Conservative MPs have voted for the second time to reinstate “draconian” measures on “noisy” protests despite strong opposition in the House of Lords.
Following Monday (28 March 2022) night, where several peer amendments were rejected by MPs, the controversial Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will return to the House of Lords on Thursday (31 March 2022).
MPs have supported a move to reinstate police powers to shut down and curb “noisy” protests by 267 to 202 votes.
The upper and lower chambers have been battling it out for provisions in the Bill to increase police powers for months, with the Lords twice now rejecting measures that would involve allowing the police to shut down disruptive protests.
MPs have conceded to remove a condition of “serious unease” that police would use to identify which protests to clamp down on, however Shadow Home Office Minister, Sarah Jones, has labelled this concession as “small”.
The violent defence of an unjust and undemocratic capitalism to such an extreme leaves bare for all to see how desperate the capitalists are getting.
As global pressures continue to mount on the capitalist states, capitalists in Britain are chomping at the bit to impose a full measure of austerity on the working class through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to try and regain some level of control.
Introducing measures that will enable the police state to crack down on any form of protest aims to demoralise the working class and stop us from fighting for a better system. It is in the Tory party’s best interests, as the capitalists’ lackeys, to combat by any means necessary class struggle amongst workers.
YCLers across the country have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in Kill the Bill rallies for over a year now. The working class will not go down quietly as the Tories would hope.
Over the last two years, we have seen certain billionaires profit immensely from the misery of the working class whilst the working people have gotten poorer, now facing the cost of living crisis. The working class has always been robbed of the opportunity to exert control over the determining factors of their lives, and this Bill certainly entrenches that theft of agency. The situation of the working class can only get worse from here if the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is made law.
Georgina Andrews, is the Student Officer of the YCL
