In your editorial on the right to protest (23 January), you rightly note that the freedom to dissent is currently under threat in Britain. However, you are wrong to say that it has been “almost unheard of” for peaceful protesters to be imprisoned since the 1930s.
For instance, 22 people spent Christmas in prison in 1958 after staging a peaceful anti-war protest at the North Pickenham missile base. In September 1961, 32 people – including Bertrand Russell – were sentenced, most to a month in prison, for organising peaceful protests against nuclear weapons in London and Scotland.
