Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Hello and I'm Fraser Meyers and back with me this week we have Spikes editor Tom Slater

Hello and spike columnist Ella Whelan

coming up on the show the crackdown on Republican protesters the Ukrainian fight

back and the madness of mermaids.

So since the death of Queen Elizabeth last week there's been something of a concerted crackdown on Republican dissent I

think it's fair to say there's been several protesters who've been arrested and

charged sometimes with this kind of archaic breach of the peace law. We've had people holding up signs saying

fuck imperialism, abolish monarchy being arrested. Someone was arrested and

de-arrested for saying essentially that Charles wasn't elected.

Someone's been arrested in charge for heckling Prince Andrew.

Tom, what have you made at this?

I mean that's just a tiny sample of actually of some of the kind of crackdown

that's been going on.

It is. I think probably concerted crackdown might be putting it a little bit too firmly, but nevertheless

there's obviously been these bunch of cases which are very concerning and really show

how given the police have such discretionary power in this particular area, that as soon as there is a kind of mood of very firm consensus as there has been in relation to national Acts Public Morning and all the rest of it,

that you see these instances of overreach and not just once but twice and three times.

I mean, there's been a kind of string of cases which have been really shocking on their own terms and therefore really should

raise the hackles of anyone who cares about freedom of speech. As you were saying two people in

Edinburgh actually charged, arrested and charged with this breach of the peace.

There was the man in Oxford who was arrested and de-arrested, like you say,

the guy in Westminster, the young barrister,

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