"Kill the Bill" protest becomes a riot

Can you see into the mind of every protester and rioter to determine their intent?

Protesters come in many forms some are peaceful like XR, others are violent like the Poll Tax riots. You can't "No True Scotsman" this.

In this specific context, no it is not as black and white as you have made it out to be. True corporations can't fine or arrest you.

They can however work with other companies to destroy you via other means including getting you banned from platforms, getting you fired from your job via doxxing, taking away things like access to payment sites and domain registrars etc which is often coordinated with state apparatus.

Liberal democracies have learnt that overt repressive policies are costly and unpopular and have outsourced this to friendly private corporations.

Why are you continually trying to justify (once again) the criminal actions of your left wing chums because it doesn’t suit your beliefs? Laughable pal, laughable!

Well if they had peaceful intentions they didn't do a very good job expressing them yesterday. I would go so far as saying they're not protestors, they're thugs. There are so many great ways to show your opposition to certain proposals - putting police officers in A&E isn't one of them.

I hypothesise that you won't the answer the questions because undermines your position. If you say that being an annoyance is violence then you end up looking like the soft lefties that you so vehemently hate. But if you agree that it isn't violence then you must concede that the bill aims at curtailing peaceful protest.

Quite the predicament for you.

Just so we are all on the same page, I'm centrist

There were many "Kill the Bill" protests that occured around the country without any violence at all in fact that is how the Bristol one started and if it had stayed that way you probably wouldn't have even heard about them unless you read your local paper.

I get the impression that they just want to one-up the left with this bill, since they'll be the ones most affected by it. Clearly all principles have been thrown out the window, although I don't know if there were any to begin with.

That's an absurd point - "if" it had remained peaceful is irrelevant. The fact is that the protest descended into violence aimed at police officers. That's why the demonstration in Bristol hit the news and that's why the scenes there were deplorable.

I wouldn't even attempt to defend the actions of those in attendance yesterday. As I said, if they truly wanted to resist the new bill, they could have done so without putting police officers in A&E.

They could have just stayed at home made a petition maybe and let authoritarianism have its way with them. At what point do you think the people should rebel violently or should they always do as they are told?

I'm in two minds as to whether you're trolling or not. However having seen your presence on here I believe not and it appears you really are defending the indefensible!

If those who object to the new bill can only do so through animalistic violence, then maybe there is no valid objection to it after all.

@SHallowvale @DiddyDec

As I said the Right is adopting a 'its ok when we do it' attitude.

That's why I'm the only one that's able to give s coherent answer I'm not bound by the 'invisible handcuffs' of needing to appear reasonable to the modern left, which lets face it is always going to call Tories fascist etc

I have a lot of respect for you despite being authoritarian and near enough diametrically opposed to my position, you do not attempt to obfuscate your views.

I don't support much of what the modern left go in for such as their strange wokery of double standards.

I certainly wouldn't call Tories fascist because they fundamentally aren't by any reasonable measure.

One can be authoritarian without being fascist.

"suffers serious distress, serious annoyance, serious inconvenience or serious loss of amenity"

That is not the language of violence. Would you accuse someone of violence if they annoyed or inconvenienced you?

@SHallowvale @DiddyDec

As I said the Right is adopting a 'its ok when we do it' attitude.

That's why I'm the only one that's able to give s coherent answer I'm not bound by the 'invisible handcuffs' of needing to appear reasonable to the modern left, which lets face it is always going to call Tories fascist etc

I can’t see the new laws affecting proper peaceful protests that much because the majority of them don’t actually cause any of those things.

We have protests in the city centre here all the time and they’re generally well policed and held in an area where the public aren’t disrupted. Thousands of people stream past it going shopping and drinking on a Saturday and nobody bats an eyelid. At the very worst it might be easier to walk the next block rather than getting through a march but that’s mildly irritating.

I think the “serious” part is the key word. Protesters are still free to cause as much apathy and mild annoyance as they usually would. This just prevents people going too far with it, which doesn’t happen that often anyway.

The left again want to have their cake and eat it. At least I'm honest enough to say I support cracking down on left wing protests and using kid gloves for right wing ones 😂

I'm well aware that your beliefs aren't reasonable.

I'd consider myself part of the modern left but I don't think I've ever called the Conservatives fascists, nor would I want to.

"At least", yes. That you are honest about a lack of principle is a low bar and doesn't put you above the standards of the opposing tribe.