Violence against London anti-Tory demo: This is not democracy

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Many of you will be aware that a demonstration against the new Conservative government, here in the UK, took place in London yesterday.

Despite being an impromptu affair, organised extremely quickly after the outcome of the election became known on Friday morning, the protest attracted around 2,000 people at its height – along with the attention of the police.

According to eyewitnesses on Twitter, the cops kicked off and there were violent scenes at Downing Street – almost on the new Prime Minister’s doorstep.

Some commentators have been moved to ask, if this is the sort of scene we are seeing in the very first days of the new administration, what will our country be like after five years of it?

That is a very good question.

The large number of images arriving via Twitter prompted This Writer’s imagination to kick in and envision a video commemoration of this day – with musical accompaniment from Dodgie Jammers. This is the band that is unlucky enough to have Yr Obdt Srvt as keyboard player. Our song, This Is Not Democracy, seemed almost to have been written for the occasion, despite having been written five years ago.

Here’s the result:

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22 Comments

  1. jaynel62 May 10, 2015 at 6:40 am - Reply

    We must learn a lesson from this and learn to work not only collectively but smarter, when Demos are to happen they need 10 of 1000s so they need planning. As much as I empathise and personally support the Right to Protest – with the Tories shutting down the options – WE need to work around them x

    • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 4:17 pm - Reply

      I think it would be a good idea to work to the Parliamentary diary; whenever there’s a controversial vote, warn people well in advance and get bodies on the streets.

      • Robert May 11, 2015 at 12:04 am - Reply

        It’s the kind of thing that can happen from loose canons , but it shouldn’t take away from the real story ! The paint will wash off, but will the blood that will be at risk of being spilled now? If the Tories continue down the austerity road, hell will come to them through public demonstrations, larger, and if organised with a spread. They will be well pressed to contain it, we could see a gov fall by public demand, if they send in the troops on their own people, it’s over for them.

  2. Thomas May 10, 2015 at 7:55 am - Reply

    I greatly dislike this government-I fear what it will do to others and to myself-but it was elected in a free and fair election and rioting and defacing war memorials are a bad idea.

    • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 4:16 pm - Reply

      Isn’t it a bad idea for police to attack people while they are peacefully demonstrating? Eyewitness accounts say it was the coppers who kicked off.

      • Thomas May 10, 2015 at 6:31 pm - Reply

        It’s most likely a bit of both sides acting up-some police too ready to use their batons, and some demonstrators just out to cause havoc.

        • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 8:03 pm - Reply

          That’s a very British comment!

  3. Rachel May 10, 2015 at 7:57 am - Reply

    Unfortunately not all of those images are from yesterday, I recognise one from Balcombe http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/indepth/fracking/10628538.Green_Party_MP_Caroline_Lucas_insists_Balcombe_arrest_not_a_publicity_stunt/

    • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 4:09 pm - Reply

      Thanks for pointing that out. I suppose there’ll always be someone trying to make it worse than it actually is – although in fact, since Balcombe was about government listening to the people as well, it isn’t totally out of place.

  4. Elizabeth Keen May 10, 2015 at 7:59 am - Reply

    Brilliant , but could you please post the URL for vid as i would like to put it on my facebook but i couldnt find it on youtube. Thanks

  5. casalealex May 10, 2015 at 8:11 am - Reply

    Everything is discussed in this world, except for one thing: democracy. Democracy is not discussed. Democracy is there, as a kind of saint, from whom no miracles are expected, but that is there as a reference: “the democracy”; and we don’t notice that the democracy in which we live in is a kidnapped, conditioned and amputated one, because the power of the citizen, the power of each one of us, is limited, in the political sphere, I repeat, in the political sphere, to removing a government that we don’t like and replacing it by another one that we might come to like. Nothing else. But the important decisions are made in another sphere, and we all know which one it is. The great international financial organizations, the IMFs, the World Trade Organizations, the World Banks, the OECD, all of these… None of these institutions is democratic, so how can we continue to talk about democracy, if those who actually govern the world are not democratically elected by the people? Who chooses the countries’ representatives in those institutions? Their respective peoples? No. So where is the democracy? José Saramago

  6. graham May 10, 2015 at 10:14 am - Reply

    The people of Britain voted em in, shame on them

    • Shaun May 10, 2015 at 9:38 pm - Reply

      They did vote them in, but information is the oxygen of decision making process: in this sense it was the Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express (including their ownership of local newspapers), the Times, Independent and BBC ‘that won it’, to take a quote from Mr Murdock.

