You’re Not Free if the Government Holds the Leash

s it possible to name a recent policy or decision made by the British government that was not specifically designed to accelerate the country’s decline or cause widespread resentment among the native population? It feels as though every time Keir Starmer or one of his cabinet ministers opens their mouths, we are forced to wave goodbye to another ancient institution or expect an attack on some vital part of British life. 

In the past several months alone, there have been attacks on trial by jury, the announcement of digital ID cards, which we subsequently learnt will be imposed by draconian measures, as well as the attempt to introduce sentencing guidelines that almost put native Britons at the bottom of a racial sentencing caste system in their own country—and that is just to name several out of dozens of similar examples. The fact is a simple one: Britain is being abolished from within. And although many European nations are facing similar attacks, it feels most pronounced in Britain, where any notion of the salami-slicer has been replaced by a blunt axe, indiscriminately hacking away at anything before it. 

The latest example is the incoming abolition of the freedom to protest. Following the arrest of 500 people participating in the Palestine Action protests last weekend, the British government announced it will grant the police new powers to put conditions on what they call “repeat protests.” These include forbidding the protest from taking place, forcing the event to be held elsewhere, or restricting the duration of the protests. 

Notably, the police already possess powers to ban protests if there is a risk of serious public disorder in Britain, which, for many, is already going too far. Yet, the powers granted to the police will go far further than what already exists. From what has been announced by the government, the police will be able to permit or ban protests much more freely than before, with British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s justification for these measures being so that those residing near ongoing protests can “live their lives without fear.” She further added that large, repeated protests could leave religious communities in Britain “feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.”