Thetownend.com

Anyone heading down Regent Circus at 2pm?

No

as normal for a lockdown protest its being heavily advertised and promoted by the swindon adver. all so they can get the demonstration photo and save them doing some proper journalism.

Why would anyone want to protest in the middle of a global pandemic....

If the previous protests have shown anything it is that protest do need regulation....

Because there's something worth protesting?

I'm torn. I want people to respect social distancing for other peoples' safety. I also think people should tell the government just what a bunch of cunts they are.

I hope they smash shit up - provided nobody is hurt and private property is left untouched.

Is there anything worth protesting?

'I hope they smash shit up.....Wow that really usefull protesting and exactly why there needs to be some sort of limitations as to how protests are run.....

But I suppose if you are advocating violent protests shows what a cunt you are........

I suppose you thought it was funny the 2 classy slappers who shat and urinated on a policeman's boots.....

What a remarkable statement

Forgive me for misinterpreting democracy but thought that’s what elections are for.

Are you serious? Do you even know what the protest is about?


No, it isn't. The government are even trying to stop peaceful protests. 


Did you deliberately ignore the part where I said I don't want people to be hurt? I mean - I did LITERALLY say that but if you need to strawman what I say to make a point then it doesn't say much for your position.

The government and the press have done a hatchet job making the protestors out to be the bad people. I don't agree with their tactics a lot of the time, but there's next to fuck all said about just how seriously bad the bill is. Sounds as though you're just being into the narrative. Sheep!

When's the last time the government ever took any notice of protest anyway ??

Do I know what the bill is about ?   Yes

The bill isn't trying to stop protests at all....its about controlling them better and ensuring they go off peacefully without violence and without damage to property

Yes you said about people not getting hurt , but forgive me if I am wrong but didn't you say 'I hope that they smash things up '  in my book that's you advocating violence or does a cunt like you think smashing up property is acceptable.

I am a sheep , fuck me it sounds like you are easily led by the scum media whipping up civil unrest to prove their narrative..

So the govt has done a hatchet job on making the protesters in Bristol look bad...

So none on the protesters lit a police van on fire with policeman inside...?

There wasn't video footage of a guy underneath a police van to cut the brake lines......

The video footage of the rest of the violence towards policemen and women doing their job was doctored

The video footage of the 2 slappers dropping their trousers and sitting and urinating on their shoes..

Get a grip!!!!

Please can we keep the sheep comments to social media  :cry:

Oh, do fuck off you sanctimonious bellend.

I'm talking about damage to inanimate objects vs peoples' rights. I know where my priorities lay.


Irony much?

I don't think I've seen a single media outlet speaking out against the bill or in favor of the protests. And I hate the media. I don't trust any of them. Not the most observant of people are you?

Anyway, I have better things to do as I'm off out.

Why take offence over that instead of somebody being called a cunt (and not in the TEF way)?.

Anyways, I really am offski!

We all take offence to different things although i didn't take offence just hate the term sheep. We are all sheep in our own little weird way

'Fuck off you ignorant bellend'

Now thats a constructive reply to a debate

Ah well as they say if you can't win a debate then get all shouty and swear lot...

Never mind  you go off and smash someone else's property in the name of 'Protests'

It is your right to smash other people property...

Bye bye have a good day... :bye:

Again, just ignoring what I actually said

Of course it's worth protesting. I'm fine with powers to baton charge XR when they next block the m32.

but the same bill also gives powers to disperse legitimate protests using ill defined criteria.

criteria that will be abused at some point. as football fans already know, it happens.

Which is the main problem that too many people are unable/unwilling to recognize. People like Cowley don't seem to realize it's his rights that are being affected as well.

(I am trying to be offski but the misses isn't ready yet - because she's a woman)

All very socially distanced, wearing masks and a disappointing lack of smashing shit up.

I hope any that cause trouble get a battering

Only person trying to cause any trouble was that prick Costello

Elvis? Him and who's army?

Olivers😀

No attractions?

