Ministers branded ‘snowflakes’ for trying to curtail protests because they ‘cry into their port in the evening’
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Ministers are “snowflakes” and are trying to curtail protests because they “cry into their port in the evening when people say things that they don’t like”, MPs heard.
Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton Kemptown) told the Commons: “The Government didn’t like the Black Lives Matter protests when tens of thousands of young people went onto the streets for racial equality, they were embarrassed by the anti-Trump demonstrations during his state visit, they despised the one million people that marched to try and stop Brexit so we are here with a Bill that tries to make the snowflakes opposite feel better.
“Because that is frankly what they are – the Secretary of State is a snowflake, his back benchers are a snowflake.
“They can’t cope with a bit of robust debate, they cry into their port in the evening when people say things that they don’t like, or they are too noisy, and rather than debate them back or viscerally argue back, what they do is they shut them down and they make them illegal.
“It is nasty, it is wrong and it should go.”
A Conservative former minister said it is “unfortunate” the Government is bringing forward noise-based restrictions on protests when people in Kyiv, Ukraine, are “dying for their beliefs and for the rights of freedom of speech and of association”.
Jesse Norman told MPs: “No case has been made, no serious case have been made, that this is a real and genuine problem. The minister has conceded I think and one understands why that it is not like abuse except in the tiniest minority of cases and therefore one has to ask the question, whether the justification is adequate for the measure.”
The MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire went on: “The police it has been conceded already have significant legal powers in relation to protests and worse in some quarters, they are the subject of a degree, I regret to say, a degree of public mistrust, which may be increased by adding to their discretionary powers.”
Mr Norman concluded: “And let me say finally that I do think the timing is unfortunate when people in Kyiv, in Ukraine, are dying for their beliefs and for the rights of freedom of speech and of association, I think it’s unfortunate the Government should bring this forward.”