Leading Catholics and Christian organisations have signed an open letter to the UK government urging a reversal of recent crackdowns on public protests, especially outside the Palace of Westminster and town halls.
They also condemn the Government’s use of terms such as “hate mobs” to describe protestors.
Tim Livesey, former public affairs adviser to the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and chief executive of Embrace the Middle East, is one of the 45 co-signatories to the letter from Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK.
Livesey told The Tablet: “There’s something deeply ironic, not to say depressing, about a government preaching free speech and lauding democracy, preferably liberal, abroad whilst cracking down on freedom of speech, association and the right to protest at home.”
He added: “Civil society, including churches and faith groups are speaking out and standing up for fundamental freedoms.”
The letter voices “concern” over government proposals that “will further restrict the rights of everyone in the UK”.
On February 28, the Prime Minister introduced the Defending Democracy Policing Protocol to curb “attempts to hijack legitimate protests” and threats made against MPs, including at their homes.
Mr Sunak described this as “part of a pattern of increasingly intimidatory behaviour” that was “as un-British as it is undemocratic”.
But the signatories, including Christian Aid, Oxfam GB and Quakers in Britain condemn the Protocol’s ban on demonstrations outside “perfectly normal locations for protest” including the Palace of Westminster, MPs constituency offices and town halls.
They say “existing legislation already governs if violent or other criminal activity occurs,” and accuse the government of adding “to a chaotic patchwork of repressive legislation and policing powers that has placed undue restrictions on the right to protest in this country.”
Organisations who signed the letter including Greenpeace UK, Article 19, Liberty and the Muslim Council of Britain, urge Mr Sunak to abandon new, broader definitions of extremism, observing: “It is our collective responsibility to set a reasoned tone for any discussion… Instead, the government has sought to demonise an overwhelmingly peaceful movement of individuals calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.”
William Bell, Christian Aid's head of Middle East policy and advocacy, told The Tablet: “To tackle extreme poverty and the injustices that cause it, we must be able to speak truth to power. But this new legislation and policing powers has put this under threat. This Government’s vilifying in recent weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful protests calling for a ceasefire to end the suffering faced by innocent people in Gaza is just one example.”
Loading ...
