Guest Post: November 30 Uncivil Shites march – There is no absolute right to protest

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GUEST POST

This post has been written by regular contributor Brian John Spencer



Let’s get this very straight. There is no absolute and unabridged right to protest. People like Simon Hamilton who say there is an "absolute right", are very wrong. Yes the land is planted thick with laws which protect our liberty. However, protections also exist that limit liberty, in the event and only in the event, that a person's use of freedom infringes the liberty of other persons.

In a Northern Ireland rapidly advancing in civilization, the whole history of the flags protests has been one of anti-civilisation; of gratuitous and promiscuous violence and vandalism. Of the anti-civilisationists acting to deprive and limit the rights of those who wish to live in civilization with liberty, peace, safety and prosperity. Protest and march after march, loyalists have shown themselves pathologically incapable of marching peaceably or in a manner that is open, decent or even remotely family-friendly.

As Visit Belfast found out from some very unfortunate tourists, it's been the consummate jungle and booze filled circus. (And let's come back to that matter in a later day, that the 12th has degenerated into a festival of piss (preface here).)

And on this matter the precedent has been set: loyalist protesters exercise their liberty at the expense of society's liberty. This cannot stand. We cannot tolerate this. Their violent experiment has been tried and they will continue it upon us at the expense of our liberty. 

On these grounds, I can present the argument that these marches should be heavily restricted in way that is in accordance with the law, and in a way that is neither an indiscriminate or disproportionate restriction on a person’s right to protest. 

Here's the European law:
Article 11 – Freedom of assembly and association 
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. 
2. No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the State. 
By virtue of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights you possess the liberty to protest by holding meetings and demonstrations with other people.

By virtue of Article 11 you possess the responsibility to act peacefully and without violence or threat of violence.

On the balance of rights and responsibilities, the right to protest may be restricted provided such interference has a proper legal basis, is necessary in a democratic society and pursues one of the following recognized and legitimate aims:
– National security
– Public safety
– The prevention of disorder or crime
– The protection of health or morals
– The protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Any interference in the Article 11 right must not only be justifiable, but necessary. 

Here's domestic law:

There are a number of legislative provisions which allow the restriction or prosecution of public protest. Provisions such as offences under the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland)Order 1997, the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-social Behaviour Act2003. 

In the event of breaching the terms of any parade set by the Parades Commission, this is a crime under the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998.

In the event that a person incites another person to disobey a Parades Commission ruling, that person can be charged with inciting a breach of a ruling as a specific offence under the Public Order Act.

The argument:

Now, I submit myself to my honest and honorable readers: Do loyalists march peacefully, without violence or threat of violence? Do they compromise our national security? Do they compromise public safety? Do they promote disorder and crime? Do they pervert the freedoms of others? Do they unleash fear and uncertainty writ large across the whole of Belfast?



I take leave to submit that Loyalists have consistently violated every single one of these elementary duties they owe towards their fellow citizen. Newton Emerson agreed. He said in the Sunday Times here that "Flag protesters have rode roughshod over all these concerns and it is irresponsible to indulge any notion of their “right” to do so."

By that fact, the simple case should be made that this coming march should be heavily restricted if not banned.

By the Loyalist precedent for violence, I suggest that there is an imminent likelihood that Saturday's peace and prosperity will be breached. On the balance of liberties, I submit that Loyalist protesters will hold sway over the city and hold much of civic society hostage by their delinquency.

Because of our indulgence of them, Loyalism has constructed a hideous mentality of Loyalist exceptionalism. That they can act with impunity and that they’re immune from the laws we must subscribe to. Call them out and you get more rioting. Call them out and you get accused of police brutality. This is a hideous distortion.

They have also constructed some disgusting grievance culture. That they have it hard in a way unlike any one else. Catholics and nationalists have it hard. Moderate loyalists and unionists have it hard. These are challenging times for us all. You would think that beyond the walls of loyalism lies a utopia. This is babyish babble.

