"Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.
Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said."
Been a bad 18 months or so for privacy in the UK. Online Safety Bill passed, the right to take strike action curtailed, people in receipt of benefits (including disabled people) will soon (as from 2025) have their bank accounts open to the government, the right to protest curtailed and now this.
This is just the first step at making protests illegal.
Yeah, no, we’re long past that point
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/advice_information/pcsc-policing-act-protest-rights/
by decades
https://socialistworker.co.uk/reviews-and-culture/police-brutality-against-striking-miners-and-cover-ups-laid-bare
centuries…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_MassacreThe first step? They’ve been on this path for years
I think you mean the ninety first step.
I see no hope for this country. Things are just getting worse and worse every year, how long can this keep going?
It’s pretty bad now, but I seriously worry what things will be like in 20 or so years.
World
FTFY
Never gets old how westerners see themselves as the world.
Climate change only affects westerners? Things are going badly for the world.
Climate change affects everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s an unsolvable problem. In fact, at least one country is far along the path of mitigating it.
Climate change is not something any one country can mitigate. It’s going to take all of us - the world.
Sure, but some countries are leading the change and others are dragging all of us down https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/business/us-production-oil-reserves-crude/index.html
As long as world powers are putting profit over everything, we are not going to “solve” climate change.
We know how to fix it. We won’t do it, because there is A LOT of money to be made by doing so.
Sure, capitalism needs to be abolished for humanity to thrive.
And the other 194 countries?
Some are doing better than others, but emissions aren’t meaningfully improving in most other industrial countries.
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Actively working on it dronie. It may surprise you, but learning a new language and uprooting your whole life to move to a different country is a difficult process.
You don’t say? I did that three times. You know what the first time the reason was? The very act that the definition I labelled you of was born out of. You might want to look it up.
Completely uncalled for, they said nothing to suggest they thought that at all. Great job representing wherever the fuck you’re from by being totally insufferable.
you keep on seething there little buddy, it really suits you
Painful cringe
the only cringe is that you keep commenting here
Right, because the massacre of Ughir in China, genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and attempted genocide of rural Burmese in Myanmar are all such good things. I also remember hearing that North Korea has finally locked down to the point where escape has been deemed impossible, and I don’t know what’s happening in South America or Africa currently, but I’m sure it isn’t all sunshine and roses there too. Oh yeah, isn’t South Korea having major societal issues right now as well? Something to do with women’s rights, if I remember correctly?
The Uyghur narrative is completely made up and has been debunked to death at this point. What Israel is doing in Gaza is directly enabled by the west. Likewise problems in Myanmar are also linked to US operations. Meanwhile, people are literally fleeing South Korea to the north at this point. South Korea is a direct product of western occupation. So yeah, much of the horrors going on in the world today can be traced directly to the western empire.
I lived in the UK not that long ago and I lived and live elsewhere in Europe.
It really is a bigger problem in the UK than most of Europe, probably because it apes the US so hard and somehow combines some of its worst shit with their very own local shit (classism, very low social mobility, entrenched ancient elites, post-imperial hangover and other) rather than combining qualities.
It’s mainly Anglon-Saxon countries that are speed running the rise of Fascism, not most of the World.
Tories on a any% speed run to the government from Children of Men, while the left is worried about which way Kier decides to lean that afternoon
Yall need to grab some pitchforks
People hate on the US all the time, but the first amendment is very unique when you consider how other countries are curtailing people’s right to protest, practice their religion, etc.
An argument that might carry weight if you weren’t setting up hotlines for people to snitch on anything or anyone vaguely LGBTQIA+, removing books from libraries, allowing huge orgs to buy political favour, enslaving people in for-profit prison systems etc etc etc.
- Kids shouldn’t be coerced into being gay.
- Yeah lobbying sucks I agree
- If people don’t want to have to work in prison then they shouldn’t commit crimes.
Kids aren’t being “coerced into being gay”. That’s a batshit statement right there.
Also, slavery is always bad. End of story. Putting any leeway in there is disgusting.
Kids are not coerced in to being gay any more than geese are
Lobbying sucks
We are just ignoring the litany of false accusation and arrests of innocent people forced into modern legal slave labor?
Better hope you never piss off the wrong cop or can afford a good personally retained lawyer if you do
You aren’t very smart, are you?
For the crime of homelessness, you are sentenced to a just lifetime of servitude in a for-profit prison. So righteous.
lol you Americans thinking your little piece of paper written centuries ago makes you better than other countries is cute.
Your country is not the beacon of freedom you pretend it is.
At least I’m allowed to defend myself. I was assaulted about two weeks ago and I’m pretty fucking thankful for that “little piece of paper”
So no other country is allowed to defend themselves?
You’ve never left your own country, have you?
