Sometimes in the past a person can be found guilty in a court and a wise judge can issue a fine of something like 1p. If a person dragging a protestor away is prosecuted I would hope (if it went to a jury trial) they are found not guilty whatever the weight of evidence. Or if no jury trial a decent judge issues a 1p fine.
You would still have a criminal record though….
That is true, and fingerprints taken, a mugshot, and DNA as well.
I suppose that brings us back to the practicalities. The protestors are fanatical, and public approbation hasn’t stopped them. The issue of journalists grassing up their sources is an extra dimension.
Sometimes in the past a person can be found guilty in a court and a wise judge can issue a fine of something like 1p. If a person dragging a protestor away is prosecuted I would hope (if it went to a jury trial) they are found not guilty whatever the weight of evidence. Or if no jury trial a decent judge issues a 1p fine.
But still carry a conviction?
And in the case of paramedics, possibly lose their jobs as no long DBS clean.
I don’t understand how a news agency can know about it in advance enough to film the road being blocked as it happens, but the authorities don’t know.
This came up on LBC the other week. The protesters ring them (reporters) but for whatever reason the reporters don't call the police.
Oh come on, they wouldn't want anyone turning up and spoiling their exclusive footage of these arseholes causing mayhem, and maybe some altercations with motorists would they....leave that to someone else..
I don't understand how directing these protests at the general public will win support. They have p***ed off a huge number of people and won the support of how many?.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
I have no doubt black cab drivers would allow an ambulance through
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
Westminster being closed is a regular occurrence due to protests from all walks of life. If your are going to protest I'd say at least do it on the government's doorstep.
There are protests in central London pretty much every day. Just yesterday park lane was closed because of a protest. There is a big hospital just north of park lane.
Bloke just tried to get through a gap before they moved over, but it won't be long before someone short-tempered does drive at them, or someone knocks one of them out.
It's trouble waiting to happen.
If I had been that van driver I would have just carried on. Lights have turned green & I have right of way. If you want to stand in the middle of the road then you get what's coming to you.
Honestly I really do suspect some measure of black ops here. Run the most unpopular protest campaign ever, leading to a severe government crackdown, setting a precedent for future protests. I know, never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but...
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
Well, if they are not seeking public support & are truly wanting the Government to take notice then why protest on the South & North circulars (I heard the Hanger Lane giratory has been targeted today as well) when they could easily go to Manchester where the CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE is taking place. That would have a bigger impact AND more media coverage. I bet you the first item on all UK mainstream news today will be about the Tory conference and therefore protesting there would get a much wider audience.
Bloke just tried to get through a gap before they moved over, but it won't be long before someone short-tempered does drive at them, or someone knocks one of them out.
It's trouble waiting to happen.
If I had been that van driver I would have just carried on. Lights have turned green & I have right of way. If you want to stand in the middle of the road then you get what's coming to you.
If you hit one of the protestors who walked out in front of you when the lights had turned green I'd be curious how a court would handle this?
If there is gridlock in central London, like one caused by black cab drivers in the past, the ripple effect of the congestion flows back through many streets. Not everybody trying to get through to, for example St Thomases, are going to be in an ambulance. The cabbies have the power to bring central London to a standstill, and these foolish protestors have today the power to bring the Blackwall tunnel to a standstill.
Bloke just tried to get through a gap before they moved over, but it won't be long before someone short-tempered does drive at them, or someone knocks one of them out.
It's trouble waiting to happen.
If I had been that van driver I would have just carried on. Lights have turned green & I have right of way. If you want to stand in the middle of the road then you get what's coming to you.
If you hit one of the protestors who walked out in front of you when the lights had turned green I'd be curious how a court would handle this?
Unfortunately I don't think the colour of the light would be much of a defence if you knew the "pedestrian" was there...
Bloke just tried to get through a gap before they moved over, but it won't be long before someone short-tempered does drive at them, or someone knocks one of them out.
It's trouble waiting to happen.
