'Tories must be held to account for totalitarian laws used in Coronation'

08 May 2023 , 11:12

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'Tories must be held to account for totalitarian laws used in Coronation'

So a King signs into law draconian police powers a few days before his £250m public coronation then the cops mass arrest peaceful protesters with placards and megaphones who oppose the monarch.

If this happened in Moscow or Beijing, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would condemn dictatorial Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Parliament while lionising the unjustly detained.

When it takes place in Britain we witness UK Conservative Government Ministers queuing up to justify the indefensible.

Deranged Tory vice chair Lee Anderson, a plastic patriot who missed England's male footballers getting to the Euro 2020 final because they took the knee against bigotry, urged anti-monarchists to emigrate.

I could suggest enemies of free speech such as foot-in-mouth Anderson do the same but prefer instead to challenge the authoritarianism of Right-whinge snowflakes who'd cancel those they disagree with.

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The Met Police arrested 52 people on Saturday, sparking widespread criticism (Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock)

The right to peaceful protest is precious and we'll lose it in this country unless the police state is challenged.

Arresting the head of Republic, Graham Smith, and others in London was a colossal own goal by a Metropolitan Police Service acting as Buckingham Palace's PR enforcement unit.

Legitimate, lawful Republic believes it had a deal on the day over where and how to demonstrate which the gung-ho cops smashed.

Interestingly my Daily Mirror colleague Andy Lines, our Chief Reporter, heard a commanding police officer(he believes of Inspector rank) instruct his ranks to “arrest anyone with a megaphone for breach of the peace. We can de-arrest them later if we need to.”

That would clearly cross a line, an unintentional admission no offence is being committed.

An independent, swift inquiry's needed to get to the bottom of what occurred to ensure no repetition.

And MPs who value free speech and freedom must hold the police and Ministers to account when Parliament returns tomorrow.

But this isn't only about a force behaving badly on Saturday. It's about totalitarian powers handed to them by the Government.

Banning protests undermines democracy. The Government must be held to account, including by principled Conservative MPs.

Kevin Maguire