Your comment reeks of bad faith argument
You’re avoiding my question.
Why would I engage when I know you’re not actually listening to me?
Pretty good if actually mattered.
It’s a talking point that’s only upheld on political whim, which defeats the entire purpose of it.
So if someone doesn’t want to get sick for being in a huge crowd, they get arrested? Truly genius.
Yes that’s why we wear masks yeah
It wasn’t before Covid, but it is now, and it should have been then.
On the privacy sub yep. For sure
I mean I do realize there is usually another reason for mask on protests - but there is this one too!
Hmm…I wonder which political spectrum the current government belongs to…
Fuck the Tories right, but I also don’t see Starmer opposing any of this.
Starmer is like like 1 cm left of rishi
Exactly… (leaving both firmly on the right)
Vote none, and start organising (in your work place, in your community, in your own home inspiring your kids). If you still can’t see that the system is designed by the rich and powerful for the rich and powerful, you’re not paying any real attention (precisely why the media keeps society constantly looking at anything but how things are really run).
We need to abolish the establishments keeping us down, not continue to play their game by their rules and wonder why things never change…
I hate kier but not voting for Labour would be stupid, protest votes or non votes don’t count any the only people pushing that idiocy are the rich right wing because they don’t want you to vote against them
Everyone just thinks ‘oh look these people are too dumb, busy, or disconnected to vote oh well’
You can still resist and work against a system you voted for,
You can vote as left as you can and still do whatever you are saying to do. Having ultraright nazi shits in power because you’re an internet idiot will not help you - in fact it will completely rob you of the chance to ever change anything. You dumb fucks will solve the world by not fucking voting, even if the game is rigged you don’t have to be the dumbest shit about it
Tell me you didn’t click the link without saying you didn’t click the link (hint: it literally tells people to vote).
Also tell me you buy in to the distraction propaganda without saying you buy in to the distraction propaganda (hint: having a red tie on while not opposing a single piece of fascist legislation makes you, at the very least, a fascist enabler, or in reality, simply another fascist just one who is better at hiding it)…You’re literally giving a live demonstration of why continuing to play within their rules leads nowhere but deepening the divide within the working class.
Blaming the people trapped in it, for the system keeping us all down, instead of those who created and benefit from it is one hell of a self destructive trick you’re doing for your overlords…
Either way, you’re an ableist piece of crap, licking a boot because you’ve simply grown too comfortable with the feeling of it rammed down your throat, you have no high ground here. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I’m not talking about the article, it’s about saying no. If I need to read the article that says yes when your link says no… I’m just sick of the onslaught of defetism online where a whole bunch of people have the idea they can just ignore reality and it’s all gona fix itself. But who cares right, will all be dead because of the climate wars so it’s all cool
tbh I’m scared of the power the gov already has. I am worried if I join any communist org, it will endanger my partners immigration status. I also don’t see the orgs around me doing much useful stuff it seems, mostly just selling newspapers (that no one buys cos they cost a fiver)
A μm at best.
That would mean taking a stance on an issue, which might alienate some voters somewhere.
Whatever gets them votes. Actual conservatives would at least pretend to care about the economy.
Why? Conservatism is about preserving traditional values and traditional power structures not the economy.
If you actually care about the economy that means you care about progressing a more effective and efficient state for the benefit of the people. Afraid that makes you a progressive which the conservatives assure us they aren’t.
Conservatism is about preserving the status quo. (As opposed to reactionaries that want to restore the status quo ante)
Not necessarily the current status quo though. Just the status quo where they have the most power.
Well if they were conservative and cared about traditional values, they wouldnt have let in so many migrants.
What “traditional values” are you talking about?
We’re a nation of migrants; you don’t get to rewrite history because it makes you mad.
The first immigration law passed in this country was a process for naturalization; it doesn’t get more traditional than that.
The UK isn’t a nation of migrants, they are not America.
Someone tell the 1066 Normans they were actually born in England.
Oh, and the Romans.
Oh, and the Saxons.
Oh you mean the guys who literally invaded? I don’t think you’re helping your case.
Man i am this close to just blocking the reddthat instance. I dunno why but too many chuds and bad, bad fucking takes crawl out from under there
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Kaboom - Well if they were conservative and cared about traditional values, they wouldnt have let in so many migrants.
Yes Immigrants are the problem /s
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Oi you got a loicence for that mask?
I do but ye cant see mi face on the loicence photo anyways
Hahaha
What’s aw 'is, den?
Remember remember the fifth of November,
When Guy Fawkes took the fall.
Be sure to wear your mask from now on,
They can’t arrest us all
Was just setting up my viewing for the rest of the evening, and ironically enough, it’s on tonight! 9pm on Quest (and again on Quest +1) .