Ask him why he never mentions he was going out with a 14 year old when he was 18

really?

had the guy down for a cunt, but not a nonce

He's posting his usual shit in the Adver page Facebook comments section

I don't see him, I think he has blocked me or vice versa

Weirdly it seems the adver have stopped me from commenting on their posts

Perhaps because the government are using a global pandemic to hide the fact they are pushing through legislation that takes away the fundamental bedrock of democracy of the right to peaceful protest.

They are picking an unneccsary fight with the people during the global pandemic and most people are too fucking stupid to realise or too weary to do anything about it. 

Out of interest what do you class inanimate objects?
If statues, war memorials, public buildings, police vans etc get damaged then the protesters deserve to have the book thrown at them as I don’t see how there can be any justification for that. It’s illegal in every day life so should be just as illegal during a protest, it’s never justified and why all these ‘anarchist’ twats turn up to protests!

I’ve worked on important infrastructure projects including nuclear and powers to disperse ill thought and pointless protests are needed as protestors on some of these haven’t even known what they are protesting about. Extinction Rebellion tried to disrupt HPC and looked perplexed when it was explained that nuclear power is actually compatible with reducing global emissions!

Oh shit, I've just realised 'the bill' in this context is the proposed bill, not the 90s police drama. Thought that was a weird target.

That’s long dead you wally

Name a more iconic duo than the right wing and paedolphilia?

The short-termism I see over this is astonishing. Not just here but elsewhere.

The next government may not be 'your' government. They may not be a government that shares your political ideals and this bill will suppress your right to protest against them. Think about that.

It's astonishing that we're even having a discussion over whether or not the bill is acceptable. Stuff like this has become normalized over the last decade or so; the Cummings of this world have done their job superbly. Remember Corbyn being accused of trying to start a class war? The Tories started that war before he was even on the scene, and they are winning.

Fuck, I hate politics and try to steer clear but the brazenness of these cunts lures me in.

And Costello?

I struggle to take him seriously. I think he's a career troll like Yaxley-Lennon and Laurence Fox - only he's not very good at it.

Inceldom and far right are a close second IMO

I was surprised at people being upset over the protests on social media but I think I've figured out why. They think 'bill' means police, so they think there's a series of anti police protests going on right now.

Absolutely this. His delivery of stuff I'm not convinced he understands is very poor. I'm still waiting for him to explain why Marxism is bad (I don't have a view, but I'm not the one crying about Marxists)

Would that be the same Dominic Cummings who thought it perfectly acceptable to go for a drive to Bernard Cast!e during the lockdown ??.

It's always the right with their authoritarianism rhetoric against 'marxists' that happily accept it in reality. A weird cognitive disonance that I can never work out that is evident in this thread.

That's a 70's,80's saying and it appears the activist jumped on the title

No it's not. There's already multiple laws on the statute books that outlaw violence and criminal damage, both in general and at protests, notably the multiple Public Order Acts.As you clearly don't know what the section of the Bill that restricts protests says, I'll quote it here:


I've highlighted the bits that have been called out by legal experts as being especially problematic. A protest under this legislation would be unlawful, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, if it caused "serious annoyance" to "a person" or might cause annoyance to a person. That's about as broad a remit for shutting down peaceful protest as it's possible to get.

I'll give you an example. Next season, Lee Power is still here and decides John Sheridan has done a fine job so keeps him on to oversee our promotion back out of League 2. The masterplan doesn't come off and we're in the bottom two come November. A group of fans decide they are going to gather behind the Arkells after the game to make their feelings known, as has long been the tradition. All Power has to do is ring the coppers, tell them he and his guests in the exec suite are seriously annoyed by the demo and hey presto, the police break the demo up. Better yet, Power doesn't even need to ring the coppers. All it takes is a copper to decide that the demo *might* annoy someone and they can shut it down. And arrest the organisers. And prosecute them. There are similar powers to outlaw a single person who takes part in a static protest "making noise" (aimed at the pro-EU nutter who demos in Parliament Square). So even if you decided to go and stand behind the Arkells by yourself and shout "Power Out", it's paddy wagon time for you.

