Since 1968, British police have infiltrated more than 1,000 political movements with undercover

police officers. Many of those movements were not only peaceful, but advanced arguments

we now see as politically common sense, whether it's advancing women's rights or opposition

to apartheid. Seven years ago, Theresa May ordered an inquiry into the police's use of undercover

officers relating to protests. The late last year, the undercover police inquiry finally

began. Expected to run until 2023, and coming in at a cost of tens of millions of pounds,

it is a judge-led inquiry on a power with the Savile and Chill Co. inquiries. But will

it lead to justice and change? And even if it doesn't, what are the chances that it furnishes

yet further light on how the police treat and often subvert democratic dissent? Joining

me now is Tom Fowler, host of the Spy Cops Info Podcast, and so far, someone who is attending

every session and providing as much live reporting as is possible from the inquiry. Tom, welcome

to Downstream. Cheers, thanks for having me. Theresa May announced this was going to happen

seven years ago, yet it only happened late last year. Why did it take so long for this inquiry

into undercover policing to actually happen? Because the guard down Cops, man, what else?

So I mean, essentially, the police used every opportunity they could to slow down the process.

Partially, that's because they put in like, they asked for anonymity orders for each

of the individual officers. The levels of secrecy, the level of anonymity these Cops have had has been,

well, practically unprecedented, to be honest. Obviously, they've got the documents, so there's

the reduction process, so that they've like dragged their heels through that. I mean, they've put

in a couple of judicial reviews, which we don't know what the details of those were, but that

slowed up the process as well. I mean, just literally every opportunity the police could possibly

use to slow things down, they've taken it. It's worth noting on the anonymity thing, they've been

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