Worth noting the new offence of concealing an identity is a strict liability one. Intention is irrelevant. If someone is wearing or using an item that conceals their identity in a designated area, the offence is made out. Applies to anyone in the area, regardless of whether they are a 'protester'.

New Blog Post on the recently passed Crime and Policing Act. A few thoughts on three of the new protest related provisions - concealing identities, changing who can impose conditions, and climbing on memorials. wildlifeinperil.com/new-protest-...

Turnout at local elections has always been abysmal, but has been decreasing in recent years. Last year was only 34%. If people dont want certain people representing them, they need to actually vote.

Challenge to police LFR policy thrown out by High Court. Seemingly the concerns in Bridges have been addressed. www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/community-sa...

Given proscription is still in significant dispute, notwithstanding that it has not yet been quashed by the courts, are 500 arrests really necessary and proportionate? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Difficult to see how this can amount to conspiracy to cause public nuisance given the target was not the public, and the protesters were not blocking the 'public' part of the road but outside the entrance to the gate. 1/2

Bluesky rarely works when posting links or photos for me. I get 'blob failure' type errors. Yet I see loads being posted by others. It cant be just me?

Been a while since protesters have been arrested for wilful obstruction of the highway. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Claims the police imposed conditions taking into consideration the 'cumulative impact' of the disruption. The regs that granted that power have since been held unlawful, so why were the conditions considered lawfully imposed? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Well that didnt last long. The idea that the police 'must' enforce the law is nonsense. Especially in a human rights framework. They are still open to conclude that arrest would be disproportionate in the circumstances.

I walked through Norwich city centre at the weekend and saw these vans parked in front of the market, in the middle of the street. I found their prescence intrusive and imposing. It changed how I felt walking through that space. But maybe thats just me.

The Lords passed Lord Walney's amendment to introduce a new designation - Extreme Criminal Protest Groups. If designated as such, it would become an offence to be a member, to promote them, fundraise, organise events for them, provide training. Though it would not an offence to express support. 1/7

Did I just name a section of my current chapter on highway law 'You Shall Not Pass"? Why yes. Yes I did. It's the little things that get you through the writing 😅

So when people come here via legal routes, they then close those legal routes and wonder why people try to get here via irregular routes... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Statement from the Met re approach to the policing of PA related action following the High Court judgment.

Decison to proscribe Palestine Action unlawful due to two reasons: 1: The Home Sec had considered 'other factors' that were not consistent with her own policy, which is founded in the basis that not all orgs who meet the criteria for a terrorist org should be proscribed. 1/2

The re-introduction of 'cumulative disruption' into Public Order powers is looming following Braverman's failed attempt, along with a new power to designate officers able to impose conditions. A few thoughts in a new blog post: wildlifeinperil.com/cumulative-d...

So the whole Greenland thing is a distraction from the release of the Epstein files, right? Whenever crap like this is pulled, I always wonder why now? There is usually an obvious reason.

2026 really decided to start like this huh. Cool cool.

If police already have the power to consider cumulative disruption, why re-introduce the concept in the Crime and Policing Bill? Ss 12-14ZA POA 86 have never been judicially interpretted as allowing an officer to consider the actions of past/future protests. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Im looking for a flat to buy and Ive noticed that a majority of leasehold properties have only 85-100 years left on their lease, built in the 80s - early 00's with 125 yr terms they are now nearing the problem 80 yr boundary. 1/2

Protest regulation effects all protest, including those protests many feel are 'good and proper' ones. You can feel the indignation weeping through the pages, as though they want to cry, 'But we aren't JSO!' www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

Aslyum reviews every 2.5 years is a sure fire way to increase admin pressure/costs for the Home Office. The result will be shoddy reviews, rushed through, as workers struggle under higher caseloads. With refugees being the ones who pay the price. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...

