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The UK’s policing bill will make climate activism almost illegal – just when it’s most needed

(The Conversation, 6 Dec 2021) The UK government has proposed some worrying amendments to its already draconian policing bill. The amendments will directly target environmental activists and are a response to direct action protests from groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain, and protests against the HS2 high speed railway.

Proposed changes to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would grant police additional powers to restrict protests when deemed to “threaten public order or stop people from getting on with their daily lives”. The proposed legislation represents a dangerous threat to essential democratic and civil liberties such as the right to protest.

And it does so especially during times of accelerating climate and biodiversity breakdown when, as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has repeatedly urged, a radical departure from business as usual is exactly what we need.

Designed to be disruptive

Nonviolent direct actions such as road blockades and civil disobedience are a key fixture of social and environmental movements. These tactics are designed to be disruptive to highlight the urgency of a particular issue and the failures of the status quo.

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The Conversation, 6 Dec 2021: The UK’s policing bill will make climate activism almost illegal – just when it’s most needed