{"id":69731,"date":"2023-05-10T07:26:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T06:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=69731"},"modified":"2023-05-10T07:26:25","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T06:26:25","slug":"will-there-be-reform-to-new-protest-laws-because-of-the-apology-to-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/05\/10\/will-there-be-reform-to-new-protest-laws-because-of-the-apology-to-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Will there be reform to new protest laws because of the apology to Republic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Guardian notes<\/a> this morning:<\/p>\n

Despite the car-crash quality of Prince Harry\u2019s sulk from a middle-status rowbehind Princess Anne\u2019s feathered hat and the introduction to the coronation of that dress by Penny Mordaunt, the sword-wielding leader of the Commons, the standout story of the crowning of King Charles III on Saturday continues to be the arrest, hours before the event at Westminster Abbey, of Smith and the five other key organisers of the main Republican protest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not just in the UK. The New York Times is going big on it this morning, for example.<\/p>\n

I have made my own position on this issue quite clear. I support Republic. I gave up on the monarchy in the 80s, as I recall, always believing that its demise was a necessary precondition of the creation of a proper democracy.<\/p>\n

But there is another twist to this now. Has the police arresting, and then apologising to, members of Republic actually advanced its cause, with new protest laws backfiring as a result? My view is that this is no justification for those laws and that their immediate failure will make reform of them more likely but what do you think? Two polls:<\/p>\n

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Has the police arresting members of Republic advanced that organisation\u2019s cause?<\/strong><\/p>