Pak Sahafat – The British government, as a claimant to be the flag bearer of human rights, has resorted to imposing strict and repressive laws in the face of growing public protests against the difficult economic situation and in a situation where regulatory bodies warn of the worsening of people’s financial situation in the new year.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, the conservative government of Rishi Sunak announced that it has increased the power of the British police to deal with civil protests in such a way that this security institution can intervene and suppress protest movements before unrest occurs at the community level. The government’s claim to enact new laws is to prevent disruptions in people’s daily lives, and it has claimed that according to the new laws, the police will not need to wait for disruptions to occur at the community level and will be able to stop protests before chaos occurs.
In this statement, a copy of which was published on the website of the British Prime Minister’s Office, it is stated: The police would not need to treat a series of protests by a group as independent incidents and could consider their overall impact. In this way, the police will be able to deal with long-term campaigns designed to cause disruption over a period of days or weeks.
“Rishi Sunak” claimed that holding civil protests is not an absolute right and the government will not allow protest movements to disturb the order of people’s lives. He claimed that the new laws will put an end to “destructive” protests.
The new laws have been added to the controversial “Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts” law and have been notified to the relevant institutions. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was passed in April last year to allow the police to crack down on any peaceful assembly and punish offenders with three months in prison or a £2,500 fine. On the other hand, the right to protest is not unlimited, but it can be limited if necessary and proportionate.
This law gives the British police powers to deal with public meetings and demonstrations that turn violent; it has also considered some restrictions for peaceful demonstrations.
The Law of Police Duties, which critics call the “Repression Bill”, on the one hand, causes a significant and unprecedented increase in the powers of the police force to impose restrictions or impose undue restrictions on peaceful protests, and on the other hand, it criminalizes any deprivation of public comfort, and it provides a sentence of up to 10 years of imprisonment for the usual cases of peaceful protests.
This, in turn, will result in the possibility of more imprisonment of human rights activists. Opponents see this bill as an attempt to suppress and confront the citizens’ right to protest.
Although the British government claims to have listened to concerns about restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, the introduction of new laws will increase the fear of arrest for the organizers of demonstrations and those who participate in them; this will cause potential concern for the right to protest and freedom of expression.
While many activists and concerned citizens want to express their opinions without the risk of arrest, possible imprisonment or harsh conditions, the laws create such a limit to protest that it almost nullifies its impact.
The human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe recently published a report accusing the British government of a hostile approach and antagonism towards the category of human rights and warned that increasing the power of the police would have a terrible effect on the right of assembly and peaceful protests of the people of this country.
But the British government’s repressive laws are enacted while the unprecedented jump in the inflation index and the unbridled increase in the cost of living have put this country in the worst economic conditions of the past half century and have caused widespread public dissatisfaction.
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Rishi Sunak declares war on the unions in the wave of historic strikes
According to the latest report of the National Bureau of Statistics, the inflation rate in England has reached 10.7% from 2% and according to the head of the central bank, the country has entered a long period of economic recession.
The findings of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also show that although all European countries are in an economic crisis and inflation has increased in an unprecedented way, but the British economy is in the worst condition compared to other G7 countries.
According to the estimate of this international organization, the UK’s GDP is expected to decrease by 0.4% in the new year and grow by only 0.2% the following year (2024). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has also predicted that the inflation rate, contrary to the promise of the British Prime Minister, will be halved in the new year, due to the high price of energy, it will remain in the range of 10%.
In a report, the Economist magazine called the current situation of the British economy a chronic crisis, which has been exacerbated by the country’s exit from the European Union. In this report we read; England is caught in a 15-year-old uncertainty. The country tends to think of itself as a dynamic, free-market place, but its economy lags behind many of the world’s rich countries.
According to the Economist, a deep hole has taken root in the British economy and leaving the European Union has worsened the situation.
Suppression of public business protests by imposing strict laws
The current economic situation, along with the fact that there is no prospect of improvement in the situation and the official authorities are warning about its aggravation, has forced the British people who are deprived of their usual prosperity to protest and strike. From healthcare facilities to post office workers, lawyers, firefighters, thousands of UK public sector workers plan to walk off the job in the coming weeks in protest of the status quo.
Rishi Sunak’s government has resorted to imposing strict laws after failing to negotiate with the protesters and to prevent the escalation of strikes. According to the bill that the government has recently submitted to the parliament, a minimum level of public services has been determined, according to which workers and employees in public emergency services departments will not have the right to strike.
According to this bill, one in five English workers will be at risk of being banned from striking. Anyone working in the health, education or transport sectors can be forced to stay at work by their employer, even if their union has voted to strike. This is while the employee may be fired if he refuses.
According to the calculations, the increase in the salaries of public employees in England costs nearly 30 billion pounds, and it is difficult to provide this amount along with the government’s 50 billion pound deficit. This is while England is considered the second military supporter of Ukraine after the United States of America and emphasizes the need to increase arms support to Kiev. The Prime Minister of England has recently promised to send advanced Challenger 2 tanks in a phone call with the President of Ukraine.
Public opinion in England has protested against the war-like policies of the London government and demanded the allocation of financial resources to solve internal problems. Mark Serotka, General Secretary of the British Public Service Union said: When thousands of public sector workers went on strike last month, the government said it had no money but managed to find millions of pounds to spend on managers and military personnel. We warned the government that if they did not heed our words, the dispute would escalate – and we stand by our word.
The results of the latest polls show that Rishi Sunak’s government has lost its public support and legitimacy, and it is not unlikely that the scope of discontent will lead to the intensification of the political crisis and the fall of the government for the third time in a year.