Tens of thousands of people protested in London yesterday, why isn’t it in the news?

[Lesserspottedmama]

What is going on with the news these days? Whether or not you agree with anti restriction protests, surely the public have a right to be informed about a protest that large? I’m feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the censorship. Anyone else?

@JassyRadlett

I think they're worried that the vaccine passport will be used to coerce everyone into getting the vaccine by denying work, travel and access to various venues to anyone without it, as Jewish people were denied access to various services and venues in 1930s Germany. They're afraid that the pandemic is being used as an excuse to change society for the worse.

The trouble with this argument (not suggesting it’s yours, but it is deeply flawed) is that it suggests that the Nazi horror against the Jews existed in isolation rather than following centuries of anti-Jewish racism. It ignores the reason that the Jews were targeted by the Nazis is that Jews had already been the victims of persecution and racism for a long, long time.

And it suggests that there was any evidence-based argument that could be made to support the Nazi persecution of the Jews, analogous to the evidence-based public health arguments for Covid measures.

And so is disgustingly racist.

Well said. Unvaccinated people may be kept out of large venues of people closely spaced as they have the potential to spread a sometimes deadly virus among other people. To equate that as being the same as Jewish people refused entry simply on the basis of being Jewish is disgusting.

They are protesting a lockdown which is in the process if being lifted and a vaccine who's purpose is to stop lockdowns being needed. Sound like morons to me. Not exactly headline grabbing stuff (although at has been covered as pp have said).
And the stars of David are reprehensible.

I was told that I was mean for suggesting that if they caught a dose they shouldn’t get an nhs bed. I’m not mean...

Funny how the OP hasn't come back!

I'm an expat and almost never check the UK news and when I do just very briefly... Even I saw this on the news 😂

@Ostryga

Some were wearing yellow stars. Middle class white people of course.

That I cannot wrap my head around, their sheer stupidity, awful, disgusting behaviour.

What? Bloody hell!

@noblegiraffe

I hopped over to the DM website as they always have lots of photos. It seems that there were a huge number of large-breasted women on the march - or maybe they are disproportionately represented in the photos.

Anyway, alongside the 'No to vaccine passports' banners there were
'Covid-19 Vaccine Holocaust'
'Wake up and smell the tyranny. Covid is a Hoax. Your government is lying to you'
'We are in the middle of a mass hypnosis'
'Plandemic Deep State Fake Cabal Paedophile'
'Make influenza great again'

PARKLIFE!

@Cornettoninja I don't disagree with that at all. Shocking how few people are bothered by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I think history will look back and consider us naive at best and idiots at worst.

@SunsetBeetch

@Lesserspottedmama

Clearly I need to diversify where I get my news from. BBC news have said nothing about it. Seems like an awful lot of people to write them all off as morons and idiots. I would be interested to hear their points of what they feel so strongly about now things are starting to lift.

Right, so because you didn't personally see an article about the protest from the BBC, you think no one is reporting about it? How hard did you look? Did you even bother to search the BBC website? And if for some reason it really wasn't on the BBC, though posters have shown otherwise, why would you not go to another news source?

And yes, you absolutely should get your news from more than one source. It will help you form more well-rounded views about what is happening in the world.

It's no surprise that the BBC haven't mentioned it. Sky News have uploaded a video of it and staggeringly, they've worded it mainly in a positive light!

"Published on 24 Apr 2021
Thousands marched through central London in a 'Unite for Freedom' protest against coronavirus restrictions.

The group, which was launched to oppose lockdowns in the UK, is now demonstrating against masks, vaccines and COVID-19 passports.

People out shopping in Oxford Street were met with calls from the crowd to "take your masks off", as many protesters carried signs featuring conspiracy theories about vaccines."

The BBC have reported it. I was just reading it on their website. Why do people not inform themselves?

It was so refreshing and encouraging to see so many people on so many videos of yesterday's protest.

“People out shopping in Oxford Street were met with calls from the crowd to "take your masks off", as many protesters carried signs featuring conspiracy theories about vaccines."

You think that’s positive coverage?

@SunsetBeetch

*PARKLIFE
*
That made me lol

@FriedEggs1 not to a lot of people. I find videos of people with yellow stars on repugnant. I hate seeing footage of people abusing random strangers for wearing masks and as for the injuries to the police (who were not prioritised for the vaccine)...

