Stop the Policing Bill ... and the rest

The Policing, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill, or Policing bill is a draconian attack on the right to protest and demonstrate freely, a proud, long-held tradition of British working-class people.

On its own it's appalling enough, but taken together with a constellation of other authoritarian moves by the governments of Boris Johnson and Theresa May, the outlook is grim for British freedoms.

Let's have a look at them.

Back in the years of Theresa May the Investigatory Powers Act or Snooper's Charter ascended into law. This digital power grab required providers of internet services to store the activity of all their users so that, at will, any government body can grant itself access to the public's web-history, call-logs and message contacts. They even want access to our end-to-end encrypted messages, like WhatsApp and Signal—and who knows, perhaps they have already achieved it.

With the spycops scandal—when the London Met infiltrated almost exclusively socialist and environmental organisations and fathered children with the women of those groups—stretching back decades. Even while the public inquiry goes on, the Johnson administration has created legislation ensuring future spies won't face scrutiny for undercover crimes including rape and murder.

The new Judicial Review and Courts Bill will make it more difficult for ordinary people to hold the government to account. This was brought in by the Johnson government in response to the supreme court holding them to account for their illegal prorogation of parliament in 2019. The judiciary, though overburdened and sometimes glacially slow in it's response to current affairs, such as climate change, is one of the only independant checks and balances on a radical and dangerous government.

One of the most unsettling legislative moves the Johnson government has taken is Priti Patel's Borders Bill which will categorize those attempting to save lives in the British Channel as human traffickers, and will pave the way for offshore refugee camps, evoking Guantanamo.

Chillingly, the Johnson government are even closing the door on truth-tellers, making journalists as culpable as whistleblowers for revealing the crimes of corporations or The State. Check out this chilling video