Member

Amendment 373 in my name and the names of my noble friends Lady Doocey and Lord Strasburger would remove Clause 140 from the Bill. As noble Lords will remember, Clause 140 deals with the question of cumulative disruption allegedly caused by protests. Many protests cause disruption—disruption by noise, by large numbers of people, by the occasional difficulties to get through the traffic or through crowds, even by roads being blocked or Tube stations being difficult to access. There are difficulties with passage when protests are about. All these things are the normal incidence of protests. They are the price that we pay for our democratic right to protest.