It seems that Public Protest is illegal under the current lockdown rules. So people have been defying the rules for a variety of reasons. Some are against lockdown, some are vaccination deniers or conspiracy theorists, others such as the peaceful turnout by women at Clapham Common, were motivated by the sense of how dangerous it is for women on our streets, following the murder of Sarah Everard.
Whether small or large turnouts of large gatherings of people for protest or commemoration are inevitably a vector for transmission of the virus, and people appear to be prepared to break the law for their cause, however unrepresentative it is.
The protests against the terms of the Police and Crime Bill going through Parliament at the moment in Bristol were a case in point. Even the peaceful parts of that protest were against the law, but the case of where people determined to use that cause as an opportunity for violence and attacks on the Police and Property are well known, which is why the government seem to want to criminalize any form of protest, which has not been approved by local authorities or police.
People are calling the terms of the proposed legislation as a challenge to their freedoms of free speech, of the right to assemble for a protest, and a way of introducing a "Police State". I haven't studied the proposals in any detail, but it seems to me that the way to "kill the bill" the mantra of Saturdays protesters is by exercising their right to lobby their MP's to vote against it. In other words, following the democratic process, including peaceful protest, when it is safe to do so, not in the middle of a pandemic.
Surely we all feel a grievance sometimes when restrictions are imposed on our freedom to do just as we like, but we have a responsibility to observe those restrictions for the protection of ourselves and others. We have a duty of care for each others, and we disregard this at our and others peril. Surely the figures of deaths so far and those hospitalised with severe, life affecting long term conditions should be evidence enough for us to stick to the lawful pursuits, but so many don't see it that way.
I could ask whatever happened to the "British Commons ense and stoicism"? perhaps it is a well meaning myth and the "Spirit of the Blitz" never existed?
I just pray that the population at large will see sense and stop these sort of protests until it is safe to do so, legally and for the right reasons.