Now ladies and gentlemen, what are we to do? I suggest we take a stand and offer a modicum of civic opposition. Loyalism wields arbitrary power over a civil majority in Northern Ireland. They make grand, abstract claims. No power can exist unchecked. Grand claims cannot go out unopposed.

They can have their protest this week. But I suggest something changes. Friends, I beseech you. They will repeat their foul experiment upon us. As long as we let them. Stop appeasing this horrendous nonsense. It's time to stand up and oppose these squalid little bigots who masquerade themselves as civil rights protesters and call them out for what they are: uncivil shites. Use the law as it exists. Lodge complaints. Campaign against this shower of loyalist incontinence.
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Guest post: An Anus Horeebliss

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GUEST POST

This post was originally published here and used with kind permission


December 3rd 2013 signals the first anniversary of the restrictions placed on the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall, a decision so incredibly benign that the overblown reaction to it could only spring from a place as barking mad as Northern Ireland.

Anti-Alliance leaflets distributed by UUP/DUP - the spark that lit the flame?

It was all the fault of the Alliance Party - apparently
In the time since that day, it is hard to imagine ‘Ulster’ loyalism damaging itself any more than it already has. Over the course of 12 months, a community already bereft of leadership and direction has been reduced to the role of noisy toddler; red-faced, incomprehensibly angry and completely unrepentant. A tantrum of epic proportions, played out all year, has served to leave loyalists, once again, on the outside looking in. Winter in that caravan will be cold. Very cold.

Unable to articulate an argument about why the ‘fleg’ restrictions were so heinous, loyalists simply ignored all the obvious points in their column. That Sinn Féin had been defeated in its mission to remove this symbol of British influence on the island was irrelevant apparently. So too was the fact that Belfast was now on a par with cities as solidly British as Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. Even Buckingham Palace manages to survive without the flag rippling from its roof every day, a fact conveniently ignored by those throwing their toys from the pram.

No, instead rank and file loyalists went off half-cocked, as they often do. Fuelled by misinformation and manipulated by nefarious elements within their own communities, they placed faith not in reason, nor mastery of the facts, but in gut instinct and predictable levels of fevered paranoia. 

In the eyes of many, these new flag provisions represented a further step forward, not to Irish unification - something most loyalists never tire of dismissing - but towards the shared future most of us truly desire.

It is a future which those hurling rocks at the police certainly do not wish to be part of.

Castlereagh Road, Belfast
It didn’t matter that Sinn Féin’s true goal had been thwarted. They still scored political points from the subsequent loyalist meltdown, brought on by the horrifying suspicion that the taigs had got one over on them. To see any restriction on this totem of dominance in the country’s largest city was simply too much to bear.

By July, loyalism’s perpetual cycle of protesting and not surrendering was slowing, as it always does. In refusing the Orange Order (along with its paramilitary bands and swaggering followers) permission to return to Ligoniel via the Crumlin Road and the lower Ardoyne, the Parades Commission gave Loyalism 2013 a new self-pitying drum to beat.

The resulting mob violence (‘peaceful protesting’ if one wishes to be euphemistic) and predictably petulant reaction to a situation which was, at its very core, a compromise, couldn’t have have dealt more of a blow to the loyalist cause. Loyalism frequently gives off about the republican advantage in the image war and while Sinn Féin does possess skill in this regard, it is aided in no small part by its opponents being so monumentally bad at the game.

July 12th, Belfast "peaceful" protest
The farce of the Twaddell ‘civil rights’ camp is too silly to fully address but needless to say it has failed to strike a chord with anyone beyond the usual narrow collection of sympathisers. As to the cornucopia of wider, mostly imagined, loyalist political grievances the silence from the broader unionist community has been deafening. Support from those across the Irish sea - government, monarch, the man in the street - has been just as conspicuous by its absence.