This Bill is not just undemocratic, it is anti-democratic and fundamentally un-British. It's the kind of legislation Putin or the CCP would be proud of.

How many laws and bills are there where sentences are maxed for those found guilty? A lot of crimes seem to result in a suspended sentence these days. We're still soft, but people like a bit of dramatisation  I suppose.

Ah.

So you might only get a suspended sentence for protesting peacefully? Well that makes it OK then!

More to the point, with the current courts backlog you might spend the rest of your life awaiting trial. That feels like a far bigger justice issue than sentencing guidelines.

Let's wait and see eh?

no it's too late then

I can't help but feel that I'd just be feeding a troll if I did answer. I don't think I'll bother.

Ok

Not everyone with a different opinion is a troll.

Only if they think someone is going to get banged up for 10 years for peaceful protesting.

I didn't say otherwise.

But some are.

You've missed the point. 10 years is a maximum sentence, of course it would rarely be applied and in most instances people arrested under this section would be dealt with at a magistrates' court where the maximum is 12 months (as you'll see in the section I quoted if you've read it). But that isn't the point. The point is it acts as a deterrent from people organising peaceful protests in the first place. The right to peaceful protest is recognised as a basic human right in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, widely accepted across the world. We'd be joining dictatorships and authoritarian countries such as Belarus, Myanmar, Russia etc in suppressing that right.

It occurs to me that basic education on civil and criminal law/procedure should be on the curriculum

Not everyone wants to know to be honest.

Wow.

Why wow? He’s right, you may, I may but not everyone does.

I’m very uneasy about it which may come as a surprise but don’t be fooled into thinking I blindly accept everything a conservative government does or equally detest everything a Labour government does.

On a similar vein, someone told me they were voting to stay in the EU club because and I quote, ‘they all have the same currency and it makes it easier on my pocket not having to keep changing my money every time I go on holiday’. That is just the way it is I’m afraid.
 

Lots of people don't. And there's a good argument to say people should be able to get on with their lives and ignore politics safe in the knowledge that actually things will stay pretty much the same. But there's an even better argument that citizens have to be if not actively engaged in democracy*, then at least alert to threats to it, or run the risk that democracy is silently eroded from under them. It's bills like this, and govts like this, unfortunately that make the latter argument more compelling.


*Voting every 5 years is not being *actively* engaged in democracy

A lot of people don't give a fuck about politics and a lot more people don't give a fuck about this bill. Their lives are largely unaffected or they ensure they're largely unaffected by either.
Good for them. Thats probably the life to lead.

They assume they are. And under a normal moderate democratic govt it's a reasonable assumption. Not any more. That's my point.

When you say governments like this, you really mean just any conservative government. So how many of the hated union, strike, picket laws did your beloved Labour repeal when that Tory in Labour drag had the majority that the current government have?

No I don't. I mean this govt specifically. I'm no fan of Tory govts in general but I've said repeatedly this govt is uniquely threatening to democracy and the rule of law. I coudn't stand Thatcher but she did at least respect the rule of law and the broad foundations of modern democracies, this govt is Trump-esque in it's contempt for both

Leaving aside the whatabouttery, despite your assumptions I'm no great fan of "beloved Labour" either. By "that Tory in Labour drag" I assume you mean Blair and I'm minded to agree. Much of what is dreadful in modern politics can be traced back to Blair IMO and I'd have gladly seen him and several of his ministers prosecuted.

I'd ask the miners if Thatcher respected the law and democracy. I think she did neither.
It would help if we had an apposition that actually opposed instead of being led by the invisible Man.

Not even in the same ballpark as the outright corruption and assaults on the law we've seen over the last 12 months. Thatcher was brutal, but she was an amateur compared to the  extremists currently running what used to be the Tory Party.

Well yes. And a media that did it's job properly too. But we don't. So just sit on your hands and wait for fascism?

