Fylde Hustings: Do candidates support the right to protest?

Blackpool Gazette

The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Post and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Fylde constituency at the upcoming general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.    The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.    Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.  In order of appearance on stage:  ANNE AITKEN (Independent) TOM CALVER (Labour) MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats) ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)

Transcript

00:00for the right of demonstrations and protests and the reason I ask for that is that at Preston

00:05New Road, the fracking site, the police present was very heavy-handed. A hundred police dragged

00:11in from all over the country and last week 27 people were arrested on suspicion that

00:17they were planning a just-stop oil event. So if the wind farm starts the infrastructure

00:23in the wrong place, can't we go and demonstrate? Will we be arrested over our cornflakes?

00:30Very specific question.

00:32Absolutely, absolutely. Because we've said that when I met with the groups at the wind

00:37farm. We're going to protest and we're going to walk to Westminster. Peaceful protest,

00:42we're a free country, free speech, we must protest.

00:53Yeah, absolutely. We live in a free democracy where protest is a part of the way people

01:01can express their views. I'll put a slight caveat to that. I particularly remember there

01:06was a stop oil protest across the roads that stopped some emergency services getting to

01:13a particular case. I think, yes, peaceful protest, but impinging emergency services

01:22is a slightly different issue. But I don't think that should cloud the fact that people

01:29have the right to protest however inconvenient it is.

01:34Andrew, the right to protest? Unqualified? For you?

01:39Absolutely not. Whilst I was police commissioner, I don't believe anybody was arrested over

01:43cornflakes for protesting. For me, it is absolutely about the right to free speech and about the

01:49right to be able to protest against something you don't. But if you cause absolute carnage

01:54on the road network, how can you discriminate between what is holding up an ambulance a

01:58mile down the road and what is just a mile of traffic? I'm actually on the side of hard

02:03working people, the vast majority of it, want to go about their daily basis, want to get

02:07on with their lives and want to be able to do the things, earn the money and put the

02:10bed and bacon on the table. And therefore, yes, peaceful protest, absolutely. But being

02:17able to disrupt entire communities, cause harm to people's businesses, disrupt emergency

02:21services, absolutely not.

02:30Peaceful protest, yes, sometimes disruptive. I think it can be acceptable. But it is on

02:35protesters to do that in a responsible way. And if you are starting to hold up ambulances,

02:41if you are damaging businesses, then you are no longer being responsible. But it is

02:46absolutely a part of our democracy that people have the right to express themselves. They

02:51have the right to say that the decisions being made by the people in power are wrong. And

02:56when governments start to restrict those rights, you need to be very, very careful of what

03:02that law means and what the unintended consequences of it might be. Peaceful protest, always.

03:11Thank you very, very much.

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