Home Secretary Suella Braverman is still pushing for restrictions on the use of tents by rough sleepers in England and Wales.
The proposal was not in the King’s Speech setting out the government’s priorities for the year ahead.
But a source close to Mrs Braverman insisted the idea had not been dropped.
Downing Street said it would not speculate on whether the proposal would eventually be included in the Criminal Justice Bill.
The bill – which was in the King’s Speech – includes proposed new powers to tackle “persistent, nuisance, and organised begging”.
It is designed to replace the 1824 Vagrancy Act, which makes begging and rough sleeping a criminal offence in England and Wales.
One senior government source told the BBC the Criminal Justice Bill had been due to start its journey into law on Wednesday, but its introduction in the Commons had been delayed by discussions about whether to include the tents idea.
The right to protest is a distinctive feature of democratic, liberal societies. Yet the way in which many leading British politicians are currently talking about Just Stop Oil might make you think otherwise. Far from engaging with the issues at stake in these protests, politicians appear to be encouraging the wider public to ignore them or even oppose them.
Extinction Rebellion protest, banner reads NO MORE PLANET WRECKING FOSSIL FUELS DEMAND RENEWABLE ENERGY
Having seen their initial protests largely ignored, Just Stop Oil members have been making more disruptive (but non-violent) protests lately. They’ve been present at high-profile sports events like Wimbledon and the World Snooker Championships.
Policing minister Chris Philp dismissed the temporary delays caused to such events as “completely unacceptable”. He argued that “the vast majority of the public are appalled by this very, very small, very selfish minority” and called on those not protesting to intervene.
With the UK government announcing new licences for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, it’s clear that collective action that allows people to demonstrate their disagreement in peaceful ways is needed. In apparent contradiction to warnings about the climate crisis, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s commitment to the green agenda is wavering.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, has cancelled a plan to fund the transition from fossil fuels to green industries from the first day of government, should he win power. His response to criticism on this change was to turn on protesters.
He said: “The likes of Just Stop Oil want us to simply turn off the taps in the North Sea, creating the same chaos for working people that they do on our roads. It’s contemptible.”
Keir Starmer has deployed some divisive language about climate protestors of late. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer. Credit: DeSmog via UK Parliament (CC BY 3.0)
Diverting the conversation
Referring to people defending the environment as a “minority” that acts against other citizens polarises society and marginalises protesters’ claims. It depicts people’s demands as somehow niche rather than amounting to a highly pressing threat to the majority.
One of the features of language is that when we talk, we only focus on one or, at most, a few aspects of a particular object or event. A lot will inevitably remain unsaid.
Still, when what remains unsaid is one of the most obvious elements of any given topic, what is missing becomes as informative as what was said. In this case, the focus on tactics instead of the substance of the protest betrays an unwillingness to engage with the climate crisis.
The government has put forward the home secretary Suella Braverman rather than the environment secretary to respond to the Just Stop Oil protests (itself a signal that they are seen as a public order issue more than anything else).
Braverman has referred to people protesting for environmental reasons as causing “havoc and misery”. Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to have made any public statements regarding the matter.
To say that people are protesting and not mentioning the reason for the protest leaves the story incomplete. That’s something that rarely happens when UK politicians talk about protests in other countries.
But when talking about protests held in the UK, the debate looms over the disruption caused, as if the core message were secondary or even dispensable. It is only when the core message is ignored that politicians can refer to those acting in defence of human and nonhuman lives as “selfish”.
In the absence of meaningful political engagement, conversations about Just Stop Oil protests in the UK have strayed mainly into tactics and disruption at expense of their core message. However, politicians in democratic nations have a responsibility towards the electorate to engage properly with what citizens demand, not just with the way they make their claims heard.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
later: The King’s speech is today whereby King Charles reads a speech prepared by the UK government with details of what the government intends for the new parliamentary session. The UK government must call a general election before 17 December 2024.
One of the many occasions climate change denier and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
Briefly, Liar and cheat Boris Johnson won the 2019 general election with a huge majority. He achieved this by lying and misleading the UK electorate promising to “Get Brexit done” and an oven-ready deal and similar associated lies. The UK electorate were tired of the Tories Brexit BS and wanted it finished. It’s still unfinished of course.
Image of Elmo (left) and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson (right)
Boris was deposed as a result of the Partygate Scandal – repeatedly lying that there were no parties at Downing Street when there were so many at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when such social meetings were forbidden.
Then we briefly had Liz Truss replacing Boris. She trashed the UK economy with her and Kwasi Kwasi Kwarteng’s bonkers budget. It may be worth investigating who has benefited financially from that budget.
Lettuce complains about being compared to Liz Truss.
Sunak replaced Liz Truss as Conservative Leader and therefore UK Prime Minister. His government has made huge assaults on the right to protest and is in thrall to the fossil fuel industry pursuing a climate-denying programme of fossil fuel expansion with huge fossil fuel subsidies. Many regard his climate-denying actions as criminal. He must be aware of the effects of his actions.
We have idiots like Lee Anderson repeatedly attacking the poor, Sue-Ellen Braverman wanting to take tents away from homeless people so that they die of exposure, open sewers full across the UK with UK abandoning EU pollution regulations.
SUELLA BRAVERMAN’S attack on the homeless plumbs new depths from a minister already known for kicking downwards.
It combines a xenophobic jibe at foreigners with brazen victim-blaming, ludicrously terming rough sleeping a “lifestyle choice” when the rise in homelessness is demonstrably the fault of the Conservative government.
The Home Secretary knows that the homelessness crisis cannot be swept under the carpet.
Rough sleeping has risen by 74 per cent since 2010, according to the government’s own figures. The rapid provision of safe accommodation to thousands of homeless people during the pandemic showed rough sleeping can be ended almost overnight where there is the political will: but as soon as the lockdowns passed the will disappeared, and a 26 per cent rise in rough sleeping last year alone points to the devastating impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Homeless Link CEO Rick Henderson pointed to the causes at the start of the year: “A shortage of affordable housing, an often punitive welfare system and increasingly stretched health services.”
The results are visible everywhere. It is now rare to take a journey in one of our larger cities without encountering beggars. This is an indictment of 13 years of Tory rule.
