Is it illegal to protest at the moment?

[Dustyboots]

Are we allowed to go on demonstrations and protest?

About what would you like to protest?

I don't know, but it's certainly pretty bloody stupid

no, but can be part of an official picket

It is actually illegal.
Does this not unnerve anyone?

www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home

www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-protection-levels/

gov.wales/alert-level-4

It is illegal to gather together.

If you can find some creative, socially distanced, remotely controlled way of voicing your protest, that doesn't endanger the lives of you, your fellow protesters, random members of the public and the emergency services who would be called to police the demo - go ahead.

I would imagine it would be unless you can do it alone which would defeat the point if it's a lonely protest lol

It doesn't unnerve me, no, because I understand the very sound reasoning behind it.

A pandemic is the ONLY scenario in which most of us would contemplate having our civil liberties curtailed as they have been. Any other circumstance, and it would indeed be deeply sinister. But....there is a pandemic.

So I understand the enormity of the restrictions, and I dislike them as much as you do, but they are necessary. So we need to put up with them.

@Dustyboots

It is actually illegal. Does this not unnerve anyone?

Yes!

Paves an easy pathway for a government to do what the hell they like - doesn’t it?

What democracy? Freedom of speech, what’s that?

I thought there was an exemption for protests ...

You can picket if officially organised by a trade union but you can’t protest according to the legislation.

You can exercise your free speech in any way that doesn't endanger the health of others.

You can badger your MP, start a blog, make a nuisance of yourself on social media, publish an open letter, start a petition.

You cannot gather together with others for a group protest. Because we are trying to suppress transmission of an infectious disease.

It's really not complicated,

It's really not complicated

No. Ok. Thanks for that.

Be thankful that you, painfully obviously, haven't a clue what it's like to live under a regime where free speech really is threatened.

Yes
Your civil rights and freedoms have gone, its illegal protest
Police state

Protests and demos have no effect.

Remember the huge, huge, anti Brexit marches?

Police states don't generally have governments that slash police numbers so far that the police force can't operate safely

You're angry about the wrong things.

If Boris started imprisoning people for breaking lockdown laws ...

Would you be happy with the current status quo and put the nation’s health ahead of your voice being heard?

@Dustyboots

Are we allowed to go on demonstrations and protest?

No we are not. Its illegal to leave your house for any reason not deemed essential.

Personally I think its a real travesty, and yes it is indicative of a police state no matter whether that is the government's intention or not

What do you hope to achieve by protesting?

Lockdown ends, and the virus rampages out of control?

What is your solution for dealing with the virus instead of lockdown?

So your freedom to protest trumps people's health?

We have the right to protest.
We do not have the right to gather together. For reasons of virus transmission not because it's a protest.
Find a way to protest that does not involve being crammed up with several hundred other people. Be creative.

Just a reminder as balance,today the government announced plans to protect free speech at universities (and got some brick bats from some for that),so actually,I feel more confident about, not onlyour rights being returned when the crisis abates, but them actually being strengthened

You crack on. Have you got a nice placard? ‘I demand the right to infect, incapacitate and kill people at will’?

I'd be more unnerved if I caught Covid.

I do think people that ask questions like this are a little bit thick.

No, I'm not unnerved. I'd just rather not fucking die at the moment. I'd rather my family didn't die, or my friends, or your family and friends. Pandemics are good at doing that sort of thing. But it will end no matter what the doom mongers say, so you'll be able to carry your little placard around soon enough.