Public Order bill to get more teeth as Rishi Sunak prepares to take a bold decision 

What is the existing Public order bill?

The public order bill was introduced in the speech by the queen.

According to the bill it will make provision for new offenses relating to public order; to make provision about stop and search powers; to make provision about the exercise of police functions relating to public order; to make provision about proceedings by the Secretary of State relating to protest-related activities; to make provision about serious disruption prevention orders; and for connected purposes.

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3153

What forced Rishi Sunak led UK government to bring such an amendment?

According to Rishi Sunak, “The right to protest is a fundamental principle of our democracy, but this is not absolute”. He also said, “We cannot have protests conducted by a small minority disrupting the lives of the ordinary public. It’s not acceptable, and we’re going to bring it to an end.”

According to “Guardian” the government said it would be laying an amendment to the public order bill to toughen its crackdown on “guerilla” tactics used mainly by environmental protesters. It is intended to deal with protest groups’ changing tactics, such as slowing traffic to a crawling pace by carrying out walking protests through big cities. 

Response from the protesters 

Many people have termed it as an attempt to muzzle the voice of protesters by the government. In a healthy democracy, protest is seen as the symbol of democracy continuing in the country. A silent opposite ensures government has a free run and no accountability. 

Civil liberty campaigners and protest groups last night said they fear the government’s overly Draconian approach.

Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and former director of Liberty, who is challenging some elements of the bill in the House of Lords, said the government’s attempt to get even more powers was “very troubling”. She also said it remains very important to understand the description of what is serious disruption. It is key to this bill because it is used as a justification for a whole range of new offenses, stop, and search powers and banning orders. If you set the bar too low, you are really giving the police a blank check to shut down dissent before it has even happened,”

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem homes affairs spokesperson, described the move as “shameless” and “part of the Conservative government’s anti-democratic attempts to silence any opposition to its policies”

Counter View

There might be some criticism to the move by Rishi Sunak, but. This must be appreciated as a bold move which aims to restrict damage caused to government buildings and assets and loss to the public due to protest. Protest also were a direct and indirect attempt to affect the economy. Such activities lead to less global investment in UK as companies want their work hours to be completely productive and for that they need a peaceful environment. 

But the government must exercise with caution the bill, otherwise it will use as a political tool to target opposition or anyone who is going against the government. Giving police more power to act on such cases is welcome, but there must also be their mechanisms that fix their accountability. The move is going to get accolades from the public or going to get more criticism, can only be said after the bill takes the form of law.

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