intolerance

Campaigners insist draconian limits on right to protest will be resisted

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-insist-draconian-limits-right-protest-resisted

PLANS for even more draconian limits on people’s right to protest — including outside Parliament — will be resisted, campaigners insisted today.

Government “violence adviser” Baron Walney, who was Labour MP John Woodcock before his elevation, has recommended that “threatening” protests outside Parliament, MPs’ offices and council buildings be banned and dispersed by police.

The clampdown adds to existing new limits on protests including for being “too noisy” or causing inconvenience.

The Stop the War Coalition pledged to mobilise against any new laws or regulations banning protests outside Parliament, and humanitarian campaign group Liberty condemned the proposals as “knee-jerk and deeply concerning.”

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Peaceful protests have been condemned by reactionary politicians and the media as “hate marches” and calls for Palestinians to have freedom “from the river to the sea” have been dubbed “anti-semitic.”

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Sam Grant, advocacy director at human rights campaign group Liberty, said: “When people care deeply about an issue, it’s natural for them to make their voices heard at the place where decisions are made.

“For centuries, protesting outside Parliament has been how people have campaigned for positive change in society, from the right to vote to equal marriage.

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“We’ve already seen a tightening on how people protest outside Parliament through the Policing Act 2022, and these plans could extend that much further.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-insist-draconian-limits-right-protest-resisted

Continue ReadingCampaigners insist draconian limits on right to protest will be resisted

Morning Star: Rising homelessness is the Tories’ fault – not a ‘lifestyle choice’

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Image quoting Suella 'Sue-Ellen' Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.
Image quoting Suella ‘Sue-Ellen’ Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/rising-homelessness-tories-fault-not-lifestyle-choice

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.

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/rising-homelessness-tories-fault-not-lifestyle-choice

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Rising homelessness is the Tories’ fault – not a ‘lifestyle choice’