@Tal45
We should have locked down properly like NZ a year ago, it doesn't make any difference how close or far away other countries are if you don't let people out/in.
As an aside the violent riots make me agree even with the bill. Oh dear we can no longer damage property and make a huge racket about it disturbing all the residents and think we can get away with it -and have to have a start and finish time so it can be properly policed. How awful to take away our rights to riot and smash stuff up and block roads that emergency vehicles may need to use. Pathetic.
That isn't what the bill is about. Police already have the right to deal with violent protests - hence when we see riot police, boxing in, forceful arrests and so on. What this bill does is give Police the right to stop all protests (even 1 person protests eg. When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband did 1 person protests outside No. 10) if those protests 'irritate' someone or are 'too loud'. There is no clarity on what 'too loud' or 'irritating' is. By the very definition of protest, it is supposed to disrupt and irritate at times.
We do not have a right to 'riot' at the moment, nor a right to violent protests. What this new bill will do is say we can only whisper quietly about important issues during a defined time with both start and finish times given. That is NOT ok. I don't know about you, but when we protest, we shout so people can hear. Some people join in who didn't know about it before. We want the message to get across. This is not about preventing violence, this is about incorrect control where statues are given more respect than humans and our racist Home Sec. calls Black Lives Matter protests 'dreadful', but fails to comment on Britain First riots that are always violent and have no point but Nationalist racism and white supremacy. Article 11 gives us the right to associate with others and gather together for a common purpose - this includes freedom to protest. It does not include being only ever given times to do so (sometimes times or specific areas are given when they want to avoid trouble eg. when left and far-right protest at the same time, but to say no one can sporadically protest in a time of a serious problem is wrong), nor the right of Police to deem something an irritant to a single person and therefore close it down. A protest is not done to make the Police's jobs easy (and most protests do not condone violence, it is usually a small few in a protest who become violent either for alcohol related reasons or because of longstanding anger around a subject - the latter still is often not condoned or encouraged by organisiers), protest is done to raise awareness about opinions on a subject matter or important issue. To give Police powers to prevent this is against human rights.