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For years right-wing politicians and their media supporters have warned that the right to free speech is under assault by the supposed threat of 'cancel culture'.

The nature of this threat has always felt hard to pin down, based as it has been on the flimsy pretext of a handful of already very public figures getting even more publicity for themselves by saying controversial things.

Yet last weekend the right to free speech came under genuine assault through the combined efforts of the UK Government and the Metropolitan Police. 

The Met’s authoritarian clampdown on protest in the run up to the coronation led to dozens of peaceful protesters being locked up for hours on end, before their protests had even begun. 

So widely were the government’s new restrictions applied that even people not planning to take part in the protests were caught up in them. As the dogged regular Byline contributor Mic Wright first revealed, these included several nighttime volunteers seeking to hand out rape alarms to vulnerable women in Soho.

As Jonathan Lis wrote this week, the clampdown helped prevent and overshadow what should have been an occasion for a genuine debate about the future of the monarchy and our constitution.

However, unfortunately the backlash to the arrests does not appear to have deterred the Met, whose commissioner Mark Rowley came out to defend his officer’s behaviour this week with the bizarre justification that pro-monarchy crowds had cheered them on while they arrested the protestors. Rishi Sunak also refused to distance himself from the clampdown, with his spokesman repeatedly refusing to say to Byline Times that the Prime Minister “regrets” the arrest of peaceful protesters.

Those cheering on this new clampdown feel they have the public mood on their side. Exclusive new polling commissioned by Byline Times and conducted by pollsters Omnisis reveals today that 60% of voters believe that the Met’s policing of the coronation was “about right” with a further 13% saying it was not heavy handed enough. As Byline’s Chief Reporter Josiah Mortimer explained this week those wishing to combat these real and ongoing threats to our rights now have a fight on our hands to convince both the public, the Government, and the opposition, to change course.

Another big threat to our free speech came last week from the first ever attempt by a UK government to practice voter suppression. It remains unclear to what extent the new voter ID rules impacted people’s ability to vote, although Byline has commissioned some concerning new research which we will be publishing in the coming days. However, you can find out what we’ve learnt on the ground so far from Mortimer’s extensive coverage of the subject.

The net result of all of this is that we are now living under what is arguably the most authoritarian government of modern times. As I wrote this week, despite his clean-cut, metropolitan image, Rishi Sunak is significantly further to the socially conservative authoritarian right than any of his recent predecessors.

However, as I set out in my piece, while our rights to speak, protest and go on strike are increasingly being eroded in the UK, the broader trend of our politics and history is heading in the opposite direction. 
BYLINE TIMES

More from Byline Times this week: 

Sam Bright on a Mystery Murdoch Meeting in Number 10.

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Karam Bales on The Radicalisation of Andrew Bridgen.

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Penny Pepper on High Fashion.

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And Merve Pehlivan on Swimming Against the Current in Turkey. 
Read More
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Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend, 

Adam

Adam Bienkov is the Political Editor of Byline Times

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