If I had been that van driver I would have just carried on. Lights have turned green & I have right of way. If you want to stand in the middle of the road then you get what's coming to you.
If you hit one of the protestors who walked out in front of you when the lights had turned green I'd be curious how a court would handle this?
If you're going at speed, it's an accident. If you're going from a standing start when the lights turn green and run someone over, reckon that's a different story.
Would like to know where a driver and member of the public would stand if the road was cleared by the member of public and the car was ushered through, but the protester had gone back in the road (as per the video), resulting in death or injury.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
Well, if they are not seeking public support & are truly wanting the Government to take notice then why protest on the South & North circulars (I heard the Hanger Lane giratory has been targeted today as well) when they could easily go to Manchester where the CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE is taking place. That would have a bigger impact AND more media coverage. I bet you the first item on all UK mainstream news today will be about the Tory conference and therefore protesting there would get a much wider audience.
I agree. The Tory party conference would be a better target. The protests today are helping the reactionary hang em and flog em wing of the Tories, and distracting people from issues like the end of the Universal Credit uplift.
Bloke just tried to get through a gap before they moved over, but it won't be long before someone short-tempered does drive at them, or someone knocks one of them out.
It's trouble waiting to happen.
If I had been that van driver I would have just carried on. Lights have turned green & I have right of way. If you want to stand in the middle of the road then you get what's coming to you.
If you hit one of the protestors who walked out in front of you when the lights had turned green I'd be curious how a court would handle this?
Unfortunately I don't think the colour of the light would be much of a defence if you knew the "pedestrian" was there...
If the protestor walks out in front of you wouldn't know they were there - you'd have to anticipate their action.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
I have no doubt black cab drivers would allow an ambulance through
Pretty much every protest I can think of that's ended up on Westminster Bridge has allowed ambulances through (admittedly fairly slowly) as they know it's terrible PR if they don't. Refusing to do so just makes you look high on your own self-importance.
Personally got the same disdain for anyone who thinks their own opinions are more important than everyone else's freedom to go about their daily lives, and that would include black cab drivers.
I remember a cause that I'm massively sympathetic to, Father's For Justice, scaling cranes and bridges all over Central London, causing quite a lot of disruption back in the early 2000s (?). While I still sympathise with their message, every time I think of them, I think of sitting in traffic for hours in Vauxhall or Tower Hill.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
Well, if they are not seeking public support & are truly wanting the Government to take notice then why protest on the South & North circulars (I heard the Hanger Lane giratory has been targeted today as well) when they could easily go to Manchester where the CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE is taking place. That would have a bigger impact AND more media coverage. I bet you the first item on all UK mainstream news today will be about the Tory conference and therefore protesting there would get a much wider audience.
I actually agree with this.
Block them getting into their annual conference/piss up/convince people we’re actually doing a great job, whatever you wanna call it. It would at least piss the right people off.
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
Well, if they are not seeking public support & are truly wanting the Government to take notice then why protest on the South & North circulars (I heard the Hanger Lane giratory has been targeted today as well) when they could easily go to Manchester where the CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE is taking place. That would have a bigger impact AND more media coverage. I bet you the first item on all UK mainstream news today will be about the Tory conference and therefore protesting there would get a much wider audience.
I guarantee that if they protested at the conference, the Police response would be huge and violent - they would react completely differently compared to how they handle matters when poor old Joe Public are inconvenienced
At least we all seem to be on the same page, more or less, regarding these protests targeting the wrong people and using the wrong tactics for the desired effect.
There's a widely held view that we live in a quasi fascist state. Couldn't we just for once enjoy the upside to that and watch the police gunning down a few protestors as a warning to the others? Is it really too much to ask?
It looks pretty clear that they are not seeking public support. Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can. It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
I have no doubt black cab drivers would allow an ambulance through
Pretty much every protest I can think of that's ended up on Westminster Bridge has allowed ambulances through (admittedly fairly slowly) as they know it's terrible PR if they don't. Refusing to do so just makes you look high on your own self-importance.
