Gove's description of public protest as 'uncivilised' gives pause for thought

What a weekend it has been for political analysts. Within minutes of the announcement that Jeremy Corbyn had won the long-contested Labour leadership election, an inquest began into what the next incarnation of the Labour party - and the future of UK politics - would look like.

With the leadership result already widely expected, political commentators and journalists were fully prepared with soundbites for the nation's press. Likewise, the Conservative party was ready on social media and the airwaves to proclaim the result meant Labour was 'now a threat to our national security, our economic security, and your family's security'.

The post-mortem continued in earnest on Sunday, as more Westminster heavyweights offered their take on the Corbynite victory and the supposed 'death' of the Labour party. One such high-profile contributor was the Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove, who, speaking on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show, proffered that while the new Labour leader's decency was not in question, there were elements of his support base who took a 'very different' stance to political discord.

'Jeremy Corbyn in his manner is one of the most polite, straightforward, indeed charming of people. But there are... some people behind him who do have a tradition in politics, which is very different to Jeremy Corbyn's own humane tradition.

'And I do worry, as we saw even in the last parliament with organisations like UK Uncut, that there are some people who want to bring protest onto the street. I think it's important that we keep our politics civilised.'

This suggestion that protesting on the streets of the UK is seen by the justice secretary as 'uncivilised' does, perhaps, give us a glimpse at Gove's vision for the already hugely controversial British Bill of Rights ahead of its publication this autumn.

We already know article 8 of the Human Rights Act (HRA) - the right to respect for private and family life - is almost certain for the cutting room floor at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), but might the right to protest and freedom of association also be for the chop when the government finally reveals its proposals?

Article 11(1) provides 'everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests'. Of course, this right covers peaceful demonstrations, which may be limited on the grounds of public order.

The Lord Chancellor is known for using his words carefully and with purpose, and mention of curtailing the right to protest did not appear in a subsequent article he wrote for The Telegraph and published later on Sunday.

The choice, therefore, of naming the anti-austerity group UK Uncut as an 'uncivilised' organisation is somewhat peculiar, especially when you consider the group's latest protests in May and June did not result in widespread riots on the streets of the capital, despite between 70,000 and 150,000 people marching through central London.

So, perhaps Gove's comments to the BBC - which were suggestive of the recent dystopian nightmare published in the Daily Mail - were just political opportunism, rather than a sign of things to come under his leadership of the MoJ.

Yet with industrial action powers already under threat, from what has been described as the biggest crackdown on trade unions for 30 years, Gove's words do suggest there is far more to come from government than just the criminalisation of picketing.

Liberty, the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), and Amnesty International UK have said the government's Trade Union Bill would introduce harsher restrictions on those who picket peacefully outside workplaces - even though such pickets are already more regulated than any other form of protest.

With the popularity of UK Uncut growing - thanks in part to endorsements from the likes of Charlotte Church, Russell Brand, and Corbyn himself - are we set to see similarly restrictive proposals for public demonstrations as that which have been put forward for unionised workers?

John van der Luit-Drummond is deputy editor for Solicitors Journal