The right to protest is under threat in Britain, undermining a pillar of democracy
The right to protest is under threat in Britain, undermining a pillar of democracy
Britain is one of the world’s oldest democracies, but some worry that essential rights and freedoms are under threat.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
81Remember when they would arrest people who criticized the monarchy after the queen of england died in the UK? Someone even got arrested for holding an empty sign because they feared that something bad could be written on it in the future.
It's a free country, as long as you're a conservative.
36Uh, no?
There's no queen of England, there hasn't been for hundreds of years.
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Not a good look but then again the uk wanted to legaly mandate a real identity linked to online avtivity so they always have been a little authoritarian.
31The country as a whole isn't, but the Tories are. And it's the biggest problem with first passed the post voting.
22You say that as though labour aren't
https://www.thesocialreview.co.uk/2019/07/01/labour-and-authoritarianism/
18
I'm shocked! You mean to tell me that the country that will throw you in jail for a tasteless facebook post doesn't support free speech, the right to assemble, or the right to protest? Who'da thunk it?
25“The ‘good chap’ theory of checks and balances has now been tested to destruction.”
🤡
15Britain is one of the world’s oldest democracies
democracies
(X)DoubtAlso, while reading this, or any article, it's always good to mentally substitute "the economy" for "the wealthy" or "the rich and powerful"
The Conservative government says the laws prevent extremist activists from hurting the
wealthyand disrupting daily life12It's kinda hard to agree with your point on the economy, given that one of the key drivers of the Brexit vote with pure apathy for the British economy and its reliance on funneling money through the financial sector.
While you're not wrong, a lot of people voted on the belief that it didn't matter if the economy went to shit, because "things are already shit". Now, the poor are even poorer, and the damage will likely last generations.
4My sympathy for a literal peasant class in 2020 is limited.
Ask France what to do if you're solution oriented, British progressives, otherwise gl "reforming" your way out of a hereditary ruling class with veto power.
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Wait until they hear what has been passed by the majority of the Australian states
For those who missed it
12This is the best summary I could come up with:
The effect of that patchwork is “we rely on self-restraint by governments,” said Andrew Blick, author of “Democratic Turbulence in the United Kingdom” and a political scientist at King’s College London.
The canaries in the coal mine of the right to protest are environmental activists who have blocked roads and bridges, glued themselves to trains, splattered artworks with paint, sprayed buildings with fake blood, doused athletes in orange powder and more to draw attention to the threats posed by climate change.
The protesters, from groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, argue that civil disobedience is justified by a climate emergency that threatens humanity’s future.
Legal changes made in 2022 created a statutory offense of “public nuisance,” punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and gave police more powers to restrict protests judged to be disruptive.
Structural engineer Morgan Trowland was one of two Just Stop Oil activists who scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames near London in October 2022, forcing police to shut the highway below for 40 hours.
Half the environmentalists tried by juries have been acquitted after explaining their motivations, including nine women who smashed a bank’s windows with hammers and five activists who sprayed the Treasury with fake blood from a firehose.
The original article contains 1,938 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 89%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
6Blocking roads, and stopping ordinary people from going about their day, is a very ill thought out way to protest. It doesn't affect the people making the decisions, it merely punishes the least powerful members of society.
And it will inevitably turn the public against you, as we see here.
1