{"id":38704,"date":"2025-04-21T16:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38704\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T16:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:03:08","slug":"the-stop-brexit-man-must-have-the-right-to-be-annoying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38704\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stop Brexit man must have the right to be annoying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darth Vader\u2019s theme blares from a speaker. A man in a ridiculous hat bellows \u2018Stop Brexit!\u2019 through a megaphone. Then, the Benny Hill theme song kicks in, and the sound echoes across Parliament Square. Bewildered tourists snap photos. MPs, aides and political journalists tut, shake their heads or shout something unrepeatable towards the traffic island where the noise is coming from. When the Tories were in power, this was a near-daily soundtrack in London\u2019s Westminster (and largely still is now), courtesy of Steve Bray<\/a>, perhaps Britain\u2019s most persistent political pest.<\/p>\n

Bray is incredibly annoying. I doubt you\u2019ll find many who would dispute that. A former coin dealer, he was one of a select group of absurd Remainer activists who popped up after Brexit, insisting the referendum was questionable and must be overturned. His activism, such as it is, has constituted him shouting slogans and blaring music at politicians and news crews in SW1.<\/p>\n

But should being annoying be a crime? Thankfully, last week, a court ruled that it isn\u2019t \u2013 with Bray cleared of protest-related charges. This decision isn\u2019t only a relief for Bray. The rest of us should cheer it, too.<\/p>\n

Bray was charged in March last year for failing to comply with a police demand that he stop playing music in Parliament Square. Bray, quite rightly, denied the charge and insisted that playing music was part of his \u2018fundamental right to protest<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

The court agreed. Bray hadn\u2019t broken any laws, just a few eardrums. Judge Anthony Woodcock, who handed down the decision in Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court, said<\/a>: \u2018Lampooning the government through satire is a long tradition in this country.\u2019 Most people would think it a stretch to describe Bray\u2019s tired protests as \u2018satire\u2019, but no one should dispute the spirit of the decision.<\/p>\n

Look, I get it. Bray is seriously irritating. When I worked in Westminster, I lost count of the days I could overhear him foghorning his love of the EU and his hatred of the Tories. The fact that Bray\u2019s protests dragged on for years didn\u2019t make his braying much easier to tolerate.<\/p>\n

But tolerate it we should. After all, what\u2019s the point of protesting if no one notices? A silent protest isn\u2019t a protest \u2013 it\u2019s a garden party no one\u2019s invited to. It shouldn\u2019t matter if you agree with Bray. What matters is that, in a free society, you shouldn\u2019t be arrested for being heard.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want the state to decide how much protest is too much, or let politicians dictate when opposition becomes too noisy. That would render all protest polite, well-mannered and boring.<\/p>\n

Our hard-won right to kick up a fuss in public is far too restricted as it is. Under the Public Order Act<\/a>, police can shut down a protest if it causes \u2018serious unease, alarm or distress\u2019. That\u2019s vibes-based authoritarianism. <\/p>\n

The crime of \u2018suspicion of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance\u2019 is another weapon in the state\u2019s arsenal. We saw this in action in 2023, during the coronation of King Charles. Anti-monarchy protesters were detained<\/a> before they could even unpack their placards, over fears they might cause disruption.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to defend noisy protests when you agree with the cause. Tory MPs had every right to join farmers<\/a> blaring out \u2018Baby Shark\u2019 as tractors blocked roads in the capital in November. But too many would draw the line at the EU-flag waving Bray as he blasts out the Benny Hill theme. <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to like Steve Bray, but you should be glad he has won his case. Because if his protests can be silenced for being annoying, then yours can be silenced, too. If we start trimming civil liberties every time someone is too loud, too irritating or too persistent, then soon we won\u2019t have many left.<\/p>\n

Aaron Newbury<\/strong> is a former Conservative Party adviser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darth Vader\u2019s theme blares from a speaker. A man in a ridiculous hat bellows \u2018Stop Brexit!\u2019 through a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,780,781,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,529,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-38704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-civil-liberties","11":"tag-crime-and-the-law","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114376802656242063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}