he United Kingdom is facing a protest problem. In recent months, a group called Insulate Britain has been staging protests in the areas around London. Their message to the government is simple: fund the widespread insulation of British homes to improve energy efficiency and help reduce the carbon footprint of houses. Their approach is to block roads, bridges, and motorways throughout the UK, causing significant annoyance and delay. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called them “irresponsible crusties,” and a British talk show host has compared their actions to “fascism.”
Although hyperbolic, this type of rhetoric devalues the role of nonviolent protest in society. It takes place amid a pernicious trend of anti-democratization in the UK in which freedom of assembly, judicial independence, and longstanding human rights standards are under threat from government. These changes represent a significant hollowing out of the UK’s democracy—weakening government accountability while leaving surface aspects of democracy like voting and debate untouched. This will seriously limit the UK’s ability to promote democratic values abroad at a time of rising global authoritarianism.
Peaceful protests and non-violent civil disobedience have been a core part of the UK climate movement in recent years. From school strikes inspired by activist Greta Thunberg to the bridge-blocking antics of Extinction Rebellion, protest has been a vital force in bringing climate change to the forefront of the political agenda. However, certain provisions within the government’s 2021 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill threaten the ability of citizens to protest around this and other issues within the UK.
In the Government’s own words, the new Bill will “strengthen police powers to tackle nonviolent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on access to Parliament.” It would allow the police to impose controls on any protest that creates a level of noise, which could have a “relevant” or “significant” impact on persons in the vicinity.
Parliamentarians, civil society, and legal practitioners have launched strong criticism against the Bill. As the Bar Council says, “it is difficult to imagine any peaceful protest, which may not fall foul of these provisions—an improbable exception being a procession of Trappist Monks.” With wording so vague, it is very likely that this new legislation will severely impair people’s ability to protest in the UK. This is a real concern. The suffragette movement was not quiet. Nor were the poll tax riots, which have become synonymous with protest in the UK and which prevented tax reforms that would have impacted severely on the UK’s poorest.
The Bill comes alongside a range of other measures that could threaten liberties in the UK. The Ministry of Justice is reportedly considering measures that will allow government ministers to correct court judgements that they believe are ‘incorrect’, threatening the independence of the courts. There are also plans to ‘overhaul’ the ground-breaking Human Rights Act, which has drawn strong criticism from UK-based human rights groups.
These proposed changes come at a time when the post-Brexit UK is attempting to reinvent itself on the world stage as a champion of democracy, human rights, and free trade. In March 2021 the government published its long-awaited ‘Integrated Review’, touted as the largest overhaul of UK foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. In it, the government said the UK would become a “force for good,” standing up for open societies and defending vulnerable people globally. If the UK wants to realize these ambitions in any meaningful way, it needs to think long and hard about how its actions at home will stifle its voice abroad. At a time when global authoritarianism is indisputably on the rise and democracy is “under siege,” it is paramount that stable democratic powers are publicly demonstrating the values of freedom and open societies.
The UK’s next government should immediately repeal these damaging legal and policy changes, respecting people’s free and unfettered right to peaceful protest, the independence of the judiciary, and the sanctity of human rights enshrined by law. It should also recommit substantive resource to international democratic strengthening abroad—whether funding research into the state of global democracy or providing additional resourcing for election observation missions. Rolling back these reforms and restoring the rights that have been core to the UK for centuries, along with much more substantial efforts to support democracy internationally, would bolster the UK’s credibility and impact as a major player in the fight against rising global authoritarianism.
The UK is the birthplace of parliamentary democracy. Its legislature is known as the “Mother of Parliaments.” The UK has a clear and meaningful role to play on the world stage. It retains immense soft power, permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, and seats in the elite clubs of the G7 and G20. UK expertise is highly sought-after for democratic and parliamentary strengthening throughout the world. It is the UN Security Council penholder on multiple countries of current international concern, including Libya, Myanmar, and Yemen. As democracy backslides globally, the UK should be stepping up to demonstrate the values of open societies and human rights. The government’s recent actions only accomplish the opposite, restricting people’s rights in the UK and providing cover for authoritarians everywhere.
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The UK’s Hollowing Democracy
Photo by James Eades via Unsplash.
