The Scoop

Put the kettle on: City Hall would like protests to be a thing of the past

Adam Bienkov | Sunday 16 January, 2011 10:09

When protestors smashed their way into the Conservative Party headquarters in Central London last month the Police quickly admitted that they had been caught off guard.

“This was an embarrassment” conceded Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson as footage of breaking windows, burning placards and falling fire extinguishers beamed out across the world.

For weeks similar scenes of uprisings in Europe had filled the news but for some reason the British had convinced themselves that nothing on that scale would occur here.

Quite why we had convinced ourselves of this I’m not sure, but as the cleaners and glaziers moved in to clear up the mess, the predictable calls for restrictions on the right to protest began.

At City Hall Conservatives urged Boris to reintroduce the controversial policing technique known as “kettling” with one Tory Assembly Member even calling for bans on some protests on cost grounds.

The Mayor, who before his election had described himself as an “instinctive libertarian” suggested that perhaps the “pendulum” had swung too far in favour of protestors’ rights.

Within days student protestors were back out on the streets and so too were the controversial police tactics of confining protestors instigated by the Labour government.

And as thousands marched on their way to protest outside Liberal Democrat headquarters the police moved in to stop them from reaching their destination.
For seven to nine hours protestors including large numbers of schoolchildren were enclosed by riot police within a small area of Whitehall in cold and often frightening conditions.

These tactics which just a year ago were described by the Liberal Democrats as a “national disgrace” and “fundamentally wrong” were successfully used to keep the crowds away from their door.

And while last year one Lib Dem spokesman had even gone so far as to set himself up as a “monitor” from within a “kettle” not a single word of objection came out of Cowley Street in the days following the protests.

So in just one brief news cycle the Lib Dem’s journey from party of protest to grateful recipients of police protection was complete.

And just as the student protests led to calls for restrictions on the right to protest, so too have the growing number of strikes in London been followed by calls for restrictions on the right to strike.

Leading the baton charge against the unions is our “instinctive libertarian” Mayor Boris Johnson.

While in opposition Boris promised an amicable “no strike deal” with the unions, but now he is in power he wants to impose draconian bans on any strike where fewer than 50% of members “turn out” to vote for it.

Unions have been quick to point out that Boris himself had only been elected on a 45% turnout, but this has not been enough to sway the Mayor.

Instead Boris is lobbying the government for a change in the already union-unfriendly law. Meanwhile “Liberal Conservative” David Cameron has joined the Mayor in fighting to clear Parliament Square of all protestors before the Royal Wedding next year.

The Lib Dems although seemingly ready to coalesce in these attacks on our rights have yet to join Boris and Dave at the front of the baton charge.
As they get used to their increased police protection we may yet come to see that, but in the coming months we can expect plenty more protesting Londoners to give them the perfect excuse.

Photo by Richard ‘Tenspeed’ Heaven

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