"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.
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
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.
Genocide Island going back to its roots.
But they already made protest illegal.
Does it apply to FFP2 respirators?
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.
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.
This but unironically
No part of this was ironic I assure you.
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.
in the fallout universe the united states annex canada
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?
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…
Fuck this country. I’m moving out.
You know what I hate about it? I’ve always been quite the anglophile, but never saw the chance to move there because I was uneducated. Now they might even want me to come and I don’t think I want to anymore :(
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
The last one hasn’t ended yet
They want it to be illegal to both wear and not to wear a mask so that they can selectivity enforce arbitrary laws against whomever they wish.
Like that traffic light on a rural Russian intersection that is always red
or like in America, where if the cops want to kick your door in all they have to do is say they smelled something and then it’s on you to prove they didn’t
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?
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!
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.
What if you’re feeling unwell?
JAIL!
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.
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?
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…
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)
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
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.
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.
