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As Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s job was to provide domestic security, maintain law and order and control immigration. Yet when she called upon the British police to be even handed in their approach to policing protests she was fired by Rishi Sunak.
She did not deny the right to freedom of speech or the right to protest, but she recognised that for marches to go ahead there needs to be adequate policing so that the inevitable violent marchers (who turn up at any protest to exploit the anonymity of the crowd) can be dealt with. Allowing peaceful protests to remain peaceful.
Mrs Braverman correctly noted that there has been, in the past few years, a tendency for the police to be more heavy-handed when dealing with protests coming from the political right in comparison to those from the left. Citing the anti-lockdown protests and BLM protests as clear examples. Can anyone argue that she was wrong in this observation? The BLM protests were not simply passively observed by the police, but actively welcomed. A protest, it should be noted, that actively called for the abolition of the police. A curious stance for the police to be supporting.
Mrs Braverman observed what so many increasingly disgruntled Britons had also noticed and when she dared to call it out she was swiftly fired. What hope is there then for the average…
