"Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.

Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said."

Been a bad 18 months or so for privacy in the UK. Online Safety Bill passed, the right to take strike action curtailed, people in receipt of benefits (including disabled people) will soon (as from 2025) have their bank accounts open to the government, the right to protest curtailed and now this.

    • LerajeOP
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      1 year ago

      You’ve got to understand the ‘average’ British psyche at this point in history. The majority simply don’t care that people they see as troublemakers and/or scroungers are having their rights dismantled. They lack the empathy to give a shit for these people and they lack the foresight to see that it’ll be their rights gone one day too. What stirs the average british gammon off their collective arses these days is the rumour there might be an immigrant in a hotel somewhere or that a drag queen exists.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        You described all of the western world since the passing of the US’s 1996 Telecommunications Act which gave all the radical fascists free rein to spread nonstop fascist propaganda over thousands upon thousands of talk shows and now through the internet.

        The only reasonable response is violence.

  • @[email protected]
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    111 year ago

    Hmm… I may be mistaken but can they not already arrest troublemakers, arsonists, violent/aggressive individuals and other sort of rioters/agitators with preexisting laws/bylaws/regulations ?

    On the other hand, I’m trying to see the silver lining here… perhaps this new law will make it difficult for agent provocateur¹ from operating without repercussions and anonymity unless the law specifically has a carve out for them (I wouldn’t be too surprised, but it would be another major blow to the resiliency of democracy in the United Kingdom).

    Source: Pentney, K. (2021). Licensed to kill…discourse? agents provocateurs and a purposive right to freedom of expression. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 39(3), 241-257

    • @[email protected]
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      111 year ago

      Police discretion will already make an exception for them even it’s not explicitly carved out, there is no silver lining, it’s just more police state shit

  • Archon of the Valley
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    11 year ago

    I wonder where that energy was in the 852nd month of “two weeks to flatten the curve”. 🤔

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    81 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.

    Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said.

    The move is in direct response to the four protesters being cleared of criminal damage after toppling a statute of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2022 .

    Ministers will also make climbing on war memorials a specific public order offence, carrying a three-month sentence and a £1,000 fine.

    Shami Chakrabarti, the human rights lawyer and peer, said: “Should rape victims or refugees peacefully protesting really be punished for covering their faces to protect their identities?

    The home secretary, James Cleverly, said that recent protests had seen “a small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority”.


    The original article contains 681 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Possibly linux
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    21 year ago

    I would do it anyway in mass. I want 100 people to show up somewhere with masks.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      100,000 people. With 100, they’ll just take as many as they can. With 100k, they just have to let the sea wash over them and hope they aren’t swept out with it.

  • DessertStorms
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    461 year ago

    I think it’s important to relate the latter part to the former - beyond the privacy issues with not being allowed to wear masks (and having our bank accounts invaded), there is also the health aspect, and disallowing masks is one sure fire way to keep disabled people from assembling, since, you know, we don’t want to get covid, being significantly more likely to die from it (not necessarily because of the illness, but because our lives are deemed less worth saving).

    The lack of any mask mandates already excludes disabled people from so many public spaces, this is just another way to keep us (as well as others, you know, first they came for…) from fighting back. as they strip us of every last human right.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      Not comparing, we have our own issues, but the US just said not wearing a mask in public is akin to not paying taxes or speeding - it’s still illegal and not free speech because it affects others.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I have never seen a cucked nation like the UK in the world before. u guys have no resistance what so ever ! the french should have bought you some freedoms a few centuries ago.

    • LerajeOP
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      151 year ago

      It’s not even that - the people this is directly affecting (for now) are the people who, if they raise their head above the parapet, it’ll get shot off - the people least able to protest. 95% of the country are not lacking resistance, they’re lacking empathy and foresight. They show plenty of resistance to media driven culture war bullshit like immigration and LGBTQIA+ issues.

  • Alien Nathan Edward
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    241 year ago

    it will be interesting to see if we ever get to a point during the next inevitable global pandemic where masks are compulsory in some places and illegal in others

    • Pssdoff
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      211 year ago

      They want it to be illegal to both wear and not to wear a mask so that they can selectivity enforce arbitrary laws against whomever they wish.

        • Alien Nathan Edward
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          31 year ago

          or like in America, where if the cops want to kick your door in all they have to do is say they smelled something and then it’s on you to prove they didn’t

      • Exocrinous
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        11 year ago

        This is like when online community moderators ban discussion of politics.

        Everything is political. If you ban politics, you can take action against anyone

    • DessertStorms
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      1 year ago

      Fuck the Tories right, but I also don’t see Starmer opposing any of this.

