love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

The Halt bar is no more, sadly.

been gone for years now, alas

Five arrests.

Only 5 arrests made in today’s demonstrations despite real time video evidence of extreme displays of violence en masse. Had Black Lives Matter protesters “clashed” with these fascists, we would’ve been arrested at 1pm and serving a 5 year sentence by 6pm.

— Jase (@jasebyjason) June 13, 2020

Evening Standard is reporting 100+

who is being arrested?

The cops are mopping up groups of young black people in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square, Leciester Square and Hyde Park. Had between 30-40 detained, searched and arrested in the last 1.5-2 hours

— Carl Spender (@CarlSpender) June 13, 2020

filthy pig scum fuck this country

Correction/update to this tweet, 5 was the original figure, now looks like its 100+ and mostly BLM protesters https://t.co/ChFsOh57HI

— Jase (@jasebyjason) June 13, 2020

bleak https://i.ibb.co/hDGdHh8/Untitled.png

that came out weird

destroy capitalism

This can be challenged. There are two months from date of filing to challenge it:https://t.co/TUVm1WKh9D. https://t.co/j9sSbg2G7e

— Jendella Benson (@JENDELLA) June 13, 2020

Reading the article, it seems unlikely he'd be successful anyway.

More freedom fighters

Just as I entered Hyde Park so did this hoard. There isn’t even a protest on for them to protest against. Vile. Video blurred as I got pushed. Thankfully the @metpoliceuk arrived and they ran for the hills. #londonprotests #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/EPHYvlTzWU

— Tom Norman (@Tom_Norm) June 13, 2020

This is the Liverpool BLM protest right now. Compare this to the thugs in Westminster.pic.twitter.com/lSjhppjI1o

— Hasan Patel 🌹 (@CorbynistaTeen) June 13, 2020

Even the Daily Mail website was saying the BLM protests were peaceful while shaking its head at the thugs in Westminster.

Anyone going 'god they're not going to report this' is missing the point on a very basic level. Of course they're going to report it and they're going to go big on it - events like this allow the right to fulminate against racism while continuing to propogate racist arguments and/or policies. Events like today are an absolute gift to them and they are going to play that outrage like a trumpet.

TS: Any violence against our police is completely unacceptable. No ifs, no buts. Today’s protests in London were led by those intent on causing violence and sowing hate for their own ends. We must not let them win. vs. Racist thuggery has no place on our streets. Anyone attacking the police will be met with full force of the law. These marches & protests have been subverted by violence and breach current guidelines. Racism has no part in the UK and we must work together to make that a reality.

surely that is a Margaret Thatcher quote... oh noes...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/black-lives-matter-protest-carries-injured-far-right-safety-waterloo-london-a9564946.html

Just pure blankness when you try to picture this the other way around.

xp
oh I see .. that is two Margaret Thatcher quotes! what a golden age.

Hopefully he dumped the Nazi in the Thames but that's quite a photo nonetheless.

so that is what became of this "tolerant Britain we loved". fuck that in the next pic he gets a good shoeing and is dumped in a skip with all the ceremonial dignity of an abandoned fridge!

Latest news: Police pinch PC Palmer pisser.

25,000 elderly people transferred straight from hospitals into care homes without a test. I wonder how much of the overall death toll that accounted for.

Even if you look at this and think Labour aren't up for an argument with the press/much of the country it must be totally deflating for people who have Labour as their only option.

Labour backs Priti Patel plan to jail protesters for vandalising war memorialshttps://t.co/wJU7wzA9fw

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) June 14, 2020

David Lammy pointed out this morning that you can already be jailed for up to 10 years for criminal damage, so what's new?

*Lab to increase it to 20*

Seriously though, it's a terrible game, Starmer will just nod to everything against Sunak or whoever at the PM debate in four years and then what.

BBC so close to a breakthrough

But despite claims that the day was about defending British heritage, it soon became violent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53037767

Also a present for calz:

Holy shit, Icke was right. pic.twitter.com/0x88dq9bFx

— Em (@WeePotatoes) June 13, 2020

it's a grim race to bottom with Starmer leading the opposition, seriously hope the tory cunt dies tbh.

every time I think he just can't get any worse...

Ten years is more than you get for rape.

there you go folks, Keir Starmer supporting a Mail on Sunday campaign on a manufactured issue designed to distract from the aims and focuses of the BLM movement that specifically contemptually name drops “left wingers.” i dare you to defend this party and this leadership. https://t.co/aw5bnl7U8i

— mimi🏴☭ (@ameliamcd_) June 13, 2020

Saw that 'British Prime Ministers' was trending and wow the tinfoil hats are having a field day with that one.

Boris Johnson is set to scrap plans to allow people to change their legal gender by “self-identifying” as male or female, it has been reported.