December 8, 2021
The British government is seeking to pass a new bill that would strengthen police powers to combat nonviolent protests. This is only the latest in a series of measures which are eroding the world's oldest parliamentary democracy, writes YPFP Human Rights Fellow James Jennion.
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he United Kingdom is facing a protest problem. In recent months, a group called Insulate Britain has been staging protests in the areas around London. Their message to the government is simple: fund the widespread insulation of British homes to improve energy efficiency and help reduce the carbon footprint of houses. Their approach is to block roads, bridges, and motorways throughout the UK, causing significant annoyance and delay. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called them “irresponsible crusties,” and a British talk show host has compared their actions to “fascism.”
Although hyperbolic, this type of rhetoric devalues the role of nonviolent protest in society. It takes place amid a pernicious trend of anti-democratization in the UK in which freedom of assembly, judicial independence, and longstanding human rights standards are under threat from government. These changes represent a significant hollowing out of the UK’s democracy—weakening government accountability while leaving surface aspects of democracy like voting and debate untouched. This will seriously limit the UK’s ability to promote democratic values abroad at a time of rising global authoritarianism.
Peaceful protests and non-violent civil disobedience have been a core part of the UK climate movement in recent years. From school strikes inspired by activist Greta Thunberg to the bridge-blocking antics of Extinction Rebellion, protest has been a vital force in bringing climate change to the forefront of the political agenda. However, certain provisions within the government’s 2021 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill threaten the ability of citizens to protest around this and other issues within the UK.
In the Government’s own words, the new Bill will “strengthen police powers to tackle nonviolent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on access to Parliament.” It would allow the police to impose controls on any protest that creates a level of noise, which could have a “relevant” or “significant” impact on persons in the vicinity.
Parliamentarians, civil society, and legal practitioners have launched strong criticism against the Bill. As the Bar Council says, “it is difficult to imagine any peaceful protest, which may not fall foul of these provisions—an improbable exception being a procession of Trappist Monks.” With wording so vague, it is very likely that this new legislation will severely impair people’s ability to protest in the UK. This is a real concern. The suffragette movement was not quiet. Nor were the poll tax riots, which have become synonymous with protest in the UK and which prevented tax reforms that would have impacted severely on the UK’s poorest.
The Bill comes alongside a range of other measures that could threaten liberties in the UK. The Ministry of Justice is reportedly considering measures that will allow government ministers to correct court judgements that they believe are ‘incorrect’, threatening the independence of the courts. There are also plans to ‘overhaul’ the ground-breaking Human Rights Act, which has drawn strong criticism from UK-based human rights groups.
These proposed changes come at a time when the post-Brexit UK is attempting to reinvent itself on the world stage as a champion of democracy, human rights, and free trade. In March 2021 the government published its long-awaited ‘Integrated Review’, touted as the largest overhaul of UK foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. In it, the government said the UK would become a “force for good,” standing up for open societies and defending vulnerable people globally. If the UK wants to realize these ambitions in any meaningful way, it needs to think long and hard about how its actions at home will stifle its voice abroad. At a time when global authoritarianism is indisputably on the rise and democracy is “under siege,” it is paramount that stable democratic powers are publicly demonstrating the values of freedom and open societies.
The UK’s next government should immediately repeal these damaging legal and policy changes, respecting people’s free and unfettered right to peaceful protest, the independence of the judiciary, and the sanctity of human rights enshrined by law. It should also recommit substantive resource to international democratic strengthening abroad—whether funding research into the state of global democracy or providing additional resourcing for election observation missions. Rolling back these reforms and restoring the rights that have been core to the UK for centuries, along with much more substantial efforts to support democracy internationally, would bolster the UK’s credibility and impact as a major player in the fight against rising global authoritarianism.
The UK is the birthplace of parliamentary democracy. Its legislature is known as the “Mother of Parliaments.” The UK has a clear and meaningful role to play on the world stage. It retains immense soft power, permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, and seats in the elite clubs of the G7 and G20. UK expertise is highly sought-after for democratic and parliamentary strengthening throughout the world. It is the UN Security Council penholder on multiple countries of current international concern, including Libya, Myanmar, and Yemen. As democracy backslides globally, the UK should be stepping up to demonstrate the values of open societies and human rights. The government’s recent actions only accomplish the opposite, restricting people’s rights in the UK and providing cover for authoritarians everywhere.