Why the wow? You only have to look at the posts since ours and at all the political posts on here and on Twitter to see how they end up. I can't be fucked with it all, it's all you ever hear about and ends up with people constantly telling you what you should think about it, and if you disagree you are constantly told you are missing the point and they shout at you until you just shut up.

I don't go to protests, I am on the right side of the law and anything I want to change i can't, call me what you like but i don't want to have to know the ins and outs of laws and politics as suggested

Pauld is a Tory

Well whether you think voting every five years is or is not actively taking part in politics doesn’t really matter because as I have mentioned the status quo will always come top. Of course Labour will get back in power at some point, we all know that. They won’t win the election, the conservatives will lose it and everything that you gnash your teeth at on an almost daily basis will surely come home to bite them on the arse. I honestly don’t think rioting by the looney left fringe of anarchists will help their or your cause, it if anything it hardens the moderate majority of the country into rejecting the left no matter how well intentioned they think they are.

The metropolitan private educated, millionaire sneering leftist elite have ignored their core working class voters for years and years. Now you’re reaping the fruits of that. If I were you I’d be fucking spitting feathers (well you seem to be daily TBF) at them and the hard line momentum rent a mob. Get covid out the way and this country will prosper greatly. The world at large are rubbing their hands with anticipation at trading with a free U.K. The EU club is a busted flush and unless they can sort out their € debt and get all the € nations into one legal tax and spending model like a sovereign country does they will lurch from crisis to crisis. They’re petrified and with good reason that this great nation of ours will make a success of being free again. The vaccine fiasco just about sums the club up.

Paul, Starmer will not win you an election I’m afraid and I have no idea of any rising stars in your party who will be able to mount a successful challenge to the demonstrating bill and the Conservative party in the foreseeable future.

And again, I'm not a member of the Labour party. But you'll continue to ignore that the same way you used to insist Reg was Paul Plowman. It becomes impossible to discuss things sensibly with people who won't accept facts.

There is plenty left wing media around including the BBC. Given how much shit there is, it should be fucking easy to.oppose this lot. The media are doing their job it's just that people don't give a fuck. Politics and politicians is at an all time low. There is no party worthy of my vote. The Tories are fucking criminals and labour are a hypocritical self serving middle class elite. Labour seem to have the view that they are always right and it's the electorate who are too stolid to grasp their genius. The Tories clearly do not give a fuck about anyone, a bit like a political Lee power.
Labour seriously need to get their shit together instead of continuing to.prove they are 2 parties in one. Tell momentum to fuck off and go towards the centre with a new leader who wasn't the architect of their laughable brexit policy.

I didn't say that. I said a media that does it's job properly. The right wing press is just as capable of doing that and should be. You see flashes of it in the Times and even the Telegraph on ocassion but by and large the media fails abjectly. And the BBC is just out and out a govt propaganda outlet these days, it's laughable

Well disagree about the BBC which I see as a politically correct left wing preaching outlet.  Same as channel 4.
Where you say the press don't do their job properly, we probably have the best press anywhere in the world. Free and varied. They'll print what sells. The Tory papers will happily report anti Tory stuff.

How far to the fucking right do you have to be to think the current news output of the bbc is left wing?

Centre?

You lot are depressing

Some of the views expressed on these politically themed threads concern me somewhat.

Gonna all start putting double 8s after are usernames

The Jennifer Arcuri scandal - where the Prime Minister gave his mistress £175,000 of public money, and there's a further unexplained £750k of "investment" into her company - was largely ignored by the "left wing" BBC, certainly by their political correspondents, and was a one-day wonder treated as a "kiss and tell" shagpiece story in much of the rest of the press, rather than the tale of blatant corruption it clearly is. Compare and contrast the obsessive multi-week raking over the total non-story of Meghan Markle and that ginger bloke she's married to. Sure, best press in the world. Have a word.

You could ask the general population what they thought of the unions holding the country to ransom every ten minutes.

