Liberty to protest

But which home secretary should carry the can for getting the law wrong?

Which home secretary is more to blame for the government’s defeat on protest law last Friday — Suella Braverman MP, who introduced the unlawful legislation or Yvette Cooper MP, who chose to endorse it?

Hard to say: Braverman qualified as a barrister and served as attorney general but Cooper was on notice that the courts were against her. Certainly, she’s the one who’ll now have to pick up the pieces.

The challenge was brought and won by Liberty

Background

The story begins with the Public Order Act 1986, which allows the police to intervene in a public procession or assembly in order to prevent “serious disruption to the life of the community”. That phrase was left undefined.