Jack Jones

Anti-protest proposals put free speech at risk | Letters Letters: Readers respond to the proposal to give police further powers to curb ‘cumulative’ protests, in response to actions by the proscribed group Palestine Action

A letter from @crwerren.bsky.social @suzmd.bsky.social @storiesfromjack.bsky.social and me on the plans to allow cumulatively disruptive protests to be regulated by the police

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Working on research of direct relevance to this - police responses to JSO slow marches both sides of the Regs Suella Braverman introduced in 2023 that unlawfully brought in a similar power.

It would be the largest expansion in general assembly/procession regulation since 1986.

#protest #law

Also, the police don't have to arrest the protesters. They have operational discretion over where they allocate their resources, plus of course considerations under the HRA. Undoubtedly they are being put between a rock and a hard place, but arrest still needs to be necessary, not merely convenient.

How many of us are studying history anyway?

Court of appeal revokes ban on Epping hotel housing asylum seekers Home Office had argued that interim injunction for breach of planning was being used to stop protests

The HC interim injunction re the Epping hotel has been overturned by the CoA. The judge had failed to take into account that the order may encourage more protests, and that the full hearing would be heard in a number of weeks anyway.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

Very likely unworkable as part of a solution, but to me a key difference is the greater likelihood of those using abortion clinics (and seperately of asylum seekers) having experienced and/or experiencing trauma, such that protest may exacerbate mental health issues.

The Judge appeared to think that the protesters were against the unlawful use of the hotel, rather than the mere existence of asylum seekers in the UK. Do they think that if they were moved into lawful local housing instead the protesters would stop? I doubt it.

This is hilarious but also underlines the danger of a strict liability offence where the police only have to prove that your slogan gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that you support a proscribed organisation.

It is surely threatening words capable of causing alarm or distress though, which is contrary to s.5 POA 86. Also arguably racially aggravated. If that were a pro-palestine march calling for the deaths of certain social groups, that person would have been arrested in a flash.

Demonstrators arrested at Palestine Action event in Norwich More than a dozen people with signs supporting the proscribed group are held at a Norwich protest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Arrests in Norwich today for expressing support for PA. Interesting that the police quoted the reasons for intervening from the Public Order Act 1986. They have nothing to do with the powers in the Terrorism Act 2000 which were used to arrest the protesters. Link to article in post below.

Imagine if a council applied for an inunction to ban the use of fossil fuels to prevent the disruption of environmental protesters.

Epping council applies for asylum injunction over The Bell Hotel - BBC News There is a risk of community tensions escalating in Epping, the authority says.

Bizzare turn. Council applies for injunction, not to stop the protesters outside the hotel (as would usually happen in protest cases) but to stop the hotel being used to house asylum seekers. Victim blaming at its finest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It didnt happen over a weekend. It's been creeping forward for a long time. The wider shifts in public order policing faciliated by new acts have helped lay the ground work for people peacefully protesting to be arrested en mass.

It didnt happen over a weekend. It's been creeping forward for a long time. The wider shifts in public order policing faciliated by new acts have helped lay the ground work for people peacefully protesting to be arrested en mass.

Not charged yet. That's likely because they were taken to temporary pop-up sites to log their personal details and bailed pending a charging decision by the CPS. Charges likely to come later.

Such 2(nonsense × nonsense).

The damage that the proscription of Palestine Action (and undoubtedly some of the policing of this law) is doing to police legitimacy in this country is an unfolding nightmare.

Where are these legitimate concerns? Are they in the room with us now?

According to Bluesky facescan software I am not an adult. Can I get child prices again now?

How are these proportionate bail conditions? Especially when they are likely to remain in place for upwards of a year until trial. And why exclude from the city centre anyway? What purpose does that serve?

It's got these vibes.

Downing Street condemns protests outside hotel ‘housing asylum seekers’ Six arrested after Sunday night’s disturbances at Essex Hotel, which follow protests on Thursday when eight officers were injured

Government that fans flames gets annoyed when fire spreads.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

Can Bluesky please give us the ability to bookmark or save posts? You dont want to 'like' all posts you want to keep tabs on for future reference.

With all the discourse about the term Terrorism and its application, found this nugget at Bishopsgate library last week. It's in reference to a violent clash between the Met and a group of around 20,000 protesters in Trafalgar Square in 1887, labelled Bloody Sunday at the time.

Shame they didnt have Captain Croc make a guest appearance.

It does! The 'sterile area' sounds potentially even worse. Is that intended to refer a no-man's land? Sounds like you might get sprayed with an anti-bacterial mist if you enter it.

However there is another aspect that interested me this time. The Met have taken to labelling spatial areas such as 'conditioned area' and 'sterile area', demarcating zones of behavioural exclusion/inclusion in law. I havent noticed these terms used before, though maybe wasnt paying attention.

UPDATE: Met reiterates warning on support for proscribed organisations ahead of Saturday protests Those who see this as an opportunity to test the limits of the law by expressing support for Palestine Action will likely be committing an offence and will...

Quite a long statement from the Met this time re protests today following the proscription of PA. Inevitably any pro Palestine protest is now to be scrutinised for terrorism offences, which is a chilling effect in of itself. 1/2

news.met.police.uk/news/met-rei...

Ministers to enshrine UK charities’ right to peaceful protest in new ‘covenant’ Agreement between government and voluntary sector aims to reset relations after erosion of trust under Tories

Enshrining that which is already permissible 🤷‍♂️. But it wont stop the continuous erosion on multiple fronts - from crimimal law, use of conditional orders/bail, injunctions, anti-terror law.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...