In the news

Riot in Bristol, police vans set on fire and police station attacked:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/21/demonstrators-against-policing-bill-clash-with-officers-in-bristol

^That seems a massive own goal

Is this someone on here?
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/mar/22/bike-poland-brexit-customs-duty-vat

Post it in the spotted thread!

because the government and their bootlickers in the plod would absolutely jump at the idea to use a protest against their fuckery as a reason to justify it in the first place in a dazzling display of disingenuously circular reasoning?

i guess...

a dazzling display of disingenuously circular reasoning

To the extent that the thought of them employing agent provocateurs to kick off* is not entirely out there.

* after getting a few people pregnant under false pretenses, obvs

why even bother with all the faff of dressing up in black bloc and pretending when you can just escalate the violence the old fashioned way by smashing a few peaceful protesters over the skull with a baton?

also - there is no peaceful protest against fascism.

Yes this. But also (like it or not) optics and public support are important and there's more angrys out there than we thought a decade ago and they love a ruck to disapprove of. It bums me out cos my anti gammon arguments get eroded by thuggery and fire starting.

It's true what you say about no peaceful response to fascism... but sometime people are so fucking quick to lob a brick. It's why I stopped protesting... I felt increasingly uncomfortable with the snap to hassle.

Exactly, it gave a perfect platform for the Senior police official on breakfast news to discuss how they police events peacefully every week of the year without incident but this was a mob that split off from the earlier peaceful protest and was out to cause violence and vandalism and just like that the entire event can be dismissed, zero discussion of what is in the Bill or why people are opposing it

it also illustrates why people feel compelled to break shit - how else do you get the fuckers to listen? it's not like you and i have access to a national broadcaster where we can set forth our grievances from the comfort of a studio sofa.

a riot is the language of the unheard

etc.

ugh, what a schmutz.

With the very Tory loving press the tiniest issue gets jumped on anyway.

Sucks for the peaceful protestors, disappointing to have a small group / rent a mob do this.

But since no conservatives were going to vote against the bill anyway, and huge peace anti Iraq war and biggish pro EU protests did F all, I think there are bigger issues around the influence of protests.

Seems default setting for Westminster is "lol ignore" with "but look at the few brick throwers.. "

i mean... a great way to stop people from not protesting peacefully is to not have laws that make it illegal to protest peacefully?

That's far too logical and not culture war bull pitting groups of people against each other with manufactured outrage :)

Boom!

Without knowing anything about this, I'd probably be more inclined to believe the stowaways' story.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/21/stowaways-story-raises-questions-about-nave-andromeda-incident-deployment-sbs

Priti sending shock troops against terrified trafficked refugees.

this creepy, grifty cunt who clearly doesn't understand the concept of the word "first".

https://brianformayor.london/

Didn't know what you meant. Visited web site. Now know what you meant. What a plum!

The "Other Candidates" section on Wikipedia has some great notes:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_London_mayoral_election#Other_candidates

"Brian Rose : Podcaster who has actively promoted misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic,[126][127] standing as an independent.[128]"

There's actually a ukip candidate called Gammons. Had to check it wasn't a joke, but it appears to be true!

To be fair, in that video (I'm working on a boring document, it's playing in the background) he says "I never intended to become the next mayor of London". Mission accomplished then.

It's so obviously a grift though. Policies are totally at odds with each other; for example:

1, We're going to remove the congestion charge
2, We're going to remove all on street parking in central London to improve air quality and reduce traffic

It's just a donation scam. He'll do a few videos, send a few leaflets but pay his company to do them. Donations go from the campaign into his pocket. Job done.

oh absolutely - i just wonder who exactly he expects to fall for this transparently scammy nonsense? is he trying to hoover the pockets of disaffected kippers? covidiots? disaster capitalists that think the tree of free market needs to be watered with the blood of the working poor? (a venn that's a circle) - i just can't see the appeal.

He wants to make cyclists use the two million miles of tunnels under London. There aren't two million miles of tunnels under London.

Count Binface:

His policies including renaming London Bridge Phoebe Waller and the
city re-joining the EU.

He wants to make cyclists use the two million miles of tunnels under London. There aren't two million miles of tunnels under London.

his inspiration

There aren't two million miles of tunnels under London.

You would have to hollow out London and put in at least two layers of tunnels. Sounds awesome, we should get building at once.