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I’ve been protesting all my life. It can feel futile, yet doing nothing is much worse | Polly Toynbee
The Tories are trying to ban the activism that has shaped me – from Greenham Common to UK Uncut. They must be stopped
What a miracle that the House of Lords rose up and rebelled this week against the government’s assault on protest. Labour had no idea how many peers on the crossbenches, let alone the Tory benches, or even among their own rapidly ageing and frail cohort would be there to vote against draconian new laws that are more redolent of Hong Kong than Britain. If the Lords is the last backstop against the arbitrary powers of an elective dictatorship, it relies on the thin safety net of enough members’ individual sense of justice in that 800-strong chamber – motivating them to turn up and stay late to vote. And this time, they did.
This week the women’s rights activists Reclaim These Streets are in the high court arguing that the Metropolitan police breached human rights by banning a vigil on Clapham Common for Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a Met police officer. The group also allege that Met police officers used force while threatening protesters with £10,000 fines for breaching lockdown rules.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
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