UK climate activists have said that they are ready to continue protests except the government imposes the death penalty for their actions.
This is as they signalled their contempt for a new bill, known as the public order bill- aimed at curtailing their civil disobedience tactics.
The bill which passed through the Commons this week and is now before the House of Lords takes aim at “criminal, disruptive and self-defeating guerrilla tactics” used by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain.
The bill is expected to also introduce stiff penalties for “lock-on” protests, used regularly by groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Just Stop Oil, as well as new offences of interfering with key national infrastructure, obstructing major transport works and causing serious disruption by tunnelling.
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The bill has now met with significant opposition, not only from climate activist groups and civil rights organisations but also from sections of the Conservative party. The Tory MP Sir Charles Walker said he would be voting against the bill, and that its proposals for serious disruption prevention orders were “not the answer”.
The bill reintroduces several measures that were knocked out of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill when it was examined by the Lords in December. That law, which was explicitly targeted at XR and Black Lives Matter protests, gave police a range of new powers to control public assemblies.
The civil rights organisation Liberty, had In a briefing this week, described the public order bill as “a staggering attack on our right to protest”. Its director, Martha Spurrier, said: “Protest is a fundamental right, not a gift from the state. But our right to protest continues to be attacked by a government intent on making it harder for people to stand up for the causes they believe in.”
She explained that the bill was part of a range of new measures, including restrictions to judicial review and the introduction of voter ID that were “limiting people’s ability to make their voices heard.
“The threat of the public order bill must not be underestimated,” Spurrier was quoted as saying. “From protests taking place in opposition to the government’s Rwanda plan, to gatherings in Parliament Square raising the alarm about the cost of living crisis, to people protesting for racial justice and striking for climate justice, it is clear that protest remains at the heart of how we stand up to power and we must fight to defend it.”
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil who has been arrested severally, Cameron Ford said that the measures would not stop activists from continuing their disruptive protest campaign.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
