Has Britain officially become a police state? That might seem like an over-egged question, but thanks to legislation introduced by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the authorities will now have the power to restrict any protest that could cause a “more than minor hindrance or delay” - and its the police who'll be able to define precisely what that means.
As if that wasn't serious enough, the mechanism by which the law was passed also has troubling implications for our liberties.
A first attempt to introduce the proposal was rejected by the House of Lords, but the government reintroduced it as "secondary legislation" which, according to constitutional convention, can't be blocked by the upper chamber. But was this use of parliamentary procedure itself an abuse of process?
Katy Watts, a lawyer with Liberty tells Adrian Goldberg why the civil rights group is taking the government to court over the issue.
Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg.
Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times.
Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices