I may be a bit dramatic, but the news that police are to be given powers to shut down protests before any disruption begins (Report, 15 January) immediately reminded me of the 1819 Peterloo massacre, when the civil authorities killed and injured hundreds of people who were protesting for the right to vote.
The article follows various reports about Rishi Sunak’s plans to limit the right to strike. Of course, the Guardian was founded in 1821, its inception partly related to Peterloo, in order to be a beacon for liberal democracy – and it has never wavered from that noble intent, including constantly highlighting the vast inequality in the UK, partly created by the Tory austerity programme since 2010, under which most public servants have lost 20% of their earnings in real terms. The late David Graeber, the radical anthropologist, said the most important people in society are paid the least – and these are the very people who are currently striking or planning to do so.
Dr Barry Dufour
Leicester
• Simon Jenkins is correct to identify the government’s public order bill as a question of a “balance of rights” (The police don’t need powers to further curtail our right to protest. Just teach them the law, 17 January). However, it is surprising that he draws an equivalence between the right to protest and the right to not occasionally have your car journey delayed. He calls “freedom of movement as fundamental … a right as could be imagined”. But surely driving a car along a motorway is a privileged form of movement, and more equivalent to the entitlement to enjoy super-fast broadband.
As for disruption on city streets, to view the function of streets merely as a means of mobility is to strip them of their rich historic role in civic society. The streets are the public realm; if protest cannot take place on the streets, where can it?
Nick Brown
London