Twaddell "Civil Rights" Camp
On a more human level, yet another generation of disaffected working-class Protestant youths now exists. Unemployable thanks to criminal records earned in the heat of yet another nothing-else-to-do ‘peaceful protest’, they believe more than ever that the whole system is rigged against them and in favour of the other side. It is these people who will swell the ranks of the paramilitaries orchestrating the disorder.

A cynic might suggest that this was the point all along…

Unionism does possess reasonable voices but as a whole they have been outflanked and suffocated by the ravenous extremism of those who have gained prominence since December 2012. In this vacuum, a veritable circus now holds court, if not sway. Willie Frazer has always been a pathetic figure more than anything else, a cartoon character never fully in step with the joke. He has, nevertheless, gained a second wind during the period in question, though the none of us, Willie included, have any idea of his endgame.

Wee Willie Frazer - he's not well you know
Fellow traveller Jamie Bryson - Ulster’s very own Walter Mitty - possesses far more sinister motivations, summed up best by Brian Spencer. Given Bryson’s almost comical regard for the UVF (a designated terrorist group in the UK) one shudders to think of his ideal alternative to the institutions he wishes, naively, to do away with. Those in the relative mainstream of local politics continue to cede ground to Northern Ireland’s idiot fringe and Spencer’s assertion that feeding the fanatics is far from conducive to progress is a sound one.

Jamie Bryson - The 'saviour' of Ulster?
For all the noise emanating from the Bryson end of the loyalist maw, it remains to be seen just how influential, or wide-reaching, this kind of rhetoric really is. While the established sectarianism of our electoral process is maddening on the one hand, it also equates to a shrunken voting base for each side of the toxic divide. The unionist electorate has rejected the various iterations of far-right loyalism before, tacking closer to the middle than anything else. To most in the unionist-Protestant community self-promoting whingers like Frazer, Bryson et al are an embarrassment, plain and simple, and people to whom they will be ever unresponsive.

In all honesty, it is not the wider unionist community with which loyalism need be concerned. A fissure has always existed between the two sections of the broadly Protestant populace and there is little common ground to excite either. As is clear to anyone willing to see it, moderate, middle-class unionism continues to prosper as much as it can in the current economic climate. If anything, it is the corrosive, flailing influence of madcap extremism that unionism must be wary of going forward. That said, when has this ever not been the case?

Bad puns aside, it is up to the loyalist community to arrest their slide into irrelevance if they are not at that point already. There may well come a time when they no longer count and when nobody else cares.

While usurping her law and order, and the democratic processes she has always promoted, grassroots loyalists remain blindly devoted to the Queen - or at least some sepia-tinged version of her. It is perhaps apt then to describe the past year as an ‘annus horribilis' for loyalism. Discounting the chaos that engulfed Northern Ireland for 30 years, it is difficult to see how things could have been worse.

(Originally published here and used with kind permission)
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Remember, remember the 3rd of December

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Christmas in Belfast 2012 will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.



Roads were blocked, businesses destroyed, lives ruined and  family life disrupted due to the 'peaceful protests' resulting from the democratic decision to fly the Union Flag on Belfast City Hall on designated days only; a policy in keeping with UK government recommendations and followed by all other major cities in the UK.

The wording of the proposal was:

Flying of the Union Flag at the Belfast City Hall
That the decision of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee of 23rdNovember under the heading “Flying of the Union Flag at the Belfast City Hall” be amended to provide that this Council should adopt the practice of flying the Union Flag on designated days, as applied at Parliament Buildings. This reflects the agreed sovereignty of Northern Ireland confirmed in the Good Friday Agreement and accepted by all its signatories.  By doing it regularly and with dignity, we recognise that we live in a society and City made up of people who are British, Irish and both.  The designated days’ solution does justice to these principles; the agreement by all on British sovereignty; the fact of a shared society; and the need for respect and avoiding all triumphalism and the arrangements currently operating at Stormont.It also reflects the preferred determination of the Equality Commission.
(emphasis: LAD)

The vote was democratically carried by a majority of 29 to 21.

