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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Benjamin Roberts-Haslam

People flood Liverpool city centre for Kill the Bill protest

People flooded Liverpool city centre this afternoon for the Kill the Bill protest that has taken place up and down the country today.

Activists are calling on the House of Lords to reject the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.

St Luke's Church in the city centre was the meeting point as hundreds gathered with signs and placards to protest not just the bill, but the Tory government.

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The protest has taken place ahead of the final vote in the Lords on Monday.

One sign from the protest said "You can't police our thoughts", and another called for the Prime Minister's resignation saying: "Johnson Out".

One of the many protesters in attendance was Hillsborough campaigner Sheila Coleman who spoke to the crowd.

The bill would see tighter rules around protests with people facing prosecution for just making noise if it was deemed to cause "serious annoyance".

Hundreds took to the street in London as well with protesters describing the bill s a draconian crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and other civil liberties.

Kill The Bill protest in Liverpool (Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)

People of all ages were seen at protests across the country, with cities including London, Bristol, Coventry, Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield and Plymouth.

Ben Hancock, 70, from London, told the PA news agency: “The measures are completely draconian really, basically rights will be taken away from anybody to protest.”

Hillsborough campaigner Sheila Coleman, speaking at the Kill The Bill protest (Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)

“I mean, effectively we’re going to be reduced to a state similar to Russia.”

Sue, a 62-year-old who would only give her first name and who had travelled to the protest as part of Extinction Rebellion from Godalming, Surrey, said: “And I believe that some of the provisions in that bill will severely limit the sorts of things that we’re able to do to protest.”

Tied to a fellow protester, she went on to say: “So we won’t, for instance, be able to be together like this holding hands, or, or even tying ourselves together.

Kill The Bill protesters (Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)

“There are many, many things that we won’t be able to do and really, protests will just be a thing of the past.

“And so many of the freedoms that we have in this country have been gained through protest.

“Not through just people being quiet about it, and people in power deciding that they’ll give freedoms to people, but because people have come out on the streets and made a noise and made a protest.

“And I want to still be able to do that, I want my children to be able to do that.”

Terry Matthews, 69, from south London said: “I think we’re facing a really vitriolic attack on our rights to protest and our freedoms to show our dissatisfaction with the status of the Government and the country.

“And it’s a really dangerous step to try to take.”

Protesters with a Johnson Out! placard (Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)

The bill would see people and protestors put at risk of prison sentences and expensive fines for anything that causes "serious annoyance".

It would also increase stop and search powers as well as bring in new laws against staying on land without authorisation without a vehicle.

Amendments to the bill, added by the Government in the House of Lords in November, make blocking transport works a criminal offence and give police the power to ban any named people from demonstrating.

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