On Sunday 16th January a group of concerned Dorset constituents gathered outside the office of local MP Chris Loder, in Poundbury.
They were there to express their collective concern that the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill, currently under review in the House of Lords, if passed in it’s entirety, would mean the end of citizens’ rights to peacefully protest in public.
The group says that many of the civil liberties we currently enjoy today were hard fought for and won through protest, such as Dorset’s own Tolpuddle Martyrs and womens’ votes through the Suffragette movement. Both of these groups were grossly mistreated by local and national authorities, within the auspices of the law.
It is their ambition that the West Dorset MP will see that ordinary local people are hopeful that the government will curtail this “draconian Bill which seeks to criminalise democratic activity”.
Local resident Mr Steven Philip of Dorchester expressed the view that multiple civil liberties are at risk of disappearing all together if this Bill is allowed to become law.
