Actions against protest have risen exponentially; will Labour stop this?
JVL Introduction
The clampdown on protest has been of great concern to JVL and all organisations committed to freedom of speech and the right to protest. We have published articles on this as changes were being made to the laws. The BBC’s File on 4 programme has looked at the impact of the changes, mainly targeting those protesting about the environment. Of greatest concern is the use of civil injunctions that lack some of the safeguards and can lead to longer sentences than would be possible under Criminal Law. Legal aid is also not available at the initial stage and “A civil injunction application can be made without the knowledge of the defendant or any representation in court. Once an order is granted, attempts should be made to inform those named” (my emphasis)
400 people are named and 1200 locations – but there is also the catch all “persons unknown” which means that anyone could be prosecuted.
You can also listen to the broadcast here
LL
This article was originally published by BBC on Wed 3 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
'Slow-walk' protests banned at 1,200 locations
The scale of efforts by oil companies and public bodies to protect their premises from environmental protesters can be revealed in new BBC analysis.
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So who exactly defines ‘unlawful and dangerous’? The courts? No, ofr course not. The logic of this is not dissimilar to that employed by the Supreme Court of the USA when it says that a President is immune from prosecution for any illegal act which can be interpreted as being an official act In other words, there are people of power in two of the major world democracies who are openly being allowed to make their own laws and apply their own sanctions regardless of the actual law. How far can all this go? And is the new Starmer government going to deal with what’s happening or just let it happen? I think that’s obvious judging by Labour’s own distinctive way with rules and regulations.
Raj Chada stood for selection against Keir Starmer — what a different Labour party we might have today if he had won! All of us in the Co-op Party nominated Raj .(At that time Co-op party members had a right to put in nominations, since abolished). He was brilliant. A genuine human rights lawyer.