Politics 2024/25 General Election Voting Intention (2022)

[DaGaffer]

These are the last ten pieces of British legislation brought in that you can argue chill freedom of speech, or freedom to assemble/protest.

Law / Regulation	Year	Key Provisions	Concerns Raised
Public Order Act 2023	2023	Criminalises “locking on,” tunnelling, and interference with infrastructure	Vague definitions allow broad police discretion; risk of preemptive arrests
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act	2022	Expands police powers to restrict protests based on noise or disruption	Criticised for undermining peaceful assembly and enabling arbitrary enforcement
Serious Disruption Regulations	2023	Redefined “serious disruption” to include anything “more than minor”	Lowered threshold for police intervention; ruled unlawful in 2025 by Court of Appeal
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Act	2021	Legalises criminal conduct by undercover agents	Raises fears of surveillance and infiltration of activist groups
Online Safety Act	2023	Regulates online content to prevent harm	Potential overreach into lawful speech; vague standards for “harmful” content
National Security Act	2023	Introduces new espionage and foreign interference offences	Broad definitions could criminalise journalistic or activist work involving foreign contacts
Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act	2019	Criminalises viewing terrorist content online even once	Criticised for lack of intent requirement; risk to academic and journalistic research
Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs)	Expanded use post-2014	Local authorities can ban gatherings or speech in public areas	Used to restrict protests, begging, and leafleting; often lacks oversight
Education (No Outsiders) Guidance	2023	Limits teaching of certain topics in schools	Accused of suppressing discussion on LGBTQ+ and racial justice issues
Home Office Protest Guidance Updates	2024	Encourages police to preemptively restrict protests near sensitive sites	Seen as targeting specific causes (e.g. climate, Gaza) and discouraging dissent

When did Labour come in to power again? It was fucking relentless under the Tories.

 

[Scouse]

Bet the ducks are fucking loving it

The geese are indeed very happy.

So much so the boys have started fighting over patches of water. And when they fight, they fucking fight.

 

[Gwadien]

And yeah I am terrified of Reform getting into power, not due to migration but due to them running education, I don't think I'll be able to continue under them when they start to fill history with lies in order to make Britain great again, I won't be responsible for actually brainwashing kids. (and I know Labour are already doing etc etc etc)

 

[Scouse]

I'm getting weary of you telling me I'm a supporter of Labour and I support everything they are doing.

The fact is, I don't support Labour, I didn't vote for them at the last election and ended up with a Tory MP, but I am also intelligent and 'emotion removed' enough to know that exaggerating what Labour is doing to pretend they're somehow on a par with Nazi Germany is fucking stupid when the alternative doesn't have a clue, they'll fuck the country up further and blame all the minorities & political enemies for it.

Doing what you're doing feeds into further support for Reform, that's a fact.

You just compared them to Nazi Germany, for some reason your head keeps going there. Facist doesn't have to mean "gone full retard" - but they're actions taking us in that direction, indeed.

Regardless - you're not engaging with any of the arguments I'm making - and I'm not making them repeatedly, Labour keep doing new stuff and I simply keep posting the new stuff. And each time, you seem to not care - or complain that I'm ushering in or feeding reform.

In the same way that Wij kept saying that the stuff Israel wasn't doing was the least bit indicative of genocide, and each time they did new stuff he kept pointing elsewhere...

 

[Scouse]

And yeah I am terrified of Reform getting into power, not due to migration but due to them running education, I don't think I'll be able to continue under them when they start to fill history with lies in order to make Britain great again, I won't be responsible for actually brainwashing kids. (and I know Labour are already doing etc etc etc)

If they bitch off affirmative action before getting kicked out for being incompetent, then that'd be a win at least. And maybe if they ditch the target of 50% of kids going to university that Blair brought in then maybe we won't be saddling half the country under massive debt to keep a market-driven university sector alive.

But yeah, I get your worries. I really do. A Reform government is not something I'm looking forward to at all.

But it doesn't mean I'm in any way blind to the absolutely atrocious way Labour is acting. They're acting way worse than I ever imagined, and I was trepidacious before they came in.

 

[Scouse]

These are the last ten pieces of British legislation brought in that you can argue chill freedom of speech, or freedom to assemble/protest.

Absolutely. But if we expand it further, rather than just pick the last bits of legislaton introduced under the Tories (which, in a poll of which is the worst: Tories or Tories, then Tories would win):

Labour (1997–2010): Introduced foundational counter-terror laws with sweeping powers: Stuff like indefinite detention, glorification offences, and extended pre-charge detention. These laws laid the groundwork for future authoritarian expansion. Once introduced early on, they strengthened them and included stuff like secret trials for the first time.

Didn't manage to get ID cards through. Universally unpopular and rightfully so.

Coalition (2010–2015): Moderated some excesses and rolled back a few laws / introduced oversight - but maintained core powers. It's a rare government that neuters itself..

Conservative (2015–2024): Expanded surveillance, criminalised passive online behaviour, and weaponised protest regulation. The Investigatory Powers Act and CTBS Act marked a sharp authoritarian turn. Giant, absolute wankers - and I raged at the time. (Nobody blinked, of course).

Labour (2024–Present): They promised reform and promised they'd expand our rights - instead they've doubled down—using anti-terror laws against peaceful protest, proposing new bans, expanding surveillance policies and are going to bring in ID cards and rollout mass facial recognition across the country. It's literally THE "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" nightmare that we were railing against during the 1997 Labour government.

Their response to the ID cards petition (which is currently at 2.8 million signatures): "We're going to do it. We won't make it compulsory, apart from to apply for some things that are compulsory to apply for."


So yes, you could argue that the most authoritarian overall has been the successive Tory governments from 2015-24 with their expanded legislative kosh. But given the foundational nature of Labour government legislation, their announced intention to bring about the dystopian future people have been protesting against for decades and their rapid use and abuse of legislation in manners that go far beyond their original stated intention, coupled with the fact that it's still fucking early days then it's clear that Labour intend to make the Tories look like schoolchildren who were playing at repression.

From a protest standpoint, 100% Labour. They've stated their intention to outlaw any peaceful protest that isn't effectively howling into the wind.

 

[Embattle]

Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office, watchdog finds

Johnson found to have breached rules after refusing to answer specific questions about allegations published by the Guardian

www.theguardian.com