It would appear that some cunts can't read.

Meet Ian McCrory



McCrory is a leader of a shadowy group called Ulster Protestant Voice (UPV) who called loyalists unto the streets to protest last December. A family member Sam is the chairman of the Protestant Coalition.


This week he put online his justification for protests:

"Why loyalists decided to protest

In December 3rd 2012 a vote was taken at a council meeting in a capital city this vote was in reference to the flag policy which has stood unbroken for over 100 years.

The policy was challenged four years previous by Sinn Fein but failed because they wouldn't accept an alliance proposal to support designated days, Sinn Fein and republicanism wanted the flag removed permanently. 

Fast forward four years and the matter was again raised, republican councillors cited equality and shared space as reasons for its proposed removal despite the fact the equality commission only found 7 registered complaints in the previous 10 years in regards to city halls symbols which included the union flag. This time around Sinn Fein backed by the SDLP once again tried to have the union flag removed permanently but quickly realised that without the support of the alliance party their proposal was again doomed to fail.

So nationalist councillors took the decision to accept the amendment by the party with the swinging vote (Alliance) which opted for designated flag days. This proposal was brought before the equality commission who decided to ignore the signed petitions of over 40,000 Belfast citizens and it was decided the matter would be put before council for voting. 

December 3rd 2012 seen thousands of Protestants gather at Belfast's city hall in protest at the impending vote to remove the union flag from the capital city of Northern Ireland Belfast's city hall. As thousands gathered speeches were read and messages relayed from inside the council chamber as to what was going on. The mood was defiant yet completely peaceful even after the vote had been taken, up until a Sinn Fein councillor uttered the words "This must be seen as a victory for republicanism and it's just another step in our ultimate aims of removing all symbols relating to Britishness from this chamber and this city".

(This is total and utter bollocks: here is the video from the entire Council meeting. We have watched the entire meeting and at no point is the line "This must be seen as a victory for republicanism and it's just another step in our ultimate aims of removing all symbols relating to Britishness from this chamber and this city" used.)


"After that the protest quickly turned violent and sparked street protests that spanned the length of our country and further afield. 

Since 1906 the union flag has flown from Belfast city hall, through all the bombing shooting and trauma of the troubles, that little symbol of Britishness reminded people that despite the bloodshed the pain the horrors of war, our nationality remained unbroken and untouched by terrorists fingers. The protests soon made world news with media outlets focussing on the trouble that accompanied a small number of street protests, none mentioned that these scenes of trouble flared at interfaces with nationalist who celebrated, goaded and taunted people that they "had won" 

None focused on the overzealous way the security forces treated the peaceful protests often disregarding their own rules to conduct a "political operation at all costs" Men Women and kids beaten, photographed and later arrested for attending protests that had never seen any public disorder. People kept on remand in jail for crimes including "waving a flag provocatively" and "obstructively sitting". It is the view held by many that the police service acted with a blank canvass to do what they could to quell the protests. 

Violence cannot be justified nor condoned but the right of peaceful protest and lawful assembly is the basic fabric of a democratic society, yet in Northern Ireland 2012/13 this right was denied. With the threat of injury or arrest numbers dropped protests ceased to be a countrywide occurrence yet pockets remain defiant. The protests transformed from road blocks to white line to cultural marches in an attempt to counteract the robust way the police treated the protests. 

Despite the fact protests, be they white line or cultural marches, were totally peaceful the police remained determined to demonise, demoralise and criminalise anyone who partook in open objection to the removal of the national flag. Working alongside the police operation to dispel the protests were the mainstream media who printed story after story detailing the few violent events on a near daily occurrence they printed or published images of innocent protesters wanted by police, the term "flegger" soon emerged to humiliate protesters. They run stories of business's who lost trade who had to close or lay off staff as a result of protests, city center traders soon called for rate relief from council because get were adversely affected. Despite the fact only one instance of public order was recorded in or around the city center connected to protests (the night of December 3rd). Business's who were situated far from any protest point were calling for council rate relief again blaming protesters and again media used this as a means to demonise protesters. 

