The police raids which show Britain’s stopped believing in free protest
The UK is in poor company when it comes to protecting civic liberties, writes Alan Rusbridger. We should be glad that some people are exercised enough by what is going wrong in the world to want to protest
he police burst in, broke up the gathering and arrested everyone involved. They carted them off to the cells, confiscated their phones and, in at least one case, raided their home and took away all the family laptops and hard drives.
The crime? Er, well, there may not have been one. Welcome to Britain in 2026 and the increasingly harsh way we handle not even protest, but the very thought of protest.
The setting on 5 March was the Quaker meeting house in Westminster. A group of around 15 – let’s call them “concerned citizens” – had apparently assembled for a lesson in non-violent action. They sat in a circle and introduced themselves. And then the police burst in.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/police-arrests-protest-keir-starmer-b2947088.html
#protest #police #ukpol #uk