Thousands of People “Unite for Freedom” in London

2 min read

Thousands of people gathered in London today in opposition to lockdown and to the idea of vaccine passports. Banners held by those in the “Unite for Freedom” protest read “no new normal”, “no health passport” and much more. Footage from the march gives an idea of the sheer number of people who attended.

https://twitter.com/BreesAnna/status/1385945981838143491

The Mail has more.

TV presenter Beverly Turner has joined thousands of activists marching through central London in a “Unite for Freedom” protest to demand a ban on vaccine passports.

Demonstrators, also including London Mayor candidates Piers Corbyn and Laurence Fox, made their way through the capital earlier today as they waved banners and placards daubed with a range of slogans including “no new normal” and “no health passport”.

The crowds did not appear to be adhering to social distancing guidelines and were not wearing face masks.

The protest comes amid discussions over “Covid-status certificates” being considered by ministers… despite concerns from Boris Johnson’s own MPs that they will be “intrusive, costly and unnecessary”. 

Earlier this month, Britain’s equalities watchdog warned the Government that vaccine passports could be unlawful, create a “two-tier society” and discriminate against migrants, ethnic minorities and the poor.

The supporters of the movement are protesting against new Covid measures including what they call “coerced vaccinations”…

The Metropolitan Police took to Twitter earlier in the day with a series of posts that read: “We have a policing operation in central London today as a result of a number of demonstrations. 

“Anyone coming into London for a protest must make sure their gathering is lawful, with a risk assessment carried out by the organiser…

“Officers are on site and are engaging with those taking part.”

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Hector Drummond has questioned the lack of media coverage of the protest in London, accusing the BBC of “blatant politicisation”.

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1385967281323352064

Comments

This week across the site:

Email me alerts for this discussion
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

113 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
swedenborg
swedenborg
5 years ago

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/business/covid-vaccines-second-doses.html

US.8% of those receiving Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not come back for the second dose.

JYC
JYC
5 years ago

Please come up to Scotland!

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago

Predictably the State Broadcaster continues to ignore yesterday’s protest. Equally predictably Climate change is starting to become a regular. I presume we can expect the same level of equanimity between scientific viewpoints as we’ve had received Covid. I’m waiting for an edict from OFCOM.

HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
5 years ago

We don’t need the MSM. They’re not fit for purpose anymore. In fact they only serve one purpose, the narrative of the controlling elites, and they are crapping themselves should this story get out to all the compliant, still asleep! Their sour little news drops they’ve let filter through, trying to undermine the protest says it all.The people are the news now. If 750,000 people can mobilise themselves into London to demonstrate against everything that is evil and tyrannical, in a way that the police and the MSM cannot influence, they can control their own narrative. This will be shared far and wide. The truth will out. The next rally is going to be even bigger!

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago

Who paid for the wallpaper in the number 11 flat is deemed by the State Broadcaster to be more important than thousands marching in London.

marebobowl
marebobowl
5 years ago

It is not blatant politisation, it is blatant censorship. The question is who authorised it?

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago
Reply to  marebobowl

Censorship is the default setting. Authorisation only required to publish/report anything non party line.

Milo
Milo
5 years ago

If this has been XR or BLM MSM would have been all over it

James Kreis
James Kreis
5 years ago

The best video footage of the demonstration is to be found on Sputnik – nearly 4 hours of coverage. Exhilarating to relive.

‘Unite for Freedom’ Protests Against COVID Restrictions Held in London – Sputnik International (sputniknews.com)

BTLnewbie
BTLnewbie
5 years ago

First ever protest for Mrs BTL and me.
So affirming; we are proud that a crowd of 50,000 plus in this country can make their point in such an unthreatening manner. This must have been helped by the virtual absence of police to ramp up the tension.
So powerful to know that we are not alone.

stevie
stevie
5 years ago
Reply to  BTLnewbie

When you read online newspaper reports you see how the same text is in different newspapers. No reporting just copy and paste.

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
5 years ago

It can’t be very nice working for an organisation, such as the BBC, ITV and Sky, where you are expected to lie and deceive on a daily basis. It can’t be good for the soul and your mental health. I could not do it.