But let’s be honest we would never ever see the same response to the cabbies protesting as we have to this lot. Ambulance passing or not.
I think personally it’s an image problem they’ve got. We all love the black cab service, we all have friends, family, neighbours etc who are black cabbies and who are honest working class families (tax aside 😉).
How many of us can relate to this mob sitting in traffic currently? I don’t know anyone that’s for sure.
We are sympathetic to those who we can, in a way, see ourselves in. And whilst I try to understand all protests I see (the curse of the liberal) I’m struggling massively to get on side with this lot. Especially on a f*chin Monday morning!
They really are a bunch of c-nts, lost all sympathy for their cause for me, lock them up for 6 months, make them suffer like many law abiding citizens are suffering through their negligent deeds.
That bald dickhead that kept getting back into the road even after knowing there was an ambulance waiting to get to a job is a special kind of wanker. Surely impeding the emergency services is a criminal act?! Im surprised nobody gave him a whack, more patience than me.
I am sympathetic with their cause and on the first day they did this I was generally supportive. It had the desired impact of press attention and getting the debate in the public eye, there was plenty of media discussion of the issues at hand. That for me was a success.
Ever since then it seems they've become so obsessed with that one bit of success that they keep banging the same drum despite having no impact. Its had a huge negative impact for the cause both in terms of emissions and in public support. They obviously have some serious idiots running the show and clueless sheep following their directions.
If they had followed up the initial protest with an effective add campaign, some billboards in London, protests in Westminster, some decent lobbying of the department of BEIS they could have stayed relevant, kept the debate in the public eye and had some real impact. Instead they have undone all the good work they did by losing all public support and giving the government a ready made excuse to ignore them.
Comments
I suppose that brings us back to the practicalities.
The protestors are fanatical, and public approbation hasn’t stopped them.
The issue of journalists grassing up their sources is an extra dimension.
Whatever the motivation, they are doing it (the road blockages) because they can.
It isn’t even that new or rare, I recall a time when black cab drivers were able to bring the roads around Westminster to a deadlocked halt because of a grievance, and St Thomas Hospital is just across the river.
There are protests in central London pretty much every day. Just yesterday park lane was closed because of a protest. There is a big hospital just north of park lane.
Not everybody trying to get through to, for example St Thomases, are going to be in an ambulance.
The cabbies have the power to bring central London to a standstill, and these foolish protestors have today the power to bring the Blackwall tunnel to a standstill.
Would like to know where a driver and member of the public would stand if the road was cleared by the member of public and the car was ushered through, but the protester had gone back in the road (as per the video), resulting in death or injury.
The protests today are helping the reactionary hang em and flog em wing of the Tories, and distracting people from issues like the end of the Universal Credit uplift.
I remember a cause that I'm massively sympathetic to, Father's For Justice, scaling cranes and bridges all over Central London, causing quite a lot of disruption back in the early 2000s (?). While I still sympathise with their message, every time I think of them, I think of sitting in traffic for hours in Vauxhall or Tower Hill.
Block them getting into their annual conference/piss up/convince people we’re actually doing a great job, whatever you wanna call it. It would at least piss the right people off.
We are sympathetic to those who we can, in a way, see ourselves in. And whilst I try to understand all protests I see (the curse of the liberal) I’m struggling massively to get on side with this lot. Especially on a f*chin Monday morning!
Ever since then it seems they've become so obsessed with that one bit of success that they keep banging the same drum despite having no impact. Its had a huge negative impact for the cause both in terms of emissions and in public support. They obviously have some serious idiots running the show and clueless sheep following their directions.
If they had followed up the initial protest with an effective add campaign, some billboards in London, protests in Westminster, some decent lobbying of the department of BEIS they could have stayed relevant, kept the debate in the public eye and had some real impact. Instead they have undone all the good work they did by losing all public support and giving the government a ready made excuse to ignore them.