In addition to what others have said, the UK also has long had some pretty concerningly broad anti-terrorism laws, which have been wielded against Palestine Action. Now, anyone who supports Palestine Action are deemed to be supporting terrorism.

Even before that, we had some pretty scary stuff restricting peaceful protest. Planning a protest that involves a slow march on a street can net you a prison sentence of several years. In addition to penalising people protesting against genocide, this has also been used against (and likely was motivated by) climate activists.

What’s especially scary is that people don’t seem to be aware of how chilling these laws are for human rights. I think it’s a cultural thing, where the overton window for what people consider to be normal levels of the state suppressing people like this. We’ll be fucked if Reform ever get into power and show us just how easy laws like this make it for fascists