The cenotaph and poppy sellers

[LittleMooli]

Hi, would anyone mind explaining to me why the media seems to be portraying that remembrance commemorations are being targeted by pro-palestinian protests? I don't really know enough to know how the two things are linked.

The marchers want to cause trouble and intimidate UK and Jewish people, they should be banned

The overwhelming vast majority are marching for peace for Palestinian people and want nothing of the sort.

I’m a bit baffled by the posters saying outside the London bubble people don’t support the marches.

The vast majority of Londoners, myself included, DO NOT support them either. However the police just aren’t interested that the public feel threatened and upset so they are standing by and letting it happen.

Yes, of course you can remember all the dead.

You can also have a debate about the words 'gave their lives' as opposed to 'lives were taken'.

You can also take umbrage at some of the wording on some village memorials. One of my friends used to.

There is nothing special about Britain in the context of people losing their lives in war. It just happens that the Cenotaph in Whitehall, and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey, and the newer memorial to women, also in Whitehall, are in Britain.

I don't see any place where anyone has said that lives other than British ones are unimportant.

Are you going to do something specific on 11th or 12th to remember ALL people killed in wars? If so, what will you do?

Also, what l find more disrespectful is the fact that loads of right wing thugs will be round the Cenotaph on Saturday.

I find the right wing hijack of the whole poppy thing just sick making. And so ironic that the WW2 was about fighting this stuff.

Also please note that thousands of these protestors are being bussed in to London from outside in organised events. These protestors do not speak for the majority here in London…they have come here to deliberately try to disrupt and intimidate.

It's actually down to the application of relevant legislation whether any protest march can go ahead, providing it meets the relevant criteria it can go ahead. This applies to any march for any cause.

I am sure people aren't suggesting that the police should operate outside of laws set by Parliament? If the legislation is poorly drafted that is down to whoever produced it.

But absolutely I hope that anyone using inflammatory language (anywhere) is prosecuted. Any group calling for violence is despicable and frankly does their cause no good. I dont think anyone should pretend that ALL those involved in the marches are calling for peace - just as we shouldn't pretend that ALL those marching are there out of hate.

I haven't had a lot of time for the Met over recent years but this weekend I am going to hope that they can move swiftly & effectively when they need to. It's not a job I would want to do.

There was never going to be a problem. certain sections of the media, some right wing groups, and our Home Secretary, decided to pretend there would be in order to whip up hate and division.

Oh gosh. Why though? I am not getting the link between the cenotaph, war memorials and Palestine? Or are the war dead somehow linked?

I don't think it really matters where they come from? People are free to move around the country

These protestors do not speak for the majority here in London…they have come here to deliberately try to disrupt and intimidate.

please stop exaggerating and spreading misinformation, Just because you want to silence any protest against the atrocities of the Israeli Government doesn’t mean you can just make things up .
But I’m pretty sure that some people will take offence in just about anything .

and while we are at , I suggest you stop trying to paint these people as uncouth trouble makers being wheeled out every weekend .

Quite. She is abhorrent, her language is so dangerous especially when it is coming from the Home Secretary.
Put very well by Colum Eastwood in quote below from the Guardian:
Colum Eastwood, the MP for Foyle and leader of the SDLP, the nationalist party whose founding member, John Hume, won a Nobel prize for his championing of the peace process in Northern Ireland, called Braverman a “pound-shop Enoch Powell”.
“The comments comparing the proposed Armistice Day protests against the appalling bombardment of civilians in Gaza with the marching tradition in Northern Ireland are an exercise in what can only be described as aggressive ignorance,” he said. “Ignorance of the conditions faced by the civilian population in Gaza, ignorance of the role of the Met police, ignorance of the complex history and traditions of marching and protest in Northern Ireland. She has managed to offend just about everyone – no mean feat in a divided society.
“The comments are far below the standard that should be expected from a senior government minister. The only appropriate action now is her removal from office but given the systemic weakness of this government, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she remained.”

She is most definitely ignorant, I digress but even her suggestion that living in tents is a lifestyle choice made by some people absolutely clueless

Nice try @queenofarles but no cigar. I am simply reporting what my fellow Londoners are saying in real life as well as what we feel when intimidation towards us from the protestors happens - which I have personally witnessed.

We are sick to death of you all bussing into our City when we don’t want your aggression here thanks.

…also please stay out of our tube system @queenofarles - we’d like to get to work and go about our lives without loads of thugs on a jolly day out in London chanting terrorist slogans in the carriages.

I've seen a few reports now of vox pops at some of the Palestine marches and it's surprising how many people don't really know why they're there. Some are there protesting against colonialism, the Royal family, racism etc. It just all seems to have blended into one sort of 'rage about everything'.

Protests/marches of any kind inevitably draw anarchists and trouble makers too and given that Remembrance Day parades usually have a high proportion of veterans and elderly people, I think I'd be worried about policing it too.

Suella Braverman had family serving in the IDF, she has skin in this game.
She's deliberately trying to rile up the far left and the far right so that she can say. See I was right...I know the majority of the people marching are marching for peace and nothing else.
The far right have already gathered groups of men to protest that day too so I imagine they will also be purposely trying to incite violence ans clashes as that's what they love.

AdrianaLaCerva and this fellow Londoner is saying I have no issues with Marches , I’ve seen far more troubles in the Euro semi finals,
and you shouldn’t worry , I never take the tube

Well good for you that you don’t have to be intimidated on the tube @queenofarles. have a biscuit.

MissAtomicBomb1 · Today 07:41

I think it could be viewed as disrespectful to hold the march on a weekend where Britain is remembering its own dead.
Doesn't really help the cause with the wider public either.
My opinion, don't expect everyone to share it but like it or not, many do outside of the London/twitter/social media bubble.”

Question Time was in Llandudno yesterday, some distance from the “bubble”. Fiona Bruce asked if anyone agreed with Mrs. Braverman. 1 person put his hand up.

I live in the NW. Everyone I know supports the marches.

You live in the countries Capital, where the government sits so people will always congregate in Capital cities for protests and marches on a whole raft of issues, no idea why you seem to be so surprised by this. London is a very big place it can be easily avoided. Same happens in Dublin where I live I just avoid it when I know there are protests happening, we get enough warning....

What you think of as public sentiment will depend on what you look at

Exactly. I am wondering if our Home Secretary is hiding on this thread deliberately inflaming and fanning the flames of hatred from some of these comments, LOL.

The answer is likely something not very pleasant

Suella Braverman and the government were clearly informed days ago that the March would go nowhere near the cenotaph and that it was a march for a ceasefire. Suella is using this to try and whip up a frenzy with the lowest denominator in this country, as she saw how well that worked for Boris et al. and she thinks that's how she can up her popularity.

A pro-terrorism march on a day set aside to commemorate those lost in other wars against terror and fascism. Hardly appropriate.

The sheer naivety on this forum astounds me.

Marching for peace... Have you seen the footage from the previous "peace" marches?