"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.

  • @[email protected]
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    14811 months ago

    I see no hope for this country. Things are just getting worse and worse every year, how long can this keep going?

    It’s pretty bad now, but I seriously worry what things will be like in 20 or so years.

      • @Aceticon
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        311 months ago

        I lived in the UK not that long ago and I lived and live elsewhere in Europe.

        It really is a bigger problem in the UK than most of Europe, probably because it apes the US so hard and somehow combines some of its worst shit with their very own local shit (classism, very low social mobility, entrenched ancient elites, post-imperial hangover and other) rather than combining qualities.

        It’s mainly Anglon-Saxon countries that are speed running the rise of Fascism, not most of the World.

    • @[email protected]
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      2711 months ago

      Tories on a any% speed run to the government from Children of Men, while the left is worried about which way Kier decides to lean that afternoon

    • DessertStorms
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      11 months ago

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

      • appel
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        4611 months ago

        Starmer is like like 1 cm left of rishi

        • DessertStorms
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          11 months 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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            1311 months 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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            110 months 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)

      • @[email protected]
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        411 months ago

        That would mean taking a stance on an issue, which might alienate some voters somewhere.

    • @[email protected]
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      -1911 months ago

      Whatever gets them votes. Actual conservatives would at least pretend to care about the economy.

      • admiralteal
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        2411 months 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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          -111 months ago

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

          • @njm1314
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            511 months ago

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

          • @[email protected]
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            211 months 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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          -2011 months ago

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

          • @LookBehindYouNowAndThen
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            11 months ago

            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.

              • @LookBehindYouNowAndThen
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                11 months ago

                Someone tell the 1066 Normans they were actually born in England.

                Oh, and the Romans.

                Oh, and the Saxons.

              • the post of tom joad
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                11 months ago

                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

  • @z00s
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    10 months ago

    Remember remember the fifth of November,

    When Guy Fawkes took the fall.

    Be sure to wear your mask from now on,

    They can’t arrest us all

    • DessertStorms
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      Was just setting up my viewing for the rest of the evening, and ironically enough, it’s on tonight! 9pm on Quest (and again on Quest +1) .

      So at 9 I’ll be watching the last episode of Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain, then V for Vendetta at 10… Good inspirational viewing.

  • @[email protected]
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    9711 months ago

    So if someone doesn’t want to get sick for being in a huge crowd, they get arrested? Truly genius.

      • @Maggoty
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        2311 months ago

        It wasn’t before Covid, but it is now, and it should have been then.

      • @[email protected]
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        1011 months ago

        I mean I do realize there is usually another reason for mask on protests - but there is this one too!

  • @Skullgrid
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    11 months 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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      2011 months 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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        511 months ago

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

  • Dran
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    6411 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    6111 months ago

    Man its like the UK is an authoritarian shit hole or something. Y’all need weapons and resistance. And no, I’m not American before someone asks.

    • @ProfessorProteus
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      1011 months ago

      Curious, where are you from? I like it when people from other countries use y’all, especially when the apostrophe is in the right place 🙂

      • salvagedrifter
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        411 months ago

        Jus’ so ya know, “y’all” pops up on my phone’s autocorrect. I wouldn’t reckon it’s all that reliable of a metric, so don’t go puttin’ too much faith in it.

    • @endhits
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      911 months ago

      This but unironically

  • lemmyreader
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    5811 months ago

    Is the UK turning into a dictatorship or an undeveloped country ? How is independent press doing over there ?

    • LerajeOP
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      3311 months ago

      More like fascist-adjacent. And we started the process of underdeveloping ourselves when the fascist-adjacent leaders persuaded the terminally ignorant that Brexit would be great when it was obvious it was going to lead exactly where it is leading right now.

        • @[email protected]
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          2111 months ago

          I guess it’s better than the UK for now, and there have been no attempted fascist coups for quite a few decades now. Even if we’re totally glass-half-empty, the EU is at least slamming on the brakes on the descent, while the UK is tearing their brakes off, and the US is deliberating whether using the brakes would hurt rich people.

  • DessertStorms
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    4511 months 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.

    • @skydivekingair
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      211 months 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.

  • @TengoDosVacas
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    4411 months ago

    This is an admittance that you have no right to protest.

    What are.you going to do about it?

    • LerajeOP
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      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.

      • @TengoDosVacas
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        711 months 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.

    • Herbal Gamer
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      1511 months ago

      Burka-ban has already been introduced in Austria. Didn’t really work because that was just before covid but they sure as shit tried.

  • @erranto
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    11 months 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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      1411 months 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.