Policing rights in the UK 2022: an audit

As the UK economy unravels and collective action in defence of livelihood and life spreads, the author explains how 2022 reveals the way the government is reacting to an expanding list of ‘enemies’, heedless of legal and moral restraints. Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have pursued authoritarian responses on many fronts: with increasingly brutal policing of racialised minorities, migrants, asylum seekers and protesters, and ‘crackdowns’ announced or promised on investigative journalists; university campuses; striking nurses, ambulance workers, teachers, rail and postal workers; and ‘human rights’ – against a background of an impoverished and anxious population and a public sector in shreds. This review, though not exhaustive, highlights key aspects of the policing of society and particularly the introduction of new pieces of legislation in the past year.