Pro Palestinian marches apparently costing police 20 million pounds.

Why would you despair? Other than about humanity generally of course.

Hamas caused this; Hamas hides behind the innocent; Hamas has made the innocent go back to conflict that they tried to flee; Hamas is bankrolled and directed by Iran; Hamas is committed to extinguishing Jews and their homeland.

Why would you despair? Does your ‘empathy’ not extend to Jews?

I read posts like this and it honestly makes me despair. Do some people really have zero empathy. Nice to see the vast majority on here don't read the daily mail.

Tbf France seems to have banned these protests without any claims they are a totalitarian state

Even though I wouldn’t join for various reasons I’m on the side of let them happen here in the U.K. rather than ban

£20m isn’t a lot in the scheme of public spending, not for policing public assemblies at least.

There’s a much better reason for banning these marches, which is that they’re really just cover for antisemites.

No sensible person thinks Israel has done anything beyond what any other democratic, properly run state would do to protect itself and its citizens in the circumstances.

You really have to be a loathsome bigot to object to Israel defending itself. Especially after the events that led to its creation.

As a side issue, the reason there are ever more anti-Israel marches at the moment is that the ‘pro-Palestinian’ interests realise that no-one buys their argument. The great majority understand that Israel’s reaction is legitimate opposition to terrorism - terrorism by a group committed to the destruction of Israel and Jews.

I don’t think this thread has gone the way the OP intended. They started another thread branding the marches antisemitic, and when that was called out we now have this new thread to get people riled up by the policing cost.
what is your end goal @Jupitersstorm? Were you expecting some kind of Daily Mail style moral outrage? Most decent people believe protesting against genocide and calling for a ceasefire is a worthwhile cause. Did anyone query the policing cost of the march against antisemitism? No, because most decent people would argue people also have the right to protest against that too.

Do you think none of the people at the protests have worked hard all week?
But I do think all will feel a lot worse if we start banning protesting. First it will be this, then it will be something you agree with protesting against. Just because you or anybody else doesn't agree that doesn't mean there should be a blanket ban. Ban one, ban them all, not just the ones you don't like.

I wish we lived in a world where we never needed to protest. Had our gov stopped funding arms, supporting genocides and working for their own personal gains and actually worked for the British public we wouldn't be protesting. I wouldn't be surprised to hear the British police receive training soon just like the US are from Israel on how to suppress people and batter the shit out of them with their brutality tactics they've been practicing on Palestinian children with DM being on the front row marketing how great are police force are.

Papers like the DM are hate filled and racist feeding off the uneducated foolish man's prejudices making them believe all the problems in the world they are facing are because of benefit frauds, brown people, Muslims, immigrants and Meghan Markle. If the readers had an ounce of a brain cell, they would divert their attention to the government and their corruption and see the actual cause. The people protesting about freedom for Palestine are also mostly the very same people protesting for social injustice and are very vocal about it.

No, they shouldn't be stopped. Where do you draw the line at which protests we should allow or not allow? Only allow the ones you agree with? Only allow ones your neighbour Phil agrees with?
Perhaps there would be more funding if they didn't throw money at their mates companies pretending it's for the benefit of the British public. We should ban that before we ban the right to protest.

What about the £8m cost of King Charles photographs being sent to all public bodies.

£8m!!! In the middle of a cost of living crisis!

Ha!

If you think the cost of peaceful protests is bad, just wait until you hear about the cost of elections… maybe we should just suspend democracy until the books are balanced. That sounds like a good idea. 🙄

I agree with the right to protest.

Stop believing that the Daily Mail is gospel.

There are protests for all manner of different things going on in London every single day, and most of them generate zero media coverage and you'd never know they'd happened unless you happened to be in that area of London.

I once attended a large protest that marched down Whitehall, literally received zero media coverage at all. Unless you happened to be there, you wouldn't know it had happened.

And tons and tons of smaller protests that (somewhat understandably) don't get media coverage because they are so small and because there's so many of them.

They all have to be policed, which costs money, because the government can't just arbitrarily say what protests are allowed and what protests are banned. And people would just protest anyway, which would require a larger police presence than an approved protest.

@queenofarles the same Daily Mail that helped to sell us Brexit and all the other shit things that it's done over the years. LOL.

Well the OP has emerged from cover with their later comments and revealed that they just want the marches stopped/never to have happened full stop
by using none other than the farcical Daily mail tactic of pointing out how much these marches cost the government/ tax payers,
like the Government are so careful with money all the time . 🙄

It says its the same people tasked to it. Yes it's bad management/lack of suitably trained resource and not a reason to scale back the right to protest, but I'd be pretty fed up.

We used to draft in all the special constables to cover the football, trooping if the colour etc. not so sure for these marches

The right to peaceful protest is a cornerstone of democracy.

Well the OP has emerged from cover with their later comments and revealed that they just want the marches stopped/never to have happened full stop. Though it was pretty clear from the off with the "supposedly peaceful protests" that it was a loaded ever so umble question with an agenda.As in "shut up citizens about Palestine"
As for:
1: quoting the Daily Mail as an authority on social peace - words fail me.
2: the line that central London is unsafe for folks wanting to do their Christmassy things, clearly rot, barring a general terrorist attack. The marches have definite routes and are so easily avoided that many many people as they go about their business will be totally unaware that they are even happening.
Mnet is full of these sorts of threads at the moment - some folks are clearly putting a lot of work into them.
Of course the marches should be allowed - yes it costs in policing for of course any large gathering has to be policed as has been pointed out upthread.
The marches are essentially peaceful, remarkably so for such large gatherings.

Daily mail is the absolute worst batshit place to go for news or comments. It represents the worst of British society.

Also, most people on the marches want Israel to end the ceasefire and to find a peaceful way forward. Israel is the occupying and brutal force of Palestinians both in the West Bank and Gaza, the former which has nothing to do with Hamas

This

In which case less than 15% of the force have had a single rest day cancelled to deal with it?

Calm yourself OP. , it’s not anti Semitic to march against the killing of 20000 civillians , displacement and starvation of almost 2 millions, it’s called Having a conscious , it’s humanity , the majority of marchers have this this in common. Regardless of their faiths , Beliefs and opinions .
It will end when Israeli government stops the killing in Gaza and illegal settlements in West Bank .

'The Met has cancelled nearly 4,000 rest days and for each public order event, the same officers are being deployed,' he said.

This is the ludicrous part, their evidently aren't enough officers trained in this area to cover. That said pretty sure the article stems from Khan asking for more money. All police forces have had finances stripped, they all need investment- not sure I'm on board with London once again being prioritised when where I am even serious crimes aren't being taken on because of resource.

There are marches or protests most days in London, how much is spent policing football matches and before and after.