That is a fucking good question

I think the unions are the least of our problems

For years the left have thought the BBC is too right wing and visa versa

Those views will probably never change whatever the true picture is, people hear what they want to hear when they have an entrenched political viewpoint

Ha yes

Fair comment but I would love to know of any recent cases of left wing bias.

I’m sure someone on the right wing of the spectrum would have some

Good answer! 😊

While it's true that both sides have seen their own bias, what has changed is that the govt have just appointed an explicitly political appointment as chairman of the BBC with no background in journalism or broadcasting who has made no secret of his desire to make the BBC more "conservative friendly" and has wasted no time in implementing it. That's a step change.

I didn’t say you were a member of the Labour Party did I? I know Reg wasn’t P a u l 🤣🤣 I confess to just taking the piss out of the old communist cunt and anyone else suckered into thinking otherwise.

Facts? As you see them you mean regardless of their truth and voracity.

I remember you virtually screaming at me through the keyboard demanding who I wanted to win the Conservative party election, as if it was any business of yours. I did piss myself laughing though. Thing is, you don’t see what other people see when you go on and on and on. It does as I’m sure my posts do become tiresome and people switch off. When you’re on here Paul you’re only ranting at a small mainly agreeable and bias audience. Your political fervour are to be admired but honestly wasted on here. You only have to look at the political thread, not so much the topics within but those who bother to post, same old, same old. Woe betide anyone who has a contrary disposition to you or the lefty mob. I wonder how GosportRib is these days, amongst others who gave up in the end.

Your admission WRT that cunt Blair was a pleasant surprise though but I think you’d fucking kill to have a cunt like him at No.10 right now. Better a labour cunt than a Tory cunt eh! In the real world of politics you’re fervour, knowledge, effort and enthusiasm is div 1 at best, your hierarchy are proud of you and pat you on the head like a good little serf to the cause. Me? I doubt I’d come up to Sunday league in comparison (before you or anyone else says it) but then I’m not suckered into the sordid, seedy and murky world of trying to play big boy politics. Once again those above you and me are happy to allow you to help keep them there to do what they always have and always will do. I hope the weather is nice when you go out leafletting for the council elections.

Think that about covers it today. Still at least we both support a red team 😁

Perspective is everything with the BBC.

The BBC was of course once quite well populated with liberal, educated types albeit also with decent representation of conservative thinking.  People with critical thinking faculties but who could still wave union jacks at the Proms, festoon their street parties with union jack bunting whilst falling short of a Nationalist presentation of international news and immigration "concerns".

As a small "l" liberal, I am specifically "concerned", about the increasing interest in "control" of our institutions.  Especially of the judiciary.  The modus of what has been happening to the BBC is my example.  

We've had decades of (undeclared) self-interested media campaigning over the iniquities of public service broadcasting and the licence fee and Government cuts and threats to BBC funding, alongside Government engineering of the BBC board and the appointment of the latest dyed in the wool Tory as its Director General.

Whether anyone thinks the news output needed changing is, to my thinking, different from whether it is a good thing that the Government of the day should bear an increasing influence on that output.  As a liberal, I am opposed to the latter.  I also love the much cut BBC World Service as a reliable and interesting source of news, not least because of its independent style.

Spot on RR

Appointing a load of Tories to top positions in the BBC was a clear tactic by the current government. They've had a good degree of control over output and slanting the coverage for a good few years now because of it.

I suppose if you are so far out on the left then they're going to be on your right.

Please read Red Rag's post - it's not a left/right thing, it's a "government control of media" thing.

Today, yes, forty, fifty years ago, no.

But that’s YOUR opinion, not necessarily everyone else’s opinion. So you’re saying that the current government are not a modern democratic government? If so, I’m going to have to scratch my head in bewilderment.

