It was disappointing seeing the protests in London recently. The attitude of the protestors and their behaviour was disappointing.
I watched news from the other side of the world recently and saw people being arrested for protesting. Protesting had been made illegal there because of coronavirus. Even there the infection levels were much lower than ours..
The regulations in the UK are different. There is actually a specific exemption that allows people to gather in order to protest – you just need to respect things like spacing.
There has been a lot of talk about balancing the economy with the restrictions, but a protest is nothing to do with the economy. Remember that most protests are against the government, but our government have decided they are so important that they need to be allowed.
Part of this, I am sure, is that they think people need a pressure relief. But the bottom line is that our country has decided that our freedom of speech is so important that they have refused to include it in the blanket restriction.
I’m proud of that. I just wish people wouldn’t abuse it.