Measures drawn up under Theresa May’s government to enable transgender people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis have been ditched by the prime minister’s team, according to the Sunday Times.

Instead, the paper said ministers plan to announce a ban on “gay cure” therapies, in what was described as an attempt to placate LGBTQ+ people.

At the same time, the government was said to be preparing to set out new safeguards to protect female-only spaces including refuges and public lavatories.

The details were said to be contained in a leaked paper setting out the government’s long-delayed response to a public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.

The Sunday Times said that the paper was “basically ready” and was being slated for publication by the equalities minister, Liz Truss, at the end of July before MPs break for the summer.

A No 10 source told the PA news agency that the details of the response were yet to be finalised, and the prime minister would have the final say on the recommendations.

According to the Sunday Times, about 100,000 responses to the public consultation were received with an overwhelming majority – about 70% – in favour of allowing people to self-identify as a man or a woman.

Officials were said to believe that the results had been “skewed” by an “avalanche” of responses generated by trans rights groups, although transgender people, including non-binary people, are estimated to make up about 1% of the UK population.

Of course the results were skewed by responses by people who this legislation affects, that's literally the point of a consultation. This makes me so sick - apparently they spent two years on this and then decided to throw away the results because they didn't like them.

"equalities minister, Liz Truss"

this is a sick joke.

it was funny the first time, but come on now...

This government was never going to put through the reforms - fucking horrible all the same and puts them up there with such women-loving luminaries as Orbán and *checks notes* Trump.

By the way I was one of the 70% of responders and a link to the consultation did my WhatsApp group rounds in the days before it closed, so it’s not true by a long shot to imply that it was only activists who supported the changes. Especially as Prosecco stormfront and the rest were actively soliciting negative responses.

yeah same, pretty insulting to all of us who support Trans rights because it's basic human decency

Measures drawn up under Theresa May’s government to enable transgender people

huh

Yep, this wasn’t a major party political issue four years ago. Shows how quickly things can change with concerted effort to make them worse.

It's because they don't give a shit about trans people or self identification either way and have chosen to do this because they know because they know the ensuing argument will be much more difficult for Labour and they can then make hay with the inevitable tensions. This is Dominic Cummings on autopilot.

This btw is what happened with the 8th amendment being introduced in Ireland - there was a fascinating but depressing documentary about it a few years back about the effort to get it put into the constitution.

It helps when Andrew Marr on the national broadcaster introduces an item on this story with, "There's a culture war going on in this country".

I can't imagine how scary it must feel to be Trans in this country right now as the entire establishment closes ranks on you. terfs will try and lecture people on who has the right to speak out but fuck them. it's obvious the Tories have never put away their little list and I fear it's only going to get nastier, who knows how low this is going to sink with nothing but a brylcreemed fringe leading the charge. a huge problem is that civil society is itself dominated by the same inbred oxbridge/bbc/Tory student politics networks of wankers who will politely disagree at most but certainly do nothing to endanger government funds.

pressure does work. Last week James Purnell signed BBC Radio up to the “equality in audio pact”. It’s just a promise on paper right now but provides a ready-made stick to beat the BBC with in the future (similar to gender pay gap promises). I know it seems small but I never thought it would happen.

me in February 'he's not our boy but he seems a decent social democrat and maybe there'll be a strategy, let's wait and see', me in June 'absolutely fuck him and all who apologise for him'

— Owen Hatherley (@owenhatherley) June 14, 2020

xposts I didn't mean to imply it was "only" activists who supported the reforms, anyone decent person should be behind these - I meant more that the Government logic of "trans people tipped the scales" that views that as a bug rather than a feature is completely missing the point

very curious how starmer voters/backers (including our legendary silent six on ilx) feel about him now, whether he's turning out m/l as they hoped, or if they feel duped/disappointed/naive, and what their takeaway is if so

Maybe what Labour needs right now is a good old-fashioned by-election scare in a formerly safe metropolitan seat. Otherwise they'll conclude they can afford to keep pissing off or disappointing those voters with impunity.

I don't know if it just because my t/l has been shorn of all the types that think Starmer is good, but since the early days of the leadership campaign back in those heady days of pubs being open I haven't seen any low profile ordinary punters (as in not ayesha hazarika type melts for hire or moderate Labour MPs) saying positive things about Starmer. They really are the silent majority of the Labour membership, and perhaps some of them might be a bit embarrassed at the state of him - but they certainly aren't expressing it if they are!

I will fight to the death for my right to smack trump in the face with a pineapple.

having my sentence commuted as i successfully convince kier starmer QC that i am a scat fan who was pissing on thatcher's grave as a gesture of affection, to honour her memory

— Stan The Golden Boy (@tristandross) June 14, 2020