Member

I have no sympathy with a lot of the pro-Palestinian demos in the vicinity of synagogues and the ongoing intimidation of Jewish citizens, but the police already have extensive powers to arrest people for religiously aggravated hate speech, as we heard in great detail last week. Why are not they using them? There are existing powers available to the police under the Public Order Act to allow them to impose conditions on demos that intimidate people who wish to engage in worship. So what is Clause 139 for? Whatever it is for, I am afraid it might have unintended consequences.