On Sunday 11th September during the ceremony to proclaim the new King, Symon Hill was arrested.

His "crime" was to ask "Who elected him?"

Symon was informed that he had been arrested under the notorious new Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022 for actions likely to lead to “harassment or distress”

Just a few weeks before, the police refused to move on, let alone arrest, a group of fascists and bigots who were certainly causing "harassment" and "distress" to parents and their children attending the Drag Queen Story Hour in Oxford and Didcot libraries.

It is also concerning that anti-monarchy protesters in Edinburgh and London were also arrested.

We believe that these arrests set a dangerous precedent and are an attack on our democratic rights.

This is a time when there is so much to protest about - climate crisis, soaring costs, attacks on trade union rights, black people dying at the hands of the police, attacks on women and LGBT+ rights. We reaffirm our right to protest. 

We stand with Symon Hill and others arrested for expressing their opposition to the monarchy.

We will support protests against these attacks on our freedoms.