So at 9 I’ll be watching the last episode of Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain, then V for Vendetta at 10… Good inspirational viewing.
damn, gpt is terrible at poetry
Fake beards, wigs , sunglasses and presumably face paint should be ok
Stay safe protestors. Leave id and phone at home, don’t hold anything that could be interpreted as a weapon, and carry a “your rights” card to help you remember what to do if the police try to take away your freedom.
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Don’t talk to Police
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Don’t talk to police
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It looks like this would apply to any item used to conceal one’s identity. So, it’s possible that all of those things could be included.
Face paint would be mind blowing, what will all the football fans do?
Man its like the UK is an authoritarian shit hole or something. Y’all need weapons and resistance. And no, I’m not American before someone asks.
Curious, where are you from? I like it when people from other countries use y’all, especially when the apostrophe is in the right place 🙂
Im Canadian which I’ll be the first to admit is basically American.
You guys better be careful. From what I’ve heard Canada and Australia aren’t exaclty shining beacons of freedom as of late. Love you both tho
Oh 100%. Shits pretty bad here at times. I’m moving out of country soon hopefully though.
Where to?
in the fallout universe the united states annex canada
Jus’ so ya know, “y’all” pops up on my phone’s autocorrect. I wouldn’t reckon it’s all that reliable of a metric, so don’t go puttin’ too much faith in it.
Heh, I see what y’all did there…
This but unironically
No part of this was ironic I assure you.
Yea I really do think.
It’s like they think V for Vendetta was a blueprint for how to run a utopia.
Alan Moore was pretty prescient apparently
That’s a good word. I always love learning new words. Thank you!
You’re welcome! I do, too lol
Is the UK turning into a dictatorship or an undeveloped country ? How is independent press doing over there ?
More like fascist-adjacent. And we started the process of underdeveloping ourselves when the fascist-adjacent leaders persuaded the terminally ignorant that Brexit would be great when it was obvious it was going to lead exactly where it is leading right now.
As if the EU is some kind of leader in freedom. 🤔
I guess it’s better than the UK for now, and there have been no attempted fascist coups for quite a few decades now. Even if we’re totally glass-half-empty, the EU is at least slamming on the brakes on the descent, while the UK is tearing their brakes off, and the US is deliberating whether using the brakes would hurt rich people.
Obviously, world governments are the answer to all our problems.
What are you on about? What alternative do you have?
The alternative? To a global government?
Anything but that. That my final offer
The EU is barely a government over the 480 million it represents. Where did you get the notion it’s a global government?
dictatorship or an undeveloped country
Right-Wing Government: why not both?
This is an admittance that you have no right to protest.
What are.you going to do about it?
You’ve got to understand the ‘average’ British psyche at this point in history. The majority simply don’t care that people they see as troublemakers and/or scroungers are having their rights dismantled. They lack the empathy to give a shit for these people and they lack the foresight to see that it’ll be their rights gone one day too. What stirs the average british gammon off their collective arses these days is the rumour there might be an immigrant in a hotel somewhere or that a drag queen exists.
You described all of the western world since the passing of the US’s 1996 Telecommunications Act which gave all the radical fascists free rein to spread nonstop fascist propaganda over thousands upon thousands of talk shows and now through the internet.
The only reasonable response is violence.
Well that took a hard turn at the end
Prote—ahhh nearly got me!
I think it’s important to relate the latter part to the former - beyond the privacy issues with not being allowed to wear masks (and having our bank accounts invaded), there is also the health aspect, and disallowing masks is one sure fire way to keep disabled people from assembling, since, you know, we don’t want to get covid, being significantly more likely to die from it (not necessarily because of the illness, but because our lives are deemed less worth saving).
The lack of any mask mandates already excludes disabled people from so many public spaces, this is just another way to keep us (as well as others, you know, first they came for…) from fighting back. as they strip us of every last human right.
Not comparing, we have our own issues, but the US just said not wearing a mask in public is akin to not paying taxes or speeding - it’s still illegal and not free speech because it affects others.
Are they going to arrest Muslim women with face coverings?
Burka-ban has already been introduced in Austria. Didn’t really work because that was just before covid but they sure as shit tried.
Yeah lol of course, they would absolutely love any excuse to do that
I have never seen a cucked nation like the UK in the world before. u guys have no resistance what so ever ! the french should have bought you some freedoms a few centuries ago.
It’s not even that - the people this is directly affecting (for now) are the people who, if they raise their head above the parapet, it’ll get shot off - the people least able to protest. 95% of the country are not lacking resistance, they’re lacking empathy and foresight. They show plenty of resistance to media driven culture war bullshit like immigration and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Yet they can’t stop making fun of the French. Hahah le protests amirite?
But they already made protest illegal.
