The publication of the legal aid, sentencing and punishment bill has been widely reported as another major policy U-turn for the coalition government. Plans for sentencing reform heralded by the justice secretary Ken Clarke in December as a "rehabilitation revolution" have been replaced by a more traditional law and order agenda. "Hug-a-hoody" liberalism has finally morphed fully-formed, so it would seem, into its muscular revanchist doppelganger.
Less remarked in yesterday's speech by the prime minister outlining the new revised plans was a proposal to criminalise squatting subject to a brief consultation period. The announcement is, in many respects, hardly surprising. The justice secretary had already mooted the idea in March following a series of high-profile squats and the re-emergence of occupation-based practices as a key tactic of a vibrant and growing anti-cuts movement. If this is a move that may plausibly be seen as an attempt to further sanctify the virtues of private property, the impact of the ban on the use of "occupation" as a legitimate tool of protest must also be considered.
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