  7. Nick May 10, 2015 at 10:34 am - Reply

    If you try to kill off the weakest sick and disabled in society and only have a maximum of a quarter of all of the votes of the 45 million who could of voted it’s no wonder you will have violence flare up’s just as you would have in any African or middle eastern country

  8. Alun May 10, 2015 at 11:02 am - Reply

    not only was there multiple arrests made, a twitter user also commented they saw an undercover cop spray painting on the war memorial, then saw them later in high-vis chatting with the rest, while that claim is unsubstantiated, it would lend credence to the police trying to escalate the whole affair

  9. amnesiaclinic May 10, 2015 at 12:40 pm - Reply

    It is only natural that people are very angry and frustrated but the police were and are prepared. They have been training hard for this and if you look carefully some are MP’s, military police. They have the numbers, the weapons and the organisation to stomp very, very hard on any dissent and marches and especially the press. And yes, it is going to be peaceful marches as well.
    Far better to understand why and how the system is set up as it is and what is the real goal.
    You cannot fight the system with the system. The system always wins.
    David Icke explains this very well in this video. It is all about perception and it is critical we understand how our perception is programmed and how we are being locked into the 5-sense reality with the rolling out of the agenda whoever is in power.
    It is all about power, control and how this is used to manipulate our perception.
    Far better to set up alternative structures by working in small groups of 5, to meet regularly and set up community alternatives which support the poor, unemployed, disabled and sick.
    As we know, they aren’t going to mess around this time.

    iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/eD01qlPBijY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

  10. Pete B May 10, 2015 at 7:22 pm - Reply

    Martin Luther King changed the American Africans lot in America through peaceful protest and moving speeches such as I have a dream.When protesters turn violent,and no I am not stating the London demonstrators turned violent,it turns off support.No one supported the London riots from a few years back.

    Mahatma Ghandi achieved much in India through peaceful none cooperation protests.He changed India from a country ruled by Britain into a independent nation.

    Does what we want to achieve sound harder than what King and Ghandi achieved.We may be fighting Propaganda in the press,the answer has to be do not collude with the right winged press.Do not buy their newspapers.Give up Sky TV and go for Freeview.Hit them in their pocket.Also you won’t have to see their lies.

    We need peaceful protest,large scale and often to gain any support.Follow blogs like Mikes,unless Theresa can somehow stop us.I do expect some kind of surveillance of the internet here in the UK because they are treading on dangerous ground.Counter propaganda,not by shouting.But by reasoned debate.If you shout at people,they tend to close their hears and hearts.

    We shall overcome some day. Perhaps not in my lifetime,but I would rather die trying than exist by being one of them.

    • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 8:05 pm - Reply

      Hit them in their wallets, certainly. This involves working out which companies they own and boycotting them, no matter what short-term inconvenience this produces – and also nurturing other firms to carry out the same kinds of work in an ethical way. That’s a big project!

  11. Kristen May 10, 2015 at 10:41 pm - Reply

    thing is and i know a few police…they hate the tories as much as everyone else. Their funding has been slashed, just like the other services. As with any photo..it is a glimpse into that exact moment..you do not know it’s past or future, you do not know what course of action happened to create that moment..or whether the photo is a mere segment of a much bigger image (we all have seen how that can be done to sway opinion one way or another)

    • Mike Sivier May 10, 2015 at 11:09 pm - Reply

      No – we have the eyewitness reports to provide the context – and sure, someone will say they’re untrue. Judging on the past behaviour of the people I know who were there, I’ll rule that out – for the time being.

  12. hstorm May 11, 2015 at 12:37 pm - Reply

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/10/g20-policing-agent-provacateurs

    Separate event, but provocateurs do seem to be a recurring tactic. Same on Saturday, maybe?

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