What is the point of Labour any more? You can't out Right the Far Right. It will never be enough. All it does is piss off the loyal voter base. Then you dont get the votes of either the Far Right or the ones who voted for you originally. Its lose-lose. news.sky.com/story/home-s...

An headline that is self defeating. Most people cannot think that, because most people are far too young to either remember it, or to even have been alive then.

The ECHR acts like an early warning system for facism. Even if it finds no breach, issues being contested at a supra-national level helps to raise red flags in state behaviour. Who wants to get rid of an early warning system of facism? Should be obvious. #ECHR

Happy 30th to Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake! Such an epic show lineage to have been a part of. 1st photo was on a lake in Hyde Park for a 3D film of the show in 2010. 2nd + 4th are by Nicholas Karlin at Kennedy Centre in US 2020. The 3rd was me backstage 2009, surviving Act 2 as best you can.

If true, this likely requires higher court intervention. We cant have some judges allowing a reasonable excuse defense and others not, for the same offence, related to the same incident. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Look what just arrived. Looking forward to getting into this later! Particularly interested in the concept of the streets as an urban commons. Contested Commons by @katrinanavickas.bsky.social

You can protest but... not there. Or there. Not there either. And sorry, but no, not there. If you could be done by lunch, and keep the noise down. Thanks. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18... Come join me and my good chums in the Law School here… This is where we work You could even work with me, trying - sometimes succeeding - to convey the joys of Public Law to 1st years

A letter from @crwerren.bsky.social @suzmd.bsky.social @storiesfromjack.bsky.social and me on the plans to allow cumulatively disruptive protests to be regulated by the police www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Working on research of direct relevance to this - police responses to JSO slow marches both sides of the Regs Suella Braverman introduced in 2023 that unlawfully brought in a similar power. It would be the largest expansion in general assembly/procession regulation since 1986. #protest #law

The HC interim injunction re the Epping hotel has been overturned by the CoA. The judge had failed to take into account that the order may encourage more protests, and that the full hearing would be heard in a number of weeks anyway. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

This is hilarious but also underlines the danger of a strict liability offence where the police only have to prove that your slogan gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that you support a proscribed organisation.

Arrests in Norwich today for expressing support for PA. Interesting that the police quoted the reasons for intervening from the Public Order Act 1986. They have nothing to do with the powers in the Terrorism Act 2000 which were used to arrest the protesters. Link to article in post below.

Bizzare turn. Council applies for injunction, not to stop the protesters outside the hotel (as would usually happen in protest cases) but to stop the hotel being used to house asylum seekers. Victim blaming at its finest. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It didnt happen over a weekend. It's been creeping forward for a long time. The wider shifts in public order policing faciliated by new acts have helped lay the ground work for people peacefully protesting to be arrested en mass.

It didnt happen over a weekend. It's been creeping forward for a long time. The wider shifts in public order policing faciliated by new acts have helped lay the ground work for people peacefully protesting to be arrested en mass.

Not charged yet. That's likely because they were taken to temporary pop-up sites to log their personal details and bailed pending a charging decision by the CPS. Charges likely to come later.

The damage that the proscription of Palestine Action (and undoubtedly some of the policing of this law) is doing to police legitimacy in this country is an unfolding nightmare.

Where are these legitimate concerns? Are they in the room with us now?

According to Bluesky facescan software I am not an adult. Can I get child prices again now?

How are these proportionate bail conditions? Especially when they are likely to remain in place for upwards of a year until trial. And why exclude from the city centre anyway? What purpose does that serve?

It's got these vibes.

Government that fans flames gets annoyed when fire spreads. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

Can Bluesky please give us the ability to bookmark or save posts? You dont want to 'like' all posts you want to keep tabs on for future reference.

With all the discourse about the term Terrorism and its application, found this nugget at Bishopsgate library last week. It's in reference to a violent clash between the Met and a group of around 20,000 protesters in Trafalgar Square in 1887, labelled Bloody Sunday at the time.