As of midnight, protest is effectively illegal in the UK.
(www.opendemocracy.net)
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It will be impossible for any protest to not go above the "minor inconvenience" test.
There are plans to expand this to strikes and criticism of Government.
The same Government that condemned and punished Boris Johnson on top of the punishments he was due to get prior to his resignation. His crime? Criticising the MPs who made up the privileges committee.
As an American I'd like to say, Britain has gone bonkers. But it does have the advantage of having gone bonkers a number of times in the last 1,000 years so that we can estimate where it will end up:
Some beheadings, never ending wigs in the courtroom, the aristocracy prevails. Could be worse.
It's amazing to me how quickly the UK and other commonwealth countries have run full speed into oppression. You're looking at where the US is headed, just in fast-forward.
The big lesson I have learned is that people fundamentally don't oppose authoritarianism, as long as it's "the right kind".
How the people in charge can actually convince themselves that they stand for freedom, while openly adopting all the techniques of fascism and communism, shows a complete lack of introspection on their part.
The one positive to Europe accelerating faster than the US is it'll serve as a great example to hopefully stop it here in time.
just in case it needs to be said - the "minor inconvenience" clause exists solely so they can pick and choose who deserves to be prosecuted
Certainly an interesting development. The question is whether it will used in the near-term to scupper these climate extremist protests. I'm thinking, no. Making both the near and long term implications rather dire.
I feel like maybe the climate change protests were coddled and allowed to piss off the public so much as a way to bolster support for creeping govt overreach like this.
So they may finally crack down on them now this has passed, as a way to go "look, see how this isn't all bad?" to a public who might otherwise complain about the grim implications of a law this vague.
I suspect the "climate" protests will dry up because the goal is accomplished. The law will only be used to go after real dissidents against the regime, which was the original goal.
Expect it to be applied to anyone who publicly disagrees with White replacement immigration, "diversity" mandates, and "lgbt" indoctrination of children.
Nah, the climate protests are only a "minor inconvenience", as precisely measured by the Scientific "protest inconvenience" scale; no reason to shut those down.
Oh what an interesting dilemma this thing creates:
You can see the possibility of selective/double standard in enforcing this... I'm sure this is just an oversight and surely not intentional. When those groups you don't like start a protest, some others show up, "cause problems" and then you shut it all down. It's all cumulative, innit?!
I wonder, do you have to get a protest approved in the UK, like in other "freer" EU countries (I think that applies to large gatherings), or can it be spontaneous?
Oh, and "community"... what a wonderful little exploit. "Our" community was deeply affected. Yeah, we live in the opposite part of the country, what of it ?
All laws are selectively enforced. The idea that "nobody is above the law" is fiction taught to children. Anyone adult who says publicly it really means "we are using the law as a pretext to justify harming our political enemies and helping our political allies."
Once you accept that you will realize the fight isn't over what the law is but over who is doing the enforcing.
I have heard that the metaphysical "Rule of Law" of republicanism is (historically) a relatively recent American-promoted phenomenon. That the rule of law sits above all men, and serves an ideal eternal justice that the "justice system" objectively and blindly applies to all citizens. Europeans and the English always understood legislation and punishment comes from whoever is in power, not from some ephemeral force of law and order. It's not a bad idea because it limits the rights of kings and inspired the written Constitution, but the collective poison of Democracy strengthens the myth because it makes us believe FDR's lie of "We are all the government!" Whereas the founders assumed every couple generations the people would revolt and reform the government when the rulers got out of hand.
Anarcho tyranny in action.
Reminder. There are already laws in place to stop these climate protesters, they're just not enforced.
These new laws will not be enforced either. Well they will but just against you.
My guess, blm, xr and jso continue to get the kiddy glove treatment and anyone else gets batons.
The people in the UK should get together and ... uh ... damn.
I hope they appreciate why Americans had to revolt. Not that we're doing much better at this point.
We are the same my dude. These people are installed.
We don't believe you voted for Pedo any more than you thought we voted for 4 brown Prime Ministers in all UK countries.
We are the same my dude. These people are installed.
We don't believe you voted for Pedo and more than you thought we voted for 4 brown Prime Ministers.
Good luck on enforcement, I doubt any leftist protest will get hit due to ideology, Muslims nah as they fight back, 'far right' eh as they have football fans and police have to be FULLY armoured to deal with them on a normal day.
Protesting isn't really as effective anymore, best off doing boycotts like in America
So the only action left is for the UK to execute all their politicians.
Yes. The brown ones.
Collaborators get the rope too.
We just introduced new protest laws in South Australia which some have argued will have a chilling effect. But in reality all that was banned was the stupid forms of protest like gluing yourself to something, throwing paint on something, stopping traffic etc. You can still walk with your placard on the sidewalks and have your say but you can no longer fuck around with people going about their daily business which I am all for. The biggest losers for us from this were Extinction Rebellion, and those fuckers deserve to die anyway.
You won't be able to walk or stand in any public place with a placard in silence now. The concept of disruption is already in place and I posted about the consequences of that in an earlier post. This introduces the concept of "inconvenience" which is vague and widely interpreted by the Police. One of the arguments the Police could use to take action against you is that you are standing in a place that someone else wishes to walk through or pause in. That could apply to literary any atom of public place.
The ultimate goal is to ban dissent. But it won't be applied to the likes of Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil because they have the correct ideology of supporting Net Zero and/or are useful idiots in the eyes of the Government to implement even more powers. This will be applied to opposition parties, not those who follow the Tory line but including the likes of Reform, Reclaim and other minority parties, protesters critical of migration such as Tommy Robinson, anti-lockdown protesters and those critical of monarchy.
Silver lining is that hopefully this also stops all the fucking idiots blocking roads.
Just Stop Oil have already blocked roads since this became law. It isn't designed for them anyway as they have an ideology that the Government agrees with (Net Zero).
Soap box, ballot box, bullet box.
2 out of 3 have been taken away.
For the last one, see https://ctrlpew.com/the-complete-getting-started-guide/