set out “in due course”, the announcement said.
If a protest has caused what a Home Office statement called “repeated disorder” at the same site for repeated weeks, police would be able to order the organisers to move it elsewhere, with anyone who fails to obey risking arrest.
Mahmood, the statement added, would “also review existing legislation to ensure that powers are sufficient and being consistently applied”, including police powers to ban some protests completely.
Asked on Sky about the plan, Mahmood said: “What I will be making explicit is that cumulative disruption, that is to say the frequency of particular protests in particular places, is in and of itself, a reason for the police to be able to restrict and place conditions.”
This could involve police ordering protest organisers to move the event, or restrict the timescale, she said.
The real problem here, of course, is that having proscribed Palestine Action for protests that don't come anywhere near the extremes adopted by the Suffragettes, who are lauded by the same ministers, Labour are embarrassed by the scale of resistance to their ban and are trying to snub it out. In doing so, despite all the caveats and weasel words, they are undermining fundamental democratic rights.
Their actions, and those of the Tories before them, have also politicised the police, using officers to suppress inconvenient opinions legitimately expressed on our streets. No wonder the police are said to be exhausted. These are the actions of authoritarians, not democrats.
If a protest has caused what a Home Office statement called “repeated disorder” at the same site for repeated weeks, police would be able to order the organisers to move it elsewhere, with anyone who fails to obey risking arrest.
Mahmood, the statement added, would “also review existing legislation to ensure that powers are sufficient and being consistently applied”, including police powers to ban some protests completely.
Asked on Sky about the plan, Mahmood said: “What I will be making explicit is that cumulative disruption, that is to say the frequency of particular protests in particular places, is in and of itself, a reason for the police to be able to restrict and place conditions.”
This could involve police ordering protest organisers to move the event, or restrict the timescale, she said.
The real problem here, of course, is that having proscribed Palestine Action for protests that don't come anywhere near the extremes adopted by the Suffragettes, who are lauded by the same ministers, Labour are embarrassed by the scale of resistance to their ban and are trying to snub it out. In doing so, despite all the caveats and weasel words, they are undermining fundamental democratic rights.
Their actions, and those of the Tories before them, have also politicised the police, using officers to suppress inconvenient opinions legitimately expressed on our streets. No wonder the police are said to be exhausted. These are the actions of authoritarians, not democrats.
