Police and protesting in Bristol
Voltaire apparently said: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
The same enlightenment principle applies to protesting, and this is enshrined within the Human Rights Act.
However, just as freedom of speech isn’t absolute, government may legitimately restrict freedom of assembly in instances where the freedoms and safety of others are under threat.
An assembly would be a charitable description of the violent mob that attacked police in Bristol last week. That disgusting performance will have strengthened the resolve of anyone wavering in their support for the government’s Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill. I certainly voted to buttress the freedom and security of those potentially at the whip end of mob rule.
It’s not for the first time I’ve called out mob rule in a city I know well, In June I criticized policemen who ‘took the knee’ or did nothing in the face of BLM protesters hauling down a statue in the town centre. You can dress that up however you like but there’s no disguising it as a wanton criminal act.
Now the Avon and Somerset constabulary that largely stood by that day has itself come under the most appalling attack.
I suspect most of the violent protestors we saw in Bristol last week are numbered among ‘the usual suspects;’ political extremists, anarchists and angry, marginalized young men looking for a cause to justify their aggression. They are certainly not freedom loving campaigners since what they were up to is the antithesis of freedom and the rules-based system that underpins it.
I do not think Voltaire had in mind the likes of the Bristol thugs when he spoke of defending to the death the right of people to express views which he did not himself hold. Those people need to feel the rule of law.
I have been mobilised to help vaccinate and I am reminded daily that we are by no means out of this pandemic. I did support last week the extension of the powers granted to ministers by parliament last year to deal with the crisis, However, we have to ensure that those powers are revoked at the earliest opportunity.
I’m thinking big firms will be thinking twice about a future in an EU that threatens to seize assets and block exports. Those companies may find a better fit in an enlightened, liberal jurisdiction like the UK whose government has met the EU’s belligerence with commendable maturity and balance.