While it's true that both sides have seen their own bias, what has changed is that the govt have just appointed an explicitly political appointment as chairman of the BBC with http://thetownend.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1611186;topic=58742.75;num_replies=94;sesc=82c1d2dc0ec6e03ce50e050408ed5d7dno background in journalism (That could be seen as a good attribute by many I suspect, you know, fresh pair of eyes) or broadcasting who has made no secret of his desire to make the BBC more "conservative friendly" (explain, what conservative friendly means can you?) and has wasted no time in implementing it (how exactly?). That's a step change. I understands our concerns to a point but when the BBC has pretty much gone unchallenged in its perceived political bias for so long it must come as a shock to have to justify your modus operandi.

Scratch away then. There are multiple pillars of any functioning democracy: a free press, independent judiciary, a legislature that can act as a check on the executive and the right for the public to make their voices heard. In a little over 12 months, this govt has attacked or are currently attacking all four. They are fundamentally anti-democratic.

I’ll take your sage advice and scratch away thanks.

The bill is stupid and should be protested against but in reality... What does it honestly matter? Go protest peacefully and you won't have a problem. Go protest like a dickhead, throwing fireworks at police horses, expect a baton to crack your skull.

Let's all be real here. Protesting against this bill whether it comes into law or not should really matter. Party politics is the problem, democracy is dead, and every country on the planet is in a race to the bottom in a capitalist world.

In the existence of this planet, we've seen:
Tyrannies, Theocracy and Autocracy
Communism and Fascism
Oligarchy, Democracies and Republics

None of the political regimes has really worked or lasted for one reason or another so far. The next type of political regime that we will see is decentralisation and the foundation for such is already starting to become established right under your nose...

Re: fresh pair of eyes - I generally like it when the person in charge of a large organisation knows a bit about what they're doing. No background in journalism isn't a 'fresh pair of eyes', it's someone who wouldn't be qualified for an intern position!

Re: 'how exactly?' - The Mash Report was cancelled as part of a drive to establish more 'right-wing' comedy (a thankless task as I can only think of one current right wing comedian who isn't a dinosaur who might be ok on TV). It's the only example I'm aware of but fits the bill of what you're asking for.

Reading in private Eye, until the arrival of the new BBC Director General the BBC were looking at putting the Mash Report on twice a week as its ratings were very high in what is traditionally a difficult spot in the schedule, post his arrival bang it gone entirely.

I assume you are referring to Geoff Norcott, who rather ironically got most of his television exposure by being on The Mash fairly regularly.

I'm looking forward to the BBC showing An Evening with Jim and Lee.....

I can't remember the last time I watched anything on the BBC. Surprised it has so much sway with so many of you.

Missed the point as usual. The BBC is the national broadcaster and has long had a tradition of independent, impartial reporting. Didn't always get it right, but that was the aim. This is now under attack, as part of a multi-pronged and sustained attack on the institutions that underpin democracy. Whether you watch Mrs Browns' Boys isn't really the point.

What other institutions?

It's only a few posts above. Does help if you read the whole conversation

Thanks

Tha Mash was shit anyway. Nish Kumar is so annoying

Completely agree, but again not the point, any more than whether 4D likes Mrs Brown's Boys or not is. Cancel it because it's shit by all means (and for the love of God, take Mrs Brown's Boys too), but this was explicitly pulled for political reasons, along with a warning shot to all other comedy shows on the BBC to be less "left-wing", aka "critical of the govt". The same shows that are being called out as being "left-wing" now used to rip the shit out of Blair et al because that's one of the functions of satire - to take the piss out of govt. One of them launched Johnson's fucking career.

I quite liked the Mash Report although I agree the main individuals had a tendency to appear a bit too smug. 

Now *that* is a controversial view

It's my point...

:)

Same again planned for Saturday apparently. Anyone fancy it?

Judging by last time's turn-out, that's a big nope.

Yeah, Swindon is pretty apathetic about this stuff. Makes it more important to make the effort. There was a good 60-80 though last time. More than I was expecting.

Football Supporters' Association analysis of the potential impact on football fans

https://thefsa.org.uk/news/criminalising-tradtional-fan-behaviour/