{"id":38281,"date":"2020-10-30T15:13:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T15:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=38281"},"modified":"2020-10-30T15:13:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T15:13:02","slug":"38281-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/38281-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-lockdown protests &#8211; Who goes out and why?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Another anti-lockdown protest is to take place on the 31st of October 12:00pm, kicking off at Crystal palace which Voice of London will report from the scene.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It can be an onerous work to keep up with the number of different protests that are happening around London. The most recent objection of the Polish <a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/poland-has-tightened-its-abortion-laws-again\/\">abortion<\/a> laws, <a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/endsars-protesters-in-london-in-support-to-nigeria\/\">#ENDSARS<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/anti-trump-protest-a-cow-pigs-and-chickens-let-loose\/\">dismays<\/a> surrounding the proposed UK-US trade deals are just a few of the latest marches. But there is one that seems to become regular.<\/p>\n<p>More than a dozen people were arrested last Saturday on the previous #WeDoNotConsent Stand Up X protest &#8220;for a variety of offences&#8221;, according to MET Police. But who are these people and what do they want?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff\"><em>Join us tomorrow (31.10.2020) from 12:00pm via live Tweets. We will ask protesters their take on predictions about London moving into tier 3 in a few weeks, and more.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key figures:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Conspiracy theorist David Icke and his sons, Gareth and Jaymie Icke<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Facebook has removed David&#8217;s official profile from the platform for &#8220;repeatedly violating our policies on harmful misinformation&#8221;. The false claims include suggestions that 5G networks and Jewish groups were responsible for the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n<p>[googlemaps https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1RZqeNM67W2U3SInTosE0zVKXUFFBJlHG&amp;w=640&amp;h=480]<\/p>\n<p><em>Route of the previous anti-lockdown march in central London on 24 October\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Kate Shemirani<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Similarly to the Icke family&#8217;s male members, Shemirani is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av\/uk-54669239\">discouraging<\/a> people of wearing face masks and social distancing and disseminating fictitious claims about the dangers of vaccination.<\/p>\n<p>There is no scientific evidence supporting any of these claims.<\/p>\n<p>Regular speakers also include &#8216;Nacho&#8217; and Piers Corbyn.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Unite for freedom march on Saturday \ud83c\udf1f join us on our next March starting at Crystal Palace station 31.10.2020 12pm! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/londonprotest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#londonprotest<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/london?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#london<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeDoNotConsent?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WeDoNotConsent<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/pandemic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pandemic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/fakenews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#fakenews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/lockdowns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#lockdowns<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StandUpX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StandUpX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/boris?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#boris<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2kEszFiJyI\">pic.twitter.com\/2kEszFiJyI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StandUpX (@StandUpX2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StandUpX2\/status\/1321144737504657410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There are large intersections between the types of attendees, but they can be classified into three main groups:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anti-scientists and anti-establishment advocates:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A major part of the participants of the Stand Up X anti-lockdown marches are the science deniers. They compare Covid-19 with seasonal flu and believe the virus is nearly not as dangerous as the mainstream media, politicians, health advisors and other professionals depict it.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the voices tend to lose touch with reality, asserting that Bill Gates&#8217; vaccine &#8211; the same one that allegedly already paralysed thousands in India and Africa &#8211; will be rolled out to the wider public. In reality, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was one of the main contributors in the project that helped in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-53887947\">eradication of polio<\/a>\u00a0in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>They believe that 5G is roasting our brains and Covid-19 test have a 7% accuracy. Whereas the NHS home tests kits are to be known for their near 90% precision.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/StandUpX2\/status\/1318658420342480899<\/p>\n<p><strong>The freedom fighters: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They claim that wearing masks, going into lockdowns, living the &#8220;new normal&#8221; way is not acceptable, and governments are depriving us of our basic human rights. Some go as far as claiming the lockdowns are unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Andybartonphoto\/status\/1320062447563264002<\/p>\n<p><strong>The opportunists: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>England went into a full lockdown in March \u2013 alongside many other countries \u2013 and all non-essential stores and businesses were forced to stay shut until the summer. Since then, some of the restrictions were lifted then re-imposed in certain areas. No doubt many feel like their social needs are not being satisfied and taking on the streets with a few thousand other households can feel very tempting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Norbert Tarnoczi | Subbing: Grace Staley<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another anti-lockdown protest is to take place on the 31st of October 12:00pm, kicking off at Crystal palace which Voice of London will report from the scene. It can be an onerous work to keep&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":38284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,93],"tags":[516,1506,1588],"class_list":["post-38281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-anti-lockdown","tag-conspiracy","tag-covid-19"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}