Yesterday’s non-reporting of events in London will surely make even more people aware of the bias and corruption within the mainstream media.

Milo
Milo
5 years ago

Yes I wonder how they look at themselves in the mirror of a morning. But even worse how do they do the mental gymnastics of having to spout the stuff they do while they must KNOW it is at best biased and at worst untrue.

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
5 years ago

And still the BBC, ITV and Sky ignore yesterday’s massive protest in London… You can only ignore it for so long you know, and it only confirms people’s opinion of you

JayBee
JayBee
5 years ago

My wife and I were there.
We walked 4 miles or 6.5km from HPC to TCR, started at HPC at around 1.15pm.
We could never see where the front was, nor the end anyway.
6500 meters length x 10 meters width suggests 65.000 people at least if TCR to HPC was packed completely at one time, which it must have been, and that is much lowballed, so hundred(s) thousand(s) is not a stretch, tens of thousands a certainty.
The Express story starts out fairly, although they couldn’t help to use thousands in the headline and tens of below.

It was an amazing, joyful, peaceful, friendly, tolerant atmosphere and a the crowd was totally representative of the country without the thugs.
I even saw a person in the 90s who could barely walk and several wheelchaired ones as well.
There was absolutely no need for the police to get involved, and as long as we were there, they weren’t and just stood by (the DT obviously just fishes out a separate incidence afterwards elsewhere and choses to report on that one only).

Yes, people who stood by were addressed by some to ditch their masks, but this was in no way… Read more »

enlighteneduk
enlighteneduk
5 years ago

The BBC are a disgrace. They are wilfully ignoring a large sector of those paying the license fee, in their absolute bias towards the narrative. Doubtless they would try to report it as people not adhering to social distancing and masks and therefore likely starting a third wave. Funny that all the protests last year, including even the BLM ones, never caused a spike in infections! I am certainly not paying my license fee ever again.

mojo
mojo
5 years ago

Everyone knows the broadcast media (RT excepted) are corrupt and will not relay the truth let alone what’s right infront of them. That is why most people who actually think for themselves (majority of people) choose to go to the new media to keep informed. The coverage yesterday was just amazing by UNN, Truthfinder, Ruptly etc. Not to mention all the individual streamers. A great pity that they were being attacked and interferred with by Silicon Valley and their paymasters.

The brainwashed (academia, students etc) will stay with the brainwasher.

mj
mj
5 years ago

noticing all the comments about lack of BBC coverage.
sunday morning just checked . Still nothing
BUT . prominent on the main news page
“A man has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of assault after allegedly infecting 22 people with Covid.”

Sceptical Steve
Sceptical Steve
5 years ago

Damn all about the protest march in this morning’s online Sunday Times. Instead it offers us alarming news of the “crushing second wave” in India. They are quite shameless in harvesting the commercial rewards that come with promoting the fear narrative.

Markus Skepticus
Markus Skepticus
5 years ago

I was on the march in Glasgow yesterday.

By comparison, it was absolutely tiny. Scotland has no back bone to stand up against totalitarianism, it would seem. In 2019 I attended an Independence March in the city, as an observer with a camera, and there were 10s of thousands at it.

Part of the issue with yesterday’s march in Glasgow was how hard it was to find info on it. It truly felt like an underground movement.

Anyway, it seemed like the march was starting at various points around the city. I met up with it on the south side of Glasgow in Queens Park. The only hint that something might be happening in the park was the relatively large numbers of police officers.

I asked one of them why there was such a heavy police presence and was told it was because there’s apparently going to be a demonstration.

The Telegraph app alerted me that we were to gather at the tennis courts. Standing on the periphery, it was interesting to watch lots of small groups of people who’d been sitting chilling on the grass suddenly get up and start heading towards the tennis courts. The police,… Read more »

Epi
Epi
5 years ago

Thanks for this. A Postcard from Glasgow – Toby?

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago

Nothing on the BBC?! Well blow me down – maybe I should give them up entirely!

Brett_McS
Brett_McS
5 years ago

Well done! From your mates down under:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-5F2twDSgk

Violet
Violet
5 years ago

I was there and we were probably in the middle of at least a 5km queue. More like 10km. People were 1m away from the person in front and there were 20-30 people across, so roughly that makes at least 100k people – at minimum. One photo from a helicopter would tell us, but that will never be available, given the news blockout. Anyway I felt at home amongst a middle aged, calm and concerned crowd. A very pleasant day!

