The scenes of tens of thousands of people taking to London's streets in an attempt to reclaim freedom and sovereignty of their lives proved the nation's backbone still exists. A nation that once held liberty as a cornerstone of its democracy. Spending the past 12 months so desperately malnourished of living, some will have found a new sense of hope. A more believable exit strategy than the sceptical 'roadmap' in place.
The march came in the wake of Sarah Everard's disappearance and the subsequent uproar over the Police's handling of the case from top to bottom. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill released earlier this month notably threatened a citizen's right to protest and any public nuisance to be met with a potential 10 year jail sentence: an obscenely long term punishment from a bill stating no temporary conditions. On that account, and an ever-growing contempt for current living standards for so many in the country, it was fertile ground for uproar. The people have had enough.
The protest, organised meticulously by rights activists Stand Up X, captured mass coverage across all mainstream news outlets, including broadcasters BBC, Sky News, ITV News and more. Predictably the outcry of "covidiots," and similar slander across social media didn't take long to surface after. I wonder if it occurs to the herd who try so desperately to reign in those with questions that there is no evidence of transmission of the virus outdoors. Additionally, a BMJ peer reviewed study showed asymptomatic transmission of covid-19 as little as 17% of infections. And let's not forget nearly all the elderly and the most vulnerable have been vaccinated in the country: wasn't that once the get out of jail free card?
Such a fear-based, knee-jerk view is saddening but also the prerequisite to get by in the dictatorship we've sleepwalked into. Conversation, discussion and censorship of any thought that doesn't fit the narrative vilified. How much grief, misery and possible deaths could have been saved if we lived in a society that encouraged discussion. A society with its people feeling free from judgment. To be corrected where necessary, to have the humility of being wrong. To be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings during a time which has never been more important to do so.
I heard of the anti-lockdown, pro-freedom protest doing the rounds on social media and went to London last Saturday. I couldn't believe what would unfold.
The journey began in Hyde Park Corner, at roughly 12.30. The BBC's specialist disinformation (thought crime) reporter Marianna Spring could be seen chatting in a buoyant mood. Of course she only used a mask when on live TV reporting the protest.
Slow to get off the ground, a compact group quickly formulated and descended down on Piccadilly, lead brilliantly by organisers. The protest was then at its ugliest with officers making the bulk of the 36 arrests in that location. Confrontations, batons, fists: bar the dramatic use of flares, the protest was peaceful in nature. Those who dodged the fascistic Police unit soldiered on. Luck appeared to be on the side of the people.
"Keep going, there's more of us around the corner!" Came a cry at the front. As we rounded the corner we joined another group of protesters. A triumphant roar. The group grew larger and was now in a flow state down Chancery Lane, heading onto Oxford Street and then Westminster.
The course of the next three and a half hours & 20km covered across city was filled with laughs, joy, conversations and a sense the world was being put to right. I saw common, decent folk at their wits end of consistent lies, manipulation, isolation, fractured relations and of their lives at the mercy of a war with a no longer believable end date. I did not see people here for their own gain, their own cause. This was unison. Rightfully concerned parents with their children's tattered futures front of mind. Indeed, bus drivers, lorry drivers, car drivers all beamed from their seats and traded horn-beeping solidarity for friendly smiles and flower offerings.
This was a collection of people who could stand no more coercion, perpetual fear-based propaganda and a life based on mere existence. There is nothing selfish about standing up to the authoritarian measures used to tackle a virus with a 0.03% chance of fatality; identified by a test with fraudulent inaccuracy to bump up the death toll exaggerated by a once-60 day to 28 day any cause of death parameter. Ask yourself, what is the justification to cast a net so wide, to include any cause of death. Why would that system be used for a pandemic. And even with any cause of death, the average age of a covid 19 death is 82. If it wasn't for the mandatory masks, the inflated statistics & fear-based media coverage, would you be aware of a pandemic going on?
A typical response follows the path of "so I should trust what you say over Doctors, frontline workers, those qualified to speak?" I suggest many Doctors and those working in the field are not prepared to bite the hand that feeds them. Or more likely the option to bite is forbidden.
The truth is still the truth even if no one believes it. A lie is still a lie even if everyone believes it
A misconception that a 'covid-denier' is someone who denies the existence of SARS-CoV-2, that a day like Saturday was rife with self-seeking people who shared those views and couldn't care for anyone but themselves. Quite the opposite. A covid-denier is someone who is prepared to fight for what they stand for; to fight for others; accept the inescapable risk that is a part of life and uphold living over existing. Freedom over fear.