Protests / We are on our way to becoming buffer-zone Britain |
Are ‘buffer zones’ becoming the latest weapon in the political establishment’s clampdown on dissent? Scottish First Minister John Swinney says he will consider a buffer zone to ban protests outside migrant hotels. It comes after angry scenes at the Radisson Blu in Perth on Saturday, which saw competing pro- and anti-migration demonstrations. Anti-migration activists reportedly rushed up to the hotel and banged on the windows, though no arrests were made. Local MP Pete Wishart has described the actions of the anti-migration protesters as ‘disgraceful’ and called for ‘buffer zones’ around migrant accommodation.
Buffer zones already exist in Scotland around abortion clinics and the surrounding 200 metres, making a criminal offence of ‘influencing the decision’ to undergo or perform an abortion; ‘preventing or impeding’ the same; or ‘causing harassment, alarm or distress’ to those involved. The law also criminalises conduct outside the ‘buffer zone’ when it is ‘capable of being seen or heard by another person who is within the safe access zone’.
These restrictions passed without any grand public debate. Scotland is a thoroughly post-Christian nation and opposition to abortion, even when it takes the form of little old ladies audibly praying the Rosary across the street, offends against our new religion of progressive autonomy: everyone is free to live their lives as they please, provided they live it in a leftwards direction. Yet abortion clinic buffer zones planted a seed whose shoots were always going to spread to other ground and affect many more people than the tiny number who attend anti-abortion vigils. Migrant hotels are the first offshoot. They won’t be the last.
First abortion clinics, now migrant hotels. What next?
Swinney has called the actions of the anti-migration counter-protesters ‘absolutely disgusting’, seeing them as an attack on the speech and protest rights of pro-migration activists. The First Minister plans........