The new policing bill is bad law – it should be scrapped

Editorial: Britons are prepared to challenge the authorities if they feel the cause is right and urgent

People attend a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham on Saturday (AFP/Getty)

As Boris Johnson is fond of reminding people (at least when it suits him), Britain is a freedom-loving land; its people tenacious in their defence of fundamental rights.

As was witnessed most recently at the vigil for Sarah Everard, Britons are prepared to challenge the authorities if they feel the cause is right and urgent, and they will not be silenced. You wonder, then, why the government is persisting with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which will make the business of protest more difficult – both for those who wish to take to the streets, and for the police who will have to persuade demonstrators to leave the streets.

At the moment, things are made all the more difficult by the current Covid restrictions, which clash badly with sections of the 1998 Human Rights Act, as well as the UK’s international commitments to the right to free speech and free assembly. Asking the police to enforce the law is one thing, but asking them to choose to safeguard one law (the Covid regulations) over others (human rights and common law) is unreasonable.