Thread for discussing SOCPA lone mass demo with Mark Thomas

[Dubversion]

whereas you'll take one instance - involving a well-known political television personality - as proof that all is hunky dory?

dick

 

[detective-boy]

whereas you'll take one instance - involving a well-known political television personality - as proof that all is hunky dory?

Er ... no ...

I'll take that.

And the experience of several posters on here.

And the reported experience of numerous other people in various newspapers and TV news programmes over the last few months.

And the absence of any reported instances of illegal refusal / draconian conditions.

And the fact that numerous demonstrations have taken place in the area without incident or significant complaint (except for fuckwits intent on provoking a confrontation and then whinging when they get one ...).

...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Bit of a distraction from the point that this law is a load of horseshit and the police should have no right to control and define what a protest is around the HoC...

 

[Stardark]

Just heard "Mark Thomas - My life in Serious Crime" on Radio 4. Tells the story of his getting permissions, etc.

Very funny (and rather undermines the argument that we are living in a police state ...)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/markthomas.shtml

Worth 30 minutes of anyone's time!

Very, very funny (and educational - I just posted the link to this on the boards of that Toyin Agbetu bloke. Seems some folk there intend that when he returns to Charing Cross Police Station on April 25th, he won't be going alone...).

It would almost be worth posting this as a new thread, because some may be put off by the size of this one...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Toyin from Ligali?

 

[Stardark]

Erm, that's the one...

 

[Louloubelle]

Toyin from Ligali?

Good for him

I've got massive respect for Toyin for doing that. Somebody needed to do something the whole thing was a farcical exercise in self-congratulation and mutual back slapping and what Toyin said was right.

The Queen should apologise and more. She should be ashamed. So much of her wealth is founded on slavery that it's shameful.

So many people are so angry about the self-congratulatory circus that if Toyin hadn't spoken out then I think that it's very likely that feelings would have been channelled into something much more destructive.

 

[nosos]

I didn't realise this was so soon.

Has anyone gone through the process of making the application? I just got told the deadline is this Sunday. Is the application particularly time consuming?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Good for him

I've got massive respect for Toyin for doing that. Somebody needed to do something the whole thing was a farcical exercise in self-congratulation and mutual back slapping and what Toyin said was right.

The Queen should apologise and more. She should be ashamed. So much of her wealth is founded on slavery that it's shameful.

So many people are so angry about the self-congratulatory circus that if Toyin hadn't spoken out then I think that it's very likely that feelings would have been channelled into something much more destructive.

I've heard much the same elsewhere although just as many recognise the guy is a "self serving opportunist out to make a name for himself"...

 

[Stardark]

I didn't realise this was so soon.

Has anyone gone through the process of making the application? I just got told the deadline is this Sunday. Is the application particularly time consuming?

I did suggest that it would be worth looking into applying when I posted the link. Someone replied that if 10,000 friends decided to accompany Toyin to the station, that wasn't necessarily a demonstration. On the one hand, a rather naive view. On the other, some of the posters on Ligali, whether they will go so far as to admit it or not, would have creamed themselves if the security services had painted the church with Toyin's brain cells. If a riot takes place outside Charing Cross Police Station, it will clearly be the fault of the oppressive authorities...

That might sound a little cynical, but a half dozen posters easily justify this view with their extreme opinions, and that's leaving aside the freedom the administrators give to members to create 'spoof' accounts in the names of David Lammy, Lee Jasper, Trevor Phillips... (no-one would open an account just to pretend to be a 'coconut', so multiple accounts are obviously permitted).

Hopefully, someone has applied, though.