Suella Braverman was sacked for a second time as Home Secretary a year ago this month after she tried to get a Palestinian demonstration in central London banned, attacked the Met Police, and encouraged drunken fascists to have a punch up at the Cenotaph.
Braverman’s second spell as Home Secretary had focused a lot on finding ways to curtail and ban the right to protest. Its her legislative work that has led to jail sentences for Just Stop Oil protesters for example.
However Ms Braverman has now established the principle of two tier protests. Those she wants banned and those she supports.
The farmers protest in central London on 19th November fell into the second category. It was modestly disruptive as protests need to be to make an impact which it certainly did. As often with large scale protests the character was mixed. On the one hand there were tenant farmers who are being done over by big agriculture. On the other was Jeremy Clarkson who now denies he bought his farm as a tax dodge and says he did so because he wanted to shoot pheasants or possibly peasants.
That notwithstanding in a democratic protest there should be a right to protest and a recognition that civil disobedience can be legitimate (see tractors). No tiers are required to establish this principle
Excellent – well spotted