@FriedEggs1 the BBC have reported it. In fact several of us have linked to their multiple reports about it.

@noblegiraffe

“People out shopping in Oxford Street were met with calls from the crowd to "take your masks off", as many protesters carried signs featuring conspiracy theories about vaccines."

You think that’s positive coverage?

Yeh. I wouldn't be so proud of that personally. Harassing and intimidating innocent people trying to go shopping.

Funny thing actually. The protestors go on about rights but failed to respect other people's rights to wear a mask. In London, a city that's seen more than 10,000 dead to Covid, a wish to take Covid safe measures is understandable.

It's interesting the 'protest', complete with far right racist imagery, took place in London. Where there's a sizeable Jewish population, and a significant proportion of residents are non white and have been harder hit by Covid. A mass gathering with deliberate refusal to take Covid safe precautions given all that makes you wonder the true motives of the organisers.

Also worth noting the words of one of their supporters on another thread here. She admitted she wouldn't want to 'protest' in a sleepy market town or village - because she wouldn't want to hassle the locals. Wonder why it's ok to hassle the diverse communities of London...?

@FriedEggs1

It was so refreshing and encouraging to see so many people on so many videos of yesterday's protest.

Because they're now easily identifiable to the authorities?

@JassyRadlett

I think they're worried that the vaccine passport will be used to coerce everyone into getting the vaccine by denying work, travel and access to various venues to anyone without it, as Jewish people were denied access to various services and venues in 1930s Germany. They're afraid that the pandemic is being used as an excuse to change society for the worse.

The trouble with this argument (not suggesting it’s yours, but it is deeply flawed) is that it suggests that the Nazi horror against the Jews existed in isolation rather than following centuries of anti-Jewish racism. It ignores the reason that the Jews were targeted by the Nazis is that Jews had already been the victims of persecution and racism for a long, long time.

And it suggests that there was any evidence-based argument that could be made to support the Nazi persecution of the Jews, analogous to the evidence-based public health arguments for Covid measures.

And so is disgustingly racist.

Yes, this ^

Just got to page 7 of the Sunday Times where there is a picture, but no article.
Two of the placards visible read
'Nuremberg trials 2
Hancock Johnson Whitty Valence v The People'
and 'Each time we are called conspiracy theorists a child is mentally scarred'.
The first is downright offensive, the second inexplicable.

They're not making any attempt to hide who they are, are they?

[quote Cornettoninja]@Anniegetyourgun - I’m wary of sounding like another conspiracy theorist () but quite honestly if I was forced to pick a flag to fly I don’t quite trust the motivations behind ‘nothing to see here, it’s all fine’ crowd precisely because it’s blatantly obvious (to me at least) that there’s a lot of people losing a lot of money and it’s in their financial interest to play down the effectiveness of a lot of our restrictions.

There’s a middle ground of balancing both health and socioeconomic needs and I try to be careful to not get caught up in either extreme. There’s a lot of agendas out there and I’ve found that the moderate, unfortunately usually quieter, voice tends to be most credible.[/quote]
Absolutely. It makes sense that people with power and money want everything to carry on as normal, where they can keep the power and make yet more money. Having to shell out to cover furlough etc can't have been in the plan. It does benefit the likes of Amazon, taking business from physical shops when customers are stuck inside, but it doesn't suit all the interest groups who would have to be in on it too. They don't even need to conspire as such, just get behind the narrative that suits them best.

I was going to say, look at some of the countries that are keenest to keep everything open, what kind of regimes they tend to be, and what's happening to their populations; but the answer will of course fire back that some kind of not terribly deadly flu, right, is kill... er, making a lot of people not very ill. Allegedly. Although to be fair, I've never been to Brazil so I only have the BBC's word that it even exists.

@Gladimnotcampinginthisweather

Just got to page 7 of the Sunday Times where there is a picture, but no article. Two of the placards visible read 'Nuremberg trials 2 Hancock Johnson Whitty Valence v The People' and 'Each time we are called conspiracy theorists a child is mentally scarred'. The first is downright offensive, the second inexplicable.

The UK has it's own QAnon. Great.

The UK has it's own QAnon. Great

And although they don't seem to be posting on this thread (vast majority of posters disagree about lack of coverage and are posting evidence which shows that widespread coverage exists) the voting as of Monday morning still has 52% YANBU when it comes to the vote.