Imagine a hypothetical scenario: In London this week, a demonstration is taking place against a government ‘vaccine passport’ policy arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is causing local inconvenience, but it is peaceful and some of the demonstrators have even brought their children and pets along. A woman watching the news at home is sympathetic to the aims of the protestors, which are neither illegal nor immoral, and contributes a small sum of money to their campaign using a popular online crowdfunding website. For that matter, many other people make contributions and the total donations are reaching £7.5m. A young couple who own a small independent coffee shop in the locality of the demonstration are also sympathetic. They give the protesters free coffee and let some of them huddle inside the premises from time-to-time, because it is bitterly cold outside given the time of year.
Imagine then the response of the government is as follows: legislation which has been on the books for decades (expressly to deal with ‘national emergencies’) but has
