To feel uneasy about how quiet everyone is about this happening?

[Maxnon]

Here are a few articles about a new bill going through, but really there isn't enough being spoken about it in the media.

Politics.co.uk: Anti-protest bill: Freedom dies in silence "The truly frightening thing was that they didn’t even argue for it. Over two days of debate and dozens of speeches, not one government minister actually defended the anti-protest powers in the new policing bill. Only one MP did."

The Economist: An illiberal bill to suppress protest in Britain

Guardian: 'Bill that curtails ability to protest in England and Wales passes second reading' "The DUP MP Gavin Robinson said: “The loose and lazy way this legislation is drafted would make a dictator blush. Protests will be noisy, protests will disrupt and no matter how offensive we may find the issue at their heart, the right to protest should be protected.”

Opinion: The Right to Protest is important in any credible democracy. Whilst I appreciate the current covid restrictions makes protest harder, in general, this should only be temporary until the pandemic slows down and we are back to some normality. A bill making potentially permanent changes to the Right to Protest makes me feel uneasy. Is that unreasonable?

@littledrummergirl

Yanbu. I got reply from my mp talking about the good things that this bill has in it, saying that it was going to be reviewed by committee before being sent back. She voted for the Bill (and lost my vote and respect). Using good law to also push through bad law is underhand and despicable. I wonder what the government is scared of? They seem to have forgotten why they are there.

And it's something that the USA government, especially the current one, will not respect either. This government has already raised alarm bells in the USA with their apparent carelessness regarding the Good Friday Agreement.

Their handling of Covid has helped to show their hand.

@Maxnon, unfortunately personally I think it’s darker and simpler than that. And is just about trying to squash down the little people so that the tiny elite at the top can continue to accumulate wealth and power and live their amazing lives at the expense of the rest of us. Certainly I think this government would love to have the power that China holds over its populace. I agree that too many of the public have this attitude of not being able to see why they ought to care, the poem that a pp referenced “First they came for us” is exactly right. I am glad that I studied the rise of Nazi Germany at school (that’s where I first came across that poem) and the horrors of the Holocaust so that my eyes are open to see clearly history repeating itself in front of me. I think that the generations below me (I am a Xennial) have been undereducated about this. I taught my son about the existence of the Holocaust myself as they just weren’t teaching him at primary school, I was genuinely shocked when it came up in conversation around year 5/6 that he literally had no idea that it had happened.

@Crankley

skirk64 The voice of sense and reason but the left wing woke folk on here aren't interested in either.

It wouldbe nice if these wokies just backed the government for once.

@Worldgonecrazy

It’s scary but I think we have collectively resigned ourselves to totalitarianism.

This bill will be passed, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. We could arrange a mass protest of a million people and it would still go through, as recent history has shown.

We are impotent against what is being forced upon us. We can’t even vote to remove this behaviour because both sides of the house see the personal and nepotistic advantages of treating the populace in this way.

Maybe our children or grandchildren will rise up again or maybe we will revert to serfdom for several generations? Who knows. What I do know is that those in power will do what they want and enact those laws that they choose, and the populace will be manipulated into thinking those laws are for our own good, and there is f-all we can do about it.

The bigger picture in all this is the emergence of the technocratic state.

This video is the first of three, and is a place to begin learning more.

The end game then becomes very clear.

When you know what your enemy is, at least you can begin to formulate your response.

Unfortunately, it's been a prolonged stealth move and it looks like we are in the eleventh hour.

@littledrummergirl I think they are scared of people like us banding together, rising up and bringing others with us, as it would interfere with their plans to continue turning this democracy into a repressive dictatorship. At some point the measures they take will be too much for most of the population and they are making sure there will be nothing any of us can do about it at the stage that enough people realise what is happening to mount an effective protest.

"And is just about trying to squash down the little people so that the tiny elite at the top can continue to accumulate wealth and power and live their amazing lives at the expense of the rest of us. "

If so, then they deserve the misfortunes that come their way.

@ConquestEmpireHungerPlague Plenty of solutions, the tough part is getting enough people to take the first step.

Activism and sustained collective effort, which the vaccine campaign has shown that the UK is pretty good at, if you compare with the dismal situation in Europe. Then everyone needs to be lobbying their MPs constantly, in very large numbers, signing petitions daily, talking about it all the time not just on mumsnet, showing their total disrespect for a govt that does this, and just not taking no for an answer. Fuck them.

I don't understand how everyone can be so blind as to what's going on. The fear around terrorism was used to push through some of the most far ranging surveillance in the world in this country. The fear around covid is now being used to restrict our basic freedoms, including the right to protest. Those anti-terror surveillance laws were never undone. Once you lose freedoms it's very, very hard to get them back.

It is heartening to see other people on this thread talking sense though.

@Mygardenisnotperfect that's probably similar to why I feel the way I do - lifetime student of Soviet Russian literature. I have a shelf full of Solzhenitsyn and books about both Lenin, Stalin and the Russian Revolution. Not because I like Communism but because I have long wondered how the horror that was the USSR can happen when so many millions could have stood up to it and said no.

