A Determination to be Heard Despite the Risks

A hundred years from now, historians - assuming that by then there are any still free to express their real opinion - will record the 6th of May 2023 as a day of shameful significance in British history. Not because of the costly coronation extravaganza for a flawed unelected king, but for the most sweeping and seemingly indiscriminate crackdown on the freedom to protest and report in almost a hundred years, all cheered on by a queue of historians and political commentators ever eager to heap eulogies on the British monarchy.

As dictators from the Middle East, including the bloodstained tyrant of Bahrain - King Khalifa - arrived in their private jumbo jets, the British military, which also backs these regimes to the hilt, put on an impressive display, to mark the joyous occasion.

King Charles should be fully aware of their crimes as he has met Middle Eastern autocrats over 95 times since the Arab spring in 2011, and is doubtless well briefed, as are obviously the editors of Britain's main newspapers but they preferred not to draw their readers' attention to the murderous record of the monarch's VIP guests.

www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-02-24-charles-of-ara...

Instead they reminded us that there was "a time and place for everything" as hundreds, including many families with their children, wishing to protest were turned away from Trafalgar Square. With an equally self assured righteousness, media commentators dismissed sentimental and quaint concerns raised over freedom of speech, as the lead organiser and supporters of Republic UK as well as activists from Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising were arrested before they had even arrived at the coronation route.

Also caught up in the net was Rich Felgate, an award winning documentary film director, who was able to dramatically document his own arrest while he was filming a Just Stop Oil protester standing on the pavement in Whitehall. A police officer hesitated momentarily as Felgate told him that he was a journalist, but only seconds after a quick enquiry, the order for the man's detention seemed to have been confirmed (see short clip on the attached Twitter link and a separate link to a review of Felgate's film.)

twitter.com/richfelgate/status/1655199737471959041

www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/15/finite-the-climate-o...

Fortunately, a few hundred anti-monarch protesters managed to arrive at Trafalgar Square, some of them presumably because they weren't visibly carrying "Down with the Crown" placards or t-shirts. However, many were not certain where to meet when they saw that the area around the statue of Charles 1 on the south side, which had been designated for the Republican activists, was taken up by a giant wooden citadel-like structure with police officers on the top with video cameras (see my photo www.flickr.com/photos/alisdare/52880437864/in/dateposted-...).

Other protesters had been deterred from attending after it was revealed that the police would be using face-recognition software with at least some of their surveillance cameras. However, those that did turn up were not easily discouraged and soon after the demo started, chants of "Not My King" could be heard from the far side of the square.

Soon afterwards, loud speakers which had been positioned near to the anticipated location that the demonstrators would gather, began to blast out loud martial music to drown out the seditious slogans, while the wooden citadel-like structure erected on the south side of the square seemed to have been designed precisely so as to block all sight of them from both the royal gaze and television screens around the world.

Please let me know what photographs and coverage you have seen of the coronation protests in the mainstream media?

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Taken in: UK / England / London (show map)

Taken on: May 6, 2023

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Camera: Sony ILCE-7RM4, f/3.5, 1/250 sec, 20mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-7RM4
Lens:	E 20-40mm F2.8 A062
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	20mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Contrast:	High
Saturation:	Low
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 6.0 (Windows)
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