Latest editorial
The Rev Sue Parfitt: “I think in a rather paradoxical way that the more heavy handed the laws become, or try to become, the more it backfires”
THE government is cracking down on the right to protest at the very time it’s needed most, veteran climate activists have warned as they hit out at “draconian” anti-protest laws.
The Public Order Bill, which is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords, has already been cleared by MPs despite warnings the legislation will severely restrict people’s right to protest and amounts to an “attempt to overthrow democracy.”
The Bill aims to target radical climate protesters by criminalising tactics favoured by environmental activists, including “locking on,” tunnelling and obstructing major transport networks as well as expanding stop-and-search powers around protests.
As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book