This is just the first step at making protests illegal.

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.

Hmm...I wonder which political spectrum the current government belongs to...

So if someone doesn't want to get sick for being in a huge crowd, they get arrested? Truly genius.

Oi you got a loicence for that mask?

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

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.

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.

It's like they think V for Vendetta was a blueprint for how to run a utopia.

Is the UK turning into a dictatorship or an undeveloped country ? How is independent press doing over there ?

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.

This is an admittance that you have no right to protest.

What are.you going to do about it?

Are they going to arrest Muslim women with face coverings?

But they already made protest illegal.

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.

They need the facial recognition software to do it's thing so they can make sure life gets difficult for anyone conscious of their actions.

V for Vendetta wants their timeline back.

Genocide Island going back to its roots.

it will be interesting to see if we ever get to a point during the next inevitable global pandemic where masks are compulsory in some places and illegal in others

Well that should put us back on track as a nation, practical solutions for our modern problems. What a relief.

Fuck this country. I'm moving out.

Face paint.

Does it apply to FFP2 respirators?

What if you're feeling unwell?

Face paint and glasses to break up facial recognition

😷

Hmm… I may be mistaken but can they not already arrest troublemakers, arsonists, violent/aggressive individuals and other sort of rioters/agitators with preexisting laws/bylaws/regulations ?

On the other hand, I'm trying to see the silver lining here… perhaps this new law will make it difficult for agent provocateur¹ from operating without repercussions and anonymity unless the law specifically has a carve out for them (I wouldn't be too surprised, but it would be another major blow to the resiliency of democracy in the United Kingdom).

Source: Pentney, K. (2021). Licensed to kill…discourse? agents provocateurs and a purposive right to freedom of expression. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 39(3), 241-257

I'm sure there'll be a carve-out to the mask prohibition. I mean, what if there's protest action a minister/police department dislikes? They need a way for their agents to don confiscated Nazi paraphernalia before joining the event to poison its media coverage, while remaining unidentifiable as state actors.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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.

The move is in direct response to the four protesters being cleared of criminal damage after toppling a statute of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2022 .

Ministers will also make climbing on war memorials a specific public order offence, carrying a three-month sentence and a £1,000 fine.

Shami Chakrabarti, the human rights lawyer and peer, said: “Should rape victims or refugees peacefully protesting really be punished for covering their faces to protect their identities?

The home secretary, James Cleverly, said that recent protests had seen “a small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority”.

The original article contains 681 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

that has been forbidden in Germany for years

First they force you to wear masks in public, then they ban it. Fucking clowns.

I would do it anyway in mass. I want 100 people to show up somewhere with masks.

Good luck enforcing this. I have a right to protest, and I also have an autoimmune disease that means I will wear a mask in public spaces on the advice of my doctor, especially when there’s a new strain of covid.

Look forward to many, many federal cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act, dipshits.

These must be western values we keep hearing so much about.

I wonder where that energy was in the 852nd month of "two weeks to flatten the curve". 🤔

Antifa ain't happy about that.