I don't understand how everyone can be so blind as to what's going on.

People are probably so emotionally and mentally depleted due to the events of the past year that they are in their own deliberately ignorant bubbles to protect what's left of their mental health. I'll openly admit I avoid the news and headlines as much as I can at the moment, and I know very little about this anti protest Bill.

Here's a link to the UK parliament petition on this: it's titled do not restrict our rights to peaceful protest

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012

Deeply fascistic, terrifying how many on this thread seem fine with that!

@LucieStar

I don't understand how everyone can be so blind as to what's going on.

People are probably so emotionally and mentally depleted due to the events of the past year that they are in their own deliberately ignorant bubbles to protect what's left of their mental health. I'll openly admit I avoid the news and headlines as much as I can at the moment, and I know very little about this anti protest Bill.

I also sense people are afraid to speak up too.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”― Edmund Burke

@DimidDavilby

Deeply fascistic, terrifying how many on this thread seem fine with that!

They probably think they are being very clever with catchphrases like "Right Not to Care".

@Maxnon

Probably. I can only speak for myself and others who I know. Many of my friends, family and colleagues also avoid the news these days for self preservation reasons.

It's Emmeline Pankhurst, not Emily Pankhurst. There are plenty of pictures of the suffragettes getting arrested too, not much was lawful about what they did. I know someone who thinks that if your protest isn't illegal, you're doing it wrong. I don't back this bill but it doesn't have to mean the end of protest if it goes through.

@BlackBucketOfCheese

The voice of sense and reason but the left wing woke folk on here aren't interested in either.

Mumsnet woke? This place drips with racism, it couldn’t be woke if it tried.

I think in general with this bill the government have been able to sell it as "stopping BLM anarchists from causing havoc pulling down statues and defacing memorials" and "Extinction rebellion from chaining themselves to trains, flight paths and bridges".

Thus the press and the public weren't really bothered. After how the police dealt with the protest/vigil on Saturday suddenly the nice, respectable middle classes realised it could affect them too and thus you've seen a bit of pushback this season.

Pity they didn't push back against the Spycops bill as well. Its now legal for State agents to recruit children and commit crimes.

It IS terrifying. I think many people are like rabbits in headlights, not not what to do as they seemingly have now powers. People generally feel powerless and I think it's no coincidence that this Bill has been put forward when everybody's clinging on by a thread because of lockdown and Covid.

I don't know that I agree that people should have defied lockdown, the deaths are real, but lockdown was lockdown and we now have to fight to get back the powers that we used to have?

I really think that people just don't know how to do it.

I wrote to my MP ( Conservative) about it, voicing my concerns about the anti-protest element of it and asking him to consider voting against it. Did not get a reply.

He voted for the 2nd reading of the Bill.

I won't (and didn't) vote for him. Constituency is a Tory safe seat though - it would take a bloody miracle to get them out here.

Most MNetters seem more bothered about people breaking “da roolz” than our civil rights being taken away by stealth. Up in arms about a next door neighbour having a parent or friend over though!

@Biffbaff

It's Emmeline Pankhurst, not Emily Pankhurst. There are plenty of pictures of the suffragettes getting arrested too, not much was lawful about what they did. I know someone who thinks that if your protest isn't illegal, you're doing it wrong. I don't back this bill but it doesn't have to mean the end of protest if it goes through.

Sorry, but we can't be condoning anyone breaking the law.

100+ years ago women were fighting for the basic right to vote (which many men didn't have either). Now everyone has the right to vote and we live in a democracy. If you don't like the laws then they can be appealed or stopped from becoming law (this hasn't gone through yet).

This country voted for this government in their millions - if they disagree with them, the country can vote them out next time.

Back then women didnt have the vote so no, they couldnt vote out the govt.
This time round we have the vote but there is no one to vote for.

[quote IsThisJustLife]Here's a link to the UK parliament petition on this: it's titled do not restrict our rights to peaceful protest

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012[/quote]
Signed thanks @IsThisJustLife.

When the 166,000 signatories increase to 16,600,000, we might get somewhere.

TO ALL those folks out there who thinks its ok to slyley stop protests just think were we would be without the suffragetts for womens vote
and the unions who fought for better working conditions and wages
and the protests for equal pay for women well that's alright then as long as you don't have to put the effort in !! BUT reap the benefits !
This country is known for secrecy and being oppressive we are becoming more and more of a police state ...just wondered why now ? They are trying to cowtow the public whilst the elite such as Cummings gets a 40percent pay rise the cronies get millions of pound of contracts the MPs have expense accounts that are eye wateringly grotesque in the amount they receive ..are they preparing for the inevitable protests and riots that will be coming in the future due to poor housing low pay no jobs NHS treated like shite... Well that's ok then etc etc !!! are they scared of people power ? and they dare to criticise CHINA Ha!
Democracy my asss!!!!