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

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

#271

Post by jlokier »

dijit wrote: 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…

> Like the fella who stated that ‘we didn’t vote for him’

In fairness, we didn't vote for the Prime Minister either.

Where was this fella when we needed him in parliament?

I think UK democracy has a much bigger democratic problem than whether there is a symbolic monarch.

Unlike the monarch, the Prime Minister we didn't vote for is a political activist with serious power and a nasty agenda - including the agenda to reduce freedom to protest and other basic rights of the people.

In fairness to the Queen, as far as I know she never asked that we reduce the people's rights and freedoms, and in fairness to the new King, one of the things he is known for is being a climate and environment activist, which was viewed as kooky a couple of decades ago but looks prescient and relevant to the times now.

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

#272

Post by nathanvanfleet »

matthewh806 wrote: post #109
dijit wrote: 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…

I see this exact same comment did pretty well on Reddit too: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/xckw5v/comme... 1. Not all of the arrests have been made at a "funeral" 2. It wasn't a funeral 3. If you're going to have a very public precession, parading a body through the streets with all the obedients lapping it up, surely you have to have a level of tolerance for dissenting voices? I imagine the disrupt…

You're noticing that this is copy-pasta from somewhere else. It seems credible that there might be some bad actors like with the Coronavirus or the election. But maybe I struggle to imagine how people could be so incredibly actively loyal to a royal family.

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

#273

Post by gerdesj »

matthewh806 wrote: post #109
dijit wrote: 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…

I see this exact same comment did pretty well on Reddit too: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/xckw5v/comme... 1. Not all of the arrests have been made at a "funeral" 2. It wasn't a funeral 3. If you're going to have a very public precession, parading a body through the streets with all the obedients lapping it up, surely you have to have a level of tolerance for dissenting voices? I imagine the disrupt…

"with all the obedients lapping it up"

What exactly is an "obedient"? Are you really deploying a disparaging tag on people who are mourning? That seems a bit crass to me.

"we need room for the dissenting voices too" - I saw on C4 (UK TV channel) this evening, some people in Scotland describing their disaffection with the Monarchy. That's fine and quite right.

I also find the sheer amount of coverage a bit overwhelming but in the end no one knows what is appropriate - it's not happened before like this - and let's face it, if you were running a TV channel or radio or whatever, you would probably err on the side of caution too unless you were decidedly commercially stupid!

No one really knows what is appropriate. A lot of the ceremonies are only now being televised.

I have to say that, whilst the sheer bulk of 'er Maj programmes is starting to feel a little excessive, I understand why. Some of them are pretty good too.

We will pop out of the other side of this event and the world will continue to turn but we must remember that a King and his bros and moes (sorry!) and their kids and grandkids and great-grandkids have lost a pretty decent human. As have we all.

They are an odd lot and they are our odd lot. If it helps, I understand that they are a net gain financially via tourism alone. Not sure how that is costed but I suspect it is probably true.

It's fine to imply you prefer a republic instead or perhaps something else but why not be positive about your preferred solution instead of sniping at the current situation.

What exactly do you want?

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

#274

Post by bawolff »

inbox-demon wrote: post #138
bawolff wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it your view that just because the state pays for something the public has every right to do whatever they want with it? This seems obviously false. Try walking into the petagon some time proclaiming "the public paid for this military base and therefor i have every right to participate in it." And see how far that gets you.

You can absolutely protest outside a military base and hurl insults at the soldiers if you believe it is a waste of taxpayer money.

The taxpayers pay for the inside of the military base, not the outside.

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

#275

Post by AnimalMuppet »

googlryas wrote: post #26
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

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?

TFA talks about at least some people being arrested who were definitely not at a funeral procession.

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

#276

Post by ziftface »

koheripbal wrote: post #57
closewith wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. > They are being arrested for being rude about it. Got it. Arrested for poor taste. Hard to see the justification for that in a democracy?

Screeching profanities at a funeral march should be a minor crime. ...but perhaps more importantly, you should just be ashamed of your childish behaviour.

Even if you think that should be a crime, why should that apply to the funeral of a representative or government official? People should be able to show their distaste of such a public figure however they want, even if it makes you feel weird about it.

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

#277

Post by nxmnxm99 »

gerdesj wrote: post #273
matthewh806 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this exact same comment did pretty well on Reddit too: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/xckw5v/comme... 1. Not all of the arrests have been made at a "funeral" 2. It wasn't a funeral 3. If you're going to have a very public precession, parading a body through the streets with all the obedients lapping it up, surely you have to have a level of tolerance for dissenting voices? I imagine the disrupt…

"with all the obedients lapping it up" What exactly is an "obedient"? Are you really deploying a disparaging tag on people who are mourning? That seems a bit crass to me. "we need room for the dissenting voices too" - I saw on C4 (UK TV channel) this evening, some people in Scotland describing their disaffection with the Monarchy. That's fine and quite right. I also find the sheer amount of coverage a bit overwhelmin…

No post body was provided.

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

#278

Post by quadrifoliate »

Havoc wrote: post #76
dijit wrote: 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…

>They are being arrested for being rude about it. Which is substantially worse. Rudeness is so subjective and context sensitive that it really shouldn't form the basis for arrests

As an American, it is hard for me to properly grasp the fact that the UK almost seems closer to Saudi Arabia than the US in this regard.

It does not seem like having a "fuck imperialism" sign should ever get you arrested in a country that is supposedly one of the closest allies of the US.

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

#279

Post by gjs278 »

bawolff wrote: post #255
HideousKojima wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have counterprotestors/rioters throwing bricks/molotovs/etc. with the tacit consent of the local government, going to a protest armed can be the only way to safely exercise your constitutional right to protest.

What is with americans and might makes right? What happens when the other side starts shooting at you? Do you think the guns still help you safely protest. For that matter, what use is a gun if someone from behind cover throws a molotov at your face?

No post body was provided.

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

#280

Post by TheCoelacanth »

krona wrote: post #115
mytailorisrich wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Oxford someone was arrested for shouting " who elected him " during the proclamation of the new king so it's not just about respecting a funeral (which is understable) or unacceptable language. But in fairness to the police there seems to be a mass fervour at the moment and they may actually be doing the hecklers a service by taking them away for their own safety...

This is the point. 'Fear or provocation of violence' is an offence since it precipitates violence, its a provocation that 'might cause a reasonable individual to lose self control', which would be quite dreadful!

Is asking a basic civics question a provocation of violence now?
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