Live data from Hacker News

Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

text.npr.org

201–210 of 693 posts

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not be good that people are being arrested for rudeness, but it is definitely better than them being arrested for their political views.

Is someone who rudely suggests support for the monarchy going to be arrested? I suspect not.

I'm totally aware of the whole slimy tactic of using "politeness" as a way to backdoor censorship. I'm not down with that.

I'm just saying that it's not worse than direct censorship.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#202
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surely you have to have a level of tolerance for dissenting voices? To the procession or the monarchy? If you say the procession, sure. If you're talking about dissenting voices against the monarchy, I think that can be done without disrupting a memorial service.

I would say both; you can oppose the procession itself for all of its pomp and archaic tradition at a time where the country is dealing with a cost of living crisis and also have that also be more broadly a protest against the monarchy in general. A large portion of the life of the royal family is public, even funded by the taxpayer, so to me it makes sense to allow for opposing viewpoints to be heard. Perhaps you ca…

That’s not how money works in the UK. The taxpayer isn’t funding the monarchy or anything else. If anything the Crown is funding the taxpayer via the Bank of England.

Edit: evidently people are confused. Here it is from the horse’s mouth: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/m...

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#203
post #9

They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. They are being arrested for being rude about it. Was the fella on radio 4 who stated to the entire nation that ‘King Charles and his family should be put in a council house and that the Monarchy should be abolished’ arrested? No. If you are going to attend a funeral, any funeral, be it the Queen’s or anyone else’s and hurl abuse or hold up signs with obscenit…

Being rude is grounds for being banned from HackerNews, not for being arrested and thrown in jail.

You can not say you support free speech but also support the arrest of someone for a "abolish the monarchy, fuck imperialism" sign, or for saying "who elected him".

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#205

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

You can do that in the UK too, just not during a funeral procession. The US has laws against protesting at the funerals of Armed Service members. If you really want to rage against something, why not the thing from your own society, instead of the thing from some other society?

> You can do that in the UK too, just not during a funeral procession.

Can you though? I seem to remember someone getting arrested for tweeting some joke about a UK war hero because the joke was in poor taste or something.

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30156923

I'm sure tweeting something "grossly offensive" about the late queen would also be grounds for arrest and prosecution.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#207
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The queen was a public figure whose lavish livelihood were paid for by British tax-payers. So it seems to me that British people should have the right to celebrate her death in any way they please. Curtailing people's freedom of speech by misusing public order laws (the queen's funeral is not comparable to any normal funeral) is curtailing freedom of speech.

This is actually an incredibly false point. The royal family (if treated like anonymous land-owners) would cause a sudden and drastic drop in fundraising within the UK. Assuming their property wasn't seized having them retain their current station is actually a net positive to the British tax-payers - they lose far more potential income each year in free land leases and charitable donations (known collectively as the…

You are completely wrong on the basic facts of this. The Crown Estate belongs to the state, not the royal family. The Sovereign Grant is an arrangement to pay the monarch is paid 25% of the revenue, which would otherwise flow to government coffers like the rest of the revenue. Were the UK to become a republic, the state would simply stop paying this to the monarch, and thus gain revenue.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#208
post #171

> "Let her go! It's free speech!" The UK unfortunately doesn't have freedom of speech, it has freedom of expression. > The woman, 22, was arrested "in connection with a breach of the peace," a Police Scotland spokesperson told NPR, adding that she was formally charged and released, and her case is now pending at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Just to add, you can also be arrested at speakers corner if you upset enough peop…

> doesn't have freedom of speech, it has freedom of expression

Can you help me understand that distinction? With a pretty limited understanding of UK law, my assumption would be that freedom of speech would cover any words but maybe not the specific way they're presented, while freedom of expression would cover even if those words were expressed in less polite way.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#209

> The new law allows police to act in cases which they deem to be "unjustifiably noisy protests that may have a significant impact on others" or seriously disrupt an organization's activities. Doesn't take a political science degree to see what's wrong with this law. When cops get to decide what is a justifiably loud protest and what isn't you no longer have the right to protest. Protests are meant to disrupt, if you…

Protests are not meant to disrupt. They are meant to convince your fellow citizens of your position. Being a disruptive $#@t, not only defeats that purpose, it actually causes more people to vote against you. Moreover, emotionally driven teenagers (or stunted "adults") use these protests as a pubescent venting mechanism to smash business and mistreat adults they encounter, like some narcissistic violent therapy sessi…

[deleted]

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#210

“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government” And no, I don’t mean it as a joke If Britain wants to survive the next 100 years, they need to make some brave decisions. Dissolve monarchy and the class system, get back into EU, and hope Scotland will not declare independence. Also, USA, wtf, why are you flying the flag at half staff? Did you forget what you fought about in 17…

>Also, USA, wtf, why are you flying the flag at half staff? Did you forget what you fought about in 1776?

yeah, i thought that was weird too. It was ordered by Joe Biden, he might actually have forgotten what our ancestors fought about in 1776.

Post reply on HN