/I I am a labour devotee, born 1961. I am appalled at what constitutes correct opinion. Really? Help me here. Please agree. It has gone to far. Ask yourself, how can Bristol be right?
Following a centrist party isn't a bar to finding Bristol appalling mate. There is a hard core of people who hijack what are otherwise legitimate demonstrations as an excuse to cause trouble. They undermine the message of the legitimate demonstrations. I've looked at some of the white paper for the bill they want to " kill". It includes stiffer sentences for terrorists and people who assault emergency workers, as well as strengthening measures for dealing with paedophiles who misuse positions of responsibility/authority such as sports coaches. It appears it may have some impact on non pre-approved demonstrations. The government say this is aimed at things like climate extinction glueing themselves to tube trains or whatever. It may have more far reaching consequences but we might not get the national debate on it as the riot seemed to stultify debate rather than promote it amongst the wider public
The most problematic bit of the bill is the ability for the state to use the police force to (violently, if necessary) disperse a protest if it causes "significant annoyance". The issue is that annoyance is a subjective term. Priti Patel and the Home Office can claim anything they want is annoying. It's deliberately vague to reserve as much power as possible, and is therefore fascistic.
Cue: every future unpopular bill going through parliament to add a month to maximum sentences* for paedophiles. So then if there’s any genuine opposition to draconian measures, the government can spin it as ‘the opposition is soft on kiddy fiddlers’. It’s quite a tactic. *as with the ‘10 years for lying when entering the country’ we should all be bright enough to understand that maximum sentences aren’t the problem, the whole system is on its knees. And as for the morons who read ‘kill the bill’ as ‘kill the police’, there’s no helping that level of stupidity, when the actual debate it so finely nuanced. There’s no wonder the country is utterly fuc ked
You are being naive. EVERYONE in the protest must clearly have come from South London as it is only there that they refer to the Police as the Bill. so they were being 'clever' and subversive . It is obviously the same argument that those protesting a few months back at the industrial scale of pigs being slaughtered at a certain factory with signs and placards saying 'stop killing pigs' were clearly demonstrating their support for the police. In all seriousness there were probably a handful of provocateurs who may have have given it a 'double meaning' in their own heads but the overwhelming majority simply coined the slogan at its face value. Whatever, the violence is totally counter productive as it has always been e.g. BLM protests being hijacked by hotheads rioting and looting in poor neighbourhoods in the USA and destroying the livelihoods and property of local businesses and neighbours. It also devalues a legitimate protest in the eyes of most reasonable people and adds weight to the very Act in this instance they are protesting against.
The purpose of the Bristol demonstration is a noble and just one. Peaceful protest is a right which no government should contemplate removing. It seem on this occasion some people took it as an opportunity to have a real go at the police. No doubt some of them had been in trouble with the police previously and maybe thought they could get a bit of revenge. Some maybe just thought they'd join in for a bit of fun. We don't know yet but it sounds like they are being rounded up and we might find out more in the days to come.
See what you did there. You engaged in a sensible debate about a serious piece of intended legislation. I disagree slightly because I think that the judiciary will set case law about what crosses the threshold re demonstrations but agree it needs very careful wording. But this is how it should be. What has happened instead is that the government now get to say, this is exactly why we need the bill. The media and even the opposition aren't in much of a mood to hold them to account anymore.
It's extremely worrying in so many ways. Not just the bills they lazily put forward, badly word and then deny proper debate and input to. But that they change so much through statutory implements and secondary legislation denying any scrutiny at all.
