Mercy Muroki: People who value law and order, and want to see a more robust criminal justice system should welcome the police and crime bill

Thousands of activists are set to take to the streets across the country calling for the government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to be rejected by The House of Lords when the chamber votes on it later today.

Protesters have described the bill as 'draconian', and an assault on the right to protest because under the new bill, protestors can find themselves behind bars if they hold demonstrations that cause serious disruption to the public, Or for blocking streets, tying themselves to objects, and desecrating memorials.

Basically, the sorts of things we've seen protestors do over the last couple of years that have been a complete pain to ordinary people just trying to go about their business.

Now, all the classic complaints have been thrown at the Bill so far – it's been called sexist, racist, and clinical psychologists have even said the Bill will supposedly destroy people's mental health.

Generally, I think that - YES it is a robust piece of legislation.

It's tough-on-crime, tough-on-criminals and puts public order front and centre...

But whilst social justice warriors may not like it, I think the public would actually endorse the bill.

And let's not forget that this bill is not just about protests.

It includes some provisions which are completely right and in fact LONG overdue. Like making the 'starting point' for murdering a child a WHOLE LIFE ORDER.

Meaning more child killers will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Offenders committing some serious crimes like sexual and violent offences will no longer be eligible for parole after serving half their sentence, they'll have to serve two thirds – which is AN improvement.

And it introduces Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) which give the police the automatic right to stop and search people who've been convicted for knife and weapons offences, without any grounds – for a limited time after their release.

This is to crack down on habitual knife carrying offenders, and get more knives off the streets.

So whilst this bill certainly has its opponents who want to see the thing scrapped altogether, I think that people who value law and order, and who want to see a more robust criminal justice system should welcome the Bill.