to be utterly sick of protests, marches, rallies, and riots

[NameChangeMay2026]

What happened today in Belfast was dreadful. Of course it was.

When Sarah Everard died, there were marches. But a day before she died, an Indian woman Sarah's age was knifed to death in the street in Leicestershire. It was an "honour" killing, I think.

Where was HER lantern on the doorstep of Downing Street? Where was HER march?

My point is, dreadful things happen every day and I am so sick and tired of news items sparking so much public rowdiness. It used to be that the media could report on current events without starting a riot. I know that we have always had riots, but they were the occasional one. And because they were not common, they helped effect change. They were a desperate measure reserved for when nothing else had helped.

Now, together with marches, rallies, and protests, society is constantly disrupted, and I am so, so sick of it. I live in a major city and I can't go anywhere without checking what march, rally, protest, or riot is happening, especially at the weekends. And they are so common that they don't help effect change anymore.

The riots are terrible. Thousands and thousands of pounds' worth of lost property in fires, injured bystanders, police calld away from other duties to attend them. And there are "professional" rabble-rousers who travel to marches, protests, and riots. It's not because they're passionate about a cause. They're just passionate about causing trouble.

I travel for work to major American cities and it's even worse over there. Another day, another riot/protest/march/rally.

They have become a feature of today's society, and I wish they would just stop.

Edit: I actually stay in more because of them. I don't go out of my hotel as much when staying in America, and I don't go to the city centre where I live as much. It's so bad when regular people are put off from walking around city centres because of all these annoying dickheads.

I think it is worse in America, and I'm tired of feeling scared to go out when there, in case I run into an uncontrolled crowd - where the police have guns, and the protestors might, depending on the state.

The burning buildings in Belfast are a disgrace. It's not the owners' fault that this happened.

Do you live in an area of high migration ? If not, why do you think the perpetrators are idiots ? Of course this level of violence is unacceptable, but it’s over simplifying things to simply brand those who carry it out, as anti migration. My fear is that this kind of violence will continue and escalate as long as government fails to address the myriad problems behind it.

Squeezing housing, infrastructure and welfare in the meantime? Well that isn’t a recipe for disaster at all.

How about we make Brits do the jobs instead and stop propping up laziness with immigration which is very damaging in the long run the way it’s going?

We don't live somewhere like Russia where the government are gonna come for you because you said you hate them

Funnily enough, you are far far more likely to be arrested for social media posts in the UK than you are in Russia.

I think that setting fire to the house/car/property of completely innocent, involved people - is idiotic.

I’m not sure how much more evidence I’d need.

You raise an important point- why do you seek to increase the population of the UK?

Maybe 150 years ago when there was no welfare state a larger population did mean more economic growth - you either worked or starved. But today a larger population means greater welfare payments, increased infrastructure costs, more housing, greater healthcare costs and that's before we even get on to the environmental impact.

A smaller population (regardless of their skin colour or religion) is something to strive for on both economic, political and environmental grounds and not something to try and avoid.

But a day before she died, an Indian woman Sarah's age was knifed to death in the street in Leicestershire. It was an "honour" killing, I think.

We can't talk about honour killings @NameChangeMay2026 because when we do, people like you call us racist.

Then the answer is not more migration, it’s investing in our own - upskilling and much more conditionality for those who are claiming benefits and able to work. I also read a report saying that over 1.5m immigrants are claiming long term UK benefits. How is that helpful ?

At what point? what does eventually mean?

The home secretary said last year that more than 50% of refugees are on benefits 8 years after being given leave to remain.

How long do you want the country to wait before they 'contribute positively'?

And at what point does their contribution prove a net positive for the UK given the years where they were just taking out from the system?

Yer more likely to just be killed in Russia. I imagine that's some incentive to not go complaining on social media about your government
But feel free to share some cases where people in the UK have been arrested and convicted for saying they are unhappy with immigration

Oh come off it. Plenty of people expressing their fears and rage online on all sorts of formats.

Anyone who starts on the "free speech" rhetoric without seeing the amount of absolute bollocks people get away with spouting on line about all topics needs to get back into the real world and find a new echo chamber.

One person arrested and imprisoned for expressing an opinion on SM is one too many.

Okay. Well, the migrants and the criminality aren't going to stop so?......I would hazard a guess that the authorities will have to crack down hard on the people protesting......I wonder how they'll do this when the prisons are so full. Plus, they may have jobs and be taxpayers and the government needs their money. Still, leftist governments know what to do, so, we can trust them to sort it out.

Yes it is. It's why a lot of people are protesting.

Who,?

So my argument has gone right over your head ? Fair enough.

Agreed, protest is and should be part of the ongoing dialogue between the public and government. Riots obviously not. But it does strike me that so many peaceful protesters in support of PA and JSO were arrested, while so many rioters are not.

The left are against any form of violence, especially against women - whether that’s from an immigrant, an honour killing or from a mob of white men under the guise of ‘protecting our country’.

We can be against honour killings and the attempted murder in Belfast without being called racist because we don’t use racist language when condemning the acts.

Why is it people like you think that you are the only people who are against violence to women.

We are women, we have daughters, sisters and mothers who we don’t want to be raped or murdered.
Sorry if that doesn’t fit your narrative.

Nowak’s murderer was not taken to court for over a year. The chap who threw a street cone in Southampton was in court in days and has already been sentenced. Fast-tracking Starmer refers to means days not months or years it takes other crimes to come to court.

Fast tracking is applied selective to only certain cases of ‘public disorder’. But by your own admission you are agreeing there are two tiers.

It takes far longer to arrange a murder trial than a trial for a public order offence in all fairness.

I think your viewpoint is valuable because if we could gather all of you uneducated ones onto a large field and encourage you all to express yourselves, we would instantly have cross party commitment to pour as much money into the English education system as possible.

@Dandelionsalad Henry was murdered in December 2025. How is that more than a year ago?!? His murderer has now been convicted....

You think government should capitulate to groups who actively cause destruction and terrorise innocent people, including children, in their homes?

It’s genuinely frightening how many people are unable to condemn both the attempted murder and the rioters. Nothing justifies the behaviour of either, though there will be underlying reasons for both.

How will we house and feed them? Meet the energy needs of a larger population? We can’t even feed ourselves now and it is going to get even worse with solar farms, energy devouring data centres, and houses being placed on prime agricultural land.

According to official statistics at one point 33 people per day were being arrested for breaches of ‘free speech’. Lucy Connolly obviously comes to mind. Retweeted a post in outrage after the Southport murders, calmed down two hours later, thought better of it and took it down. Sentenced to 3.5 years - longer than for most rapists in this country. No common sense or critical thinking applied at all. Just off you go to jail.

Ideally expressing yourselves without the use of a burning bin.