Brett_McS
Brett_McS
5 years ago
Reply to  Violet

Perhaps drones should have been organised.

Just Stop it Now
Just Stop it Now
5 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

No idea, but I am guessing that there are all sorts of restrictions on flying drones over central London

kate
kate
5 years ago

There was a drone over us at one point, probably a police drone as you cannot fly drones in London.

Brian the dawg
Brian the dawg
5 years ago
Reply to  Violet

There is some drone footage from the march going around on Telegram, looking west along Oxford Street

Brian the dawg
Brian the dawg
5 years ago
Reply to  Violet
DThom
DThom
5 years ago

Sad to see all the idiots on twitter having a pop at the marchers, one even accused them of having a ‘low IQ’! It seems to me that they themselves are the ones with a low IQ. Just do what TPTB tell them – no brains and certainly no common sense.

Peter W
Peter W
5 years ago
Reply to  DThom

It’s easy for them to slander people by suggesting they/we have a low IQ.
Personally mine is in the top 4% of the population. So if I’m stupid by their standards then so are most of the country, probably including themselves!

I am Spartacas
I am Spartacas
5 years ago

I was there – cycled forty-five miles to get there but I was determined to be a part of this protest after missing the last one – it was a huge gathering regardless of what the msm tell you. Didn’t meet anyone famous but had a chat here and there with fellow protestors – seeing all those smiling happy faces was worth it – met some fellow cyclists also protesting – good atmosphere and no trouble at all – I hate to say it but the police were ok too (well, from what I saw of the protest where I was anyway) – looking forward to the next one.

This is growing now – we must keep the momentum going – this government must be defeated on this issue.

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
― Thomas Jefferson

Ruby Brunel
Ruby Brunel
5 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

It was brilliant – fantastic atmosphere. I couldn’t believe the numbers. Oxford street was a river of people.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

Was it the onset of good weather that finally got the numbers up ?

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Was only asking, it bodes well for a lively Summer if the weather stays fine.

Jess
Jess
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Of course sunshine had something to do with it! Nothing wrong with that either.

Epi
Epi
5 years ago
Reply to  Jess

Absolutely Vitamin D in spades!!!

smithey
smithey
5 years ago

It’s worth noting that today’s march was a peaceful affair. No private property got smashed up as happens everyone there is a BLM or climate change march.

fon
fon
5 years ago

good work wished I could be there.

helenf
helenf
5 years ago
Reply to  fon

Why? You are pro lockdown and pro vaccine.

john ball
john ball
5 years ago

Was brought up in Wembley Park close to and been to many matches at stadium so have a good idea on size of crowds. On 20 March wellover 100,000 and today much larger, Oxford Street and extensions Holborn etc. full from Marble Arch to Old Bailey, so between half a million and a million. Myself and my wife over 70 but felt we should do more than just write letters, and give some money. So uplifting the number of people opposing totalitarianism

Jess
Jess
5 years ago

Just submitted my pennyworth to BBC Complaints . . .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/

There has apparently been a large demonstration in Central London today, Sat 24 April 2021, demanding the return of many basic human rights, taken from us all this last year with parliamentarily undebated edicts. I have seen and listened to BBC news reports and if the BBC was my only source of information, the event DID NOT HAPPEN. Throughout the Pandemic the BBC appears to have been the voice solely of what effectively became last year a totalitarian regime. It has offered no opportunity to hear opposing views to those of No.10 and its small cadre of ‘advisers’. To ignore a large demonstration about issues that effect EVERYONE OF US in the heart of the country’s capital is inexcusable.

AnnabelleG
AnnabelleG
5 years ago
Reply to  Jess

I too have submitted a complain but I have accepted they are a disgrace to journalism. I have not watched the BBC for a couple of years. They should be defunded..

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  AnnabelleG

Defunding the BBC (in its current format) is fortunately not for the government to decide but for each and every household.
I made my decision to defund the BBC 15 years ago, about the same time I defunded British Telecom though for different reasons.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  AnnabelleG

No solution. Baby and bathwater issue. The BBC is not just its news and current affairs output. And its not just the BBC involved in outright propaganda.

