hampshire_exile
Well-known member
I have found this weekend to be as depressing as any I have seen in England for a long time. And that takes some doing in a year of a pandemic.
I have watched England steadily slide to the right over the past 10 years. It has disappointed me, but I recognise that we have a democratic electoral system.
What is starting to alarm me is where we are heading, if the general tone of discussion on this website is an indication of the views of the general public which I think it probably is.
We see a poor woman murdered, the Met refuse to engage with people who want a socially distanced vigil, and a totally inappropriate reaction from the police on the night. And yet we have a substantial number of people on here complaining about “left wing activists”.
We have a Government bringing forward legislation which will allow them to jail someone for up to 10 years for protesting and causing “annoyance”. And they will define what “annoyance” is. This is not a piece of COVID legislation, its here for good.
And as we saw last night once authorities have legislation in place, they can do what they like in interpreting it. And people on here say about last night “they shouldn’t protest, it’s illegal”. On that basis, they will presumably not have an issue when all protest has effectively been made illegal.
We see a 10,000 pound fine to a woman who brings 40 socially distanced people together to protest about a 1 per cent pay rise to nurses. Yet no action taken when thousands of Rangers fans gather in Glasgow. Different law maybe, different attitudes to protest definitely.
And yet the Tories have a 13 point lead over Labour. They utterly fucked up the first nine months of the pandemic, but you can only think that for the Tories to be ahead the prevailing view must be “I am still alive and isn’t the vaccine programme going well”.
I suppose the point of this post is where is this going to end? Like so many people who moved to England, my parents saw it as a beacon of fairness and decency and free speech. But I don’t see much sign of that at the moment.
I have watched England steadily slide to the right over the past 10 years. It has disappointed me, but I recognise that we have a democratic electoral system.
What is starting to alarm me is where we are heading, if the general tone of discussion on this website is an indication of the views of the general public which I think it probably is.
We see a poor woman murdered, the Met refuse to engage with people who want a socially distanced vigil, and a totally inappropriate reaction from the police on the night. And yet we have a substantial number of people on here complaining about “left wing activists”.
We have a Government bringing forward legislation which will allow them to jail someone for up to 10 years for protesting and causing “annoyance”. And they will define what “annoyance” is. This is not a piece of COVID legislation, its here for good.
And as we saw last night once authorities have legislation in place, they can do what they like in interpreting it. And people on here say about last night “they shouldn’t protest, it’s illegal”. On that basis, they will presumably not have an issue when all protest has effectively been made illegal.
We see a 10,000 pound fine to a woman who brings 40 socially distanced people together to protest about a 1 per cent pay rise to nurses. Yet no action taken when thousands of Rangers fans gather in Glasgow. Different law maybe, different attitudes to protest definitely.
And yet the Tories have a 13 point lead over Labour. They utterly fucked up the first nine months of the pandemic, but you can only think that for the Tories to be ahead the prevailing view must be “I am still alive and isn’t the vaccine programme going well”.
I suppose the point of this post is where is this going to end? Like so many people who moved to England, my parents saw it as a beacon of fairness and decency and free speech. But I don’t see much sign of that at the moment.