The UK Lacks the Will, Not the Law

If the law is broken or ambiguous, fix it. But no law will be effective without the political will to enforce it.

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Today we reported that the United Nations scolded the UK for passing a public order law aimed at quelling road blockades (a tactic, we noted, favored by environmental activists). We rarely find ourselves siding with globalist institutions, but in this case, we find ourselves siding with the UN, albeit for different reasons.

According to The Daily Mail,

Under current laws, protesters need to be deemed to be causing ‘serious disruption’ for officers to intervene – but police chiefs are given no definition of what this actually means.

Deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, who is leading the Met’s response to the protests, revealed [Just Stop Oil activists] did not cross this threshold earlier in the week because activists spent only ‘about 15 minutes’ on the road.

This is absurd. What the police lack is not clarity on the existing laws, but the political will to enforce them. Certainly, given the overzealous response to silent prayer near abortion centres, the police know how to interpret laws broadly to effect the result they seek.

The UK does not need new laws. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said, “This law is wholly unnecessary as UK police already have the powers to act against violent and disruptive demonstrations.” We would take this further to say that no Western country needs new laws giving the government more power over freedom of association. Our experience with COVID makes this obvious. If the law is broken or ambiguous, fix it. But no law will be effective without the political will to enforce it.

Ellen Fantini is the deputy editor-in-chief of The European Conservative magazine.

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