The problem stems from too much (and increased) political control, with the current DG a Tory Party funder.

Without the BBC, we would lose much of the possibility of variety and an alternative to commercially-driven pap in broadcasting.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

From London, Saturday.
Courtesy Daily Mirror.

20210424_235601.jpg
MikeAustin
MikeAustin
5 years ago
Reply to  Jess

Me too. I was there. Here’s what I wrote:

Today, in London, there was a huge march of 100,000s of protesters. They were all protesting about anti-covid measures, lockdowns, masks, coerced vaccinations and vaccination passports. The government is gradually taking away freedoms and they were reacting against this in a most peaceful and ordered manner.

The BBC showed NOTHING WHATSOEVER of this! It is an UTTER DISGRACE! The BBC is in the pocket of the government and no longer challenges official narratives. It has become ‘state media’.

Don’t think that the general public are not noticing this. The political bias at the BBC is beginning to dawn on people. The BBC will get its comeuppance in due course.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  MikeAustin

It was reported that the BBC took down its complaints page about their blanket coverage of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh when it reached 10,000 but that the eventual total was 100k.
Where is such information found since it would be good to know how many complaints like yours they received ?

Jess
Jess
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I suspect that’s very internal BBC info unless there’s a leak.
Non-coverage of the protest won’t upset as many as the near blanket suspension of TV and radio schedules to bring us non-stop coverage of how a royal corpse is getting along though.
What I’ve seen and heard has been largely the same on commercial TV and radio as well, it has to be said. Result is most won’t know there ever was a protest.

Attaboy
Attaboy
5 years ago

BBC rotten to the core

Attaboy
Attaboy
5 years ago

Thousands? only? while it is great to see so many people all united, for this madness to end, we need more support… where is everybody?

Fiona Walker
Fiona Walker
5 years ago
Reply to  Attaboy

Loads of people wanted to be there but couldn’t. No hotels, trains off or strangely suddenly too expensive etc.

iane
iane
5 years ago

I happened a little while ago on a short bit on the BBC News channel. The thrust was that it is all conspiracy theorists, covid-is-a-hoax people, etc!

TORs
TORs
5 years ago
Reply to  iane

The BBC’s Marianna Spring, “award-winning specialist reporter covering disinformation and social media”, had this to say on Twitter:

Anti-lockdown protesters – predominantly organised in Telegram channels promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and pandemic are marching in Central London. There are placards claiming covid is a hoax, “the experimental vaccine kills” and the QAnon “Save Our Children”.

https://twitter.com/mariannaspring/status/1385925560631705600
By now we are in alternate universes.

bb.png
eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago
Reply to  TORs

Hard to believe that Marianna is a real,or single person. Sounds like a nom delivery plume for a 77 cadre.

Fiona Walker
Fiona Walker
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

Philomena Cunk!

fon
fon
5 years ago
Reply to  iane

there are gangs of vile anti-vaxxers there.

James Leary #KBF
James Leary #KBF
5 years ago

I’ve been on all the Covid marches apart from last month when I was having a part replaced. This was several orders of magnitude bigger. And the policing was different. No presence in or beside the March, A few at the end of a couple of side streets but along the 10 mile route hardly a cop. Less than on a no March day. There were a lot of police as the crowd formed up at Hyde Park Corner, including TSG vans, but when the crowd rapidly grew past a certain point they all melted away. The helicopter pictures to Gold Commander obviously triggered the “it’s too big – don’t interfere” switch. No need. Much jollier and less dangerous than Notting Hill.

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
5 years ago

Gold Commander for this would have been Bozo.

Way too duckin risky.

smithey
smithey
5 years ago

Worth also noting that nothing got smashed up as happens every time there is a BLM or climate change March

James Leary #KBF
James Leary #KBF
5 years ago
Reply to  smithey

Oh, indeed. Until the lefties got out of bed this evening.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

Notice the ‘soft uniforms’ worn by Police in Anna Brees’ Twitter video.

Thank you for reading. Please help us keep the Daily Sceptic going by becoming a donor.