London police have warned their officers that the public has a right to protest against the monarchy after a viral video showing the police escorting a protester and arrests across the rest of the UK since the death of Elizabeth II .
The death of the 96-year-old sovereign, who was immensely popular, triggered a strong wave of emotion, with tributes of rare unanimity including Northern Irish Republicans or Scottish separatists.
On Monday, as King Charles III made his way to Parliament in London to receive condolences from both houses, two protesters held up papers reading ‘Not my king’, ‘Abolition of the monarchy’ and ‘End of feudalism’, on the pavement opposite the Palace of Westminster.
One of them then approached the gates of Parliament, then police officers accompanied her from a distance in a calm environment, according to images circulated by Twitter by the newspaper ‘Evening Standard’ which have been shared by thousands of times.
“The public absolutely has the right to demonstrate, we have made this clear to all officers involved in the extraordinary police operation currently in place and we will continue to do so,” reacted the Metropolitan Police on Monday night. see you on Tuesday.
Outside London, before the coffin of Elizabeth II arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday, Scottish police arrested a woman who was holding an ‘Abolition of the Monarchy’ sign to cheers.
She was released but will be due in court at a later date.
During the funeral procession passing through the Scottish procession on Monday, a video circulated online showing a man shouting “old sick man!” to Prince Andrew, who paid millions in the United States to avoid a trial for sexual assault, before being violently removed from the crowd by agents.
In Oxford, central England, a 45-year-old peace activist was briefly arrested after shouting “Who elected him?” during a public proclamation of the new king.
The civil liberties organization Big Brother Watch denounced the recent arrests as “an affront to democracy”, recalling that “freedom of expression is the foundation of British democracy”.
According to a survey published on the occasion of the 70 years of reign in June by the YouGov institute, 62% of the British believe that the country should remain a monarchy, only 22% believing that there should be an elected head of state.