Member

Many of the protesters who were or are being prosecuted are students on the threshold of their career. Others are public servants, active or retired. I do not believe it can be right for them to be branded as terrorists. The consequences for many are wholly disproportionate. They will be unable to secure employment in many fields, unable to travel to the United States or, from later this year when the ETIAS scheme comes in, to travel to the Schengen area. Yet senior police officers at the time of the protests have been heard to say that that is a reason to stay away from such protests—in other words, deliberately reducing attendance at those protests.