        • DessertStorms
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          1 year ago

          Exactly… (leaving both firmly on the right)

          Vote none, and start organising (in your work place, in your community, in your own home inspiring your kids). If you still can’t see that the system is designed by the rich and powerful for the rich and powerful, you’re not paying any real attention (precisely why the media keeps society constantly looking at anything but how things are really run).

          We need to abolish the establishments keeping us down, not continue to play their game by their rules and wonder why things never change…

          • @[email protected]
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            161 year ago

            I hate kier but not voting for Labour would be stupid, protest votes or non votes don’t count any the only people pushing that idiocy are the rich right wing because they don’t want you to vote against them

            Everyone just thinks ‘oh look these people are too dumb, busy, or disconnected to vote oh well’

            You can still resist and work against a system you voted for,

          • appel
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            11 year ago

            tbh I’m scared of the power the gov already has. I am worried if I join any communist org, it will endanger my partners immigration status. I also don’t see the orgs around me doing much useful stuff it seems, mostly just selling newspapers (that no one buys cos they cost a fiver)

          • mayooooo
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            141 year ago

            You can vote as left as you can and still do whatever you are saying to do. Having ultraright nazi shits in power because you’re an internet idiot will not help you - in fact it will completely rob you of the chance to ever change anything. You dumb fucks will solve the world by not fucking voting, even if the game is rigged you don’t have to be the dumbest shit about it

            • DessertStorms
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              Tell me you didn’t click the link without saying you didn’t click the link (hint: it literally tells people to vote).
              Also tell me you buy in to the distraction propaganda without saying you buy in to the distraction propaganda (hint: having a red tie on while not opposing a single piece of fascist legislation makes you, at the very least, a fascist enabler, or in reality, simply another fascist just one who is better at hiding it)…

              You’re literally giving a live demonstration of why continuing to play within their rules leads nowhere but deepening the divide within the working class.

              Blaming the people trapped in it, for the system keeping us all down, instead of those who created and benefit from it is one hell of a self destructive trick you’re doing for your overlords…

              Either way, you’re an ableist piece of crap, licking a boot because you’ve simply grown too comfortable with the feeling of it rammed down your throat, you have no high ground here. ¯\(ツ)

              • mayooooo
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                41 year ago

                I’m not talking about the article, it’s about saying no. If I need to read the article that says yes when your link says no… I’m just sick of the onslaught of defetism online where a whole bunch of people have the idea they can just ignore reality and it’s all gona fix itself. But who cares right, will all be dead because of the climate wars so it’s all cool

      • admiralteal
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        301 year ago

        Why? Conservatism is about preserving traditional values and traditional power structures not the economy.

        If you actually care about the economy that means you care about progressing a more effective and efficient state for the benefit of the people. Afraid that makes you a progressive which the conservatives assure us they aren’t.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 year ago

          Conservatism is about preserving the status quo. (As opposed to reactionaries that want to restore the status quo ante)

          • @[email protected]
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            71 year ago

            Not necessarily the current status quo though. Just the status quo where they have the most power.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            Kaboom - Well if they were conservative and cared about traditional values, they wouldnt have let in so many migrants.

            Yes Immigrants are the problem /s

        • @[email protected]
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          31 year ago

          Well if they were conservative and cared about traditional values, they wouldnt have let in so many migrants.

          • @[email protected]
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            What “traditional values” are you talking about?

            We’re a nation of migrants; you don’t get to rewrite history because it makes you mad.

            The first immigration law passed in this country was a process for naturalization; it doesn’t get more traditional than that.

              • the post of tom joad
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                Man i am this close to just blocking the reddthat instance. I dunno why but too many chuds and bad, bad fucking takes crawl out from under there

              • @[email protected]
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                Someone tell the 1066 Normans they were actually born in England.

                Oh, and the Romans.

                Oh, and the Saxons.

  • Dran
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    631 year ago

    It’s like they think V for Vendetta was a blueprint for how to run a utopia.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Fake beards, wigs , sunglasses and presumably face paint should be ok

    Stay safe protestors. Leave id and phone at home, don’t hold anything that could be interpreted as a weapon, and carry a “your rights” card to help you remember what to do if the police try to take away your freedom.

    • FeetiePJs
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      201 year ago

      It looks like this would apply to any item used to conceal one’s identity. So, it’s possible that all of those things could be included.

      • Zoot
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        51 year ago

        Face paint would be mind blowing, what will all the football fans do?

  • Chaotic Entropy
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    201 year ago

    Well that should put us back on track as a nation, practical solutions for our modern problems. What a relief.

  • @[email protected]
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    261 year ago

    They need the facial recognition software to do it’s thing so they can make sure life gets difficult for anyone conscious of their actions.

    • Herbal Gamer
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      91 year ago

      You know what I hate about it? I’ve always been quite the anglophile, but never saw the chance to move there because I was uneducated. Now they might even want me to come and I don’t think I want to anymore :(