Despite all of this the protest has continued albeit on a smaller scale every week at Belfast city hall, politicians, police and media outlets all claim we are wasting our time and that protests will not get our flag back up, The protesters know this they know that the only way to overturn that decision is by a re-vote by council and for that, unionists need to regain the majority in Belfast city council. That is why these protests have remained a weekly occurrence for now on approaching a year. The protesters have engaged in a campaign to raise awareness around the voting apathy within our communities we've actively sought to convince unionists to register to vote and to use that vote This has proved somewhat successful given the fact that the electoral commission released figures showing a rise in registration returns from the unionist community against the fall in nationalists communities.

The protest at city hall remain's as a reminder to people what can happen when you waste your vote. And through actively encouraging people to vote we believe we can achieve a satisfactory end to the protests which will see the flag be reinstated to our capital city hall. In December 2012 republicans proposed removal as part of their political objective, the alliance party amended it as part of their objective to create a better more inclusive society, in short both have brought about the total opposite. Community Relations in Belfast in 2013 are at depleted levels not seen since the peace process began. Cross community activities have suffered. Sectarian attacks have increased. Interface peace walls are being added to. The process be it republicans political aims or the alliance party's equality aims have failed and failed miserably for all the citizens of Belfast".

Tonight we asked a member of the PUP why they are supporting the protest.

So since the PUP don't know what they are supporting, lets see what one of the organisers has to say:


Perhaps we should refer back to a comment McCrory himself posted on Facebook back in February for the real reason for the protest:

 


This year Ian and his cohorts in Loyalist Peaceful Protesters (LPP) are at it again. 

Ian - fuck away off. 

Belfast doesn't want your protests.

#BelfastSaysNO


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'Up Yours!' Society

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L.A.D. are delighted that the anti-democratic, anti-loyalist civil rights Parades Commission are considering an application for a civil rights march through the centre of Belfast during prime shappin time on Saturday 21st September.  We firmly believe that stopping non-loyalists shappin will bring about the return of are civil rights that was stripped of us along with are fleg.

Loyal Peoples Protests - who?


We aren't able to tell youse what civil rights was stripped but they're important because a peace civil rights camp is required.  L.A.D. keeps asking people like Jamie Bryson and Billy Hutchinson and the Orange Order and Ruth Patterson and other people who claim to present loyal Pradisans but none of them can tell us which rights are taken except are fleg.
Nigel Dodds MP & George Chittick, Orange Man from 1953
Votes DOES NOT WORK! but we will probably be voting for the DUP and maybe Jim Allister (because he came to Twoddle Peace Civil Rights Loyalist camp and brought KFC and that) when it comes to the next election time anyway.  The politicians and non-elected shit stirrers keep telling us themmuns always get what they want with acting da bollix so they do and Peter Robertson has proved with his leaflet about the Alliance stealing are fleg in a way and we have to get Alliance out.
Alliance party - bastarbs
Loyalist Peaceful Protesters (LLP) are committed to peaceful rebranding of loyalist parades 110%!  All 20 bands will play a selection of covers tunes including weans TV classics like In the Night Garden and Teletubbies, 80s game show tunes like the Generation Game, along with more unusual hymns.  This will be an all-inclusive event but you will need to bring your own Buckfast.

We hear about this shared space thing all the time and if the gay and lesbeens and the anti-terrment publicans and that fucking Irish Paddy day thing can go in the city centre, so can we.  Are civil right is as important as everyone else's civil right to march wherever we like. Even if we don't know whose organising it. L.A.D. are the most loyal of loyalists and we have never heard of the group who have applied for this parade. We asked the PUP and they could not confirm the individuals behind 'Loyal Peoples Protests' - the group who submitted the application to the Parades Commission.

Loyal Peoples Protests - who the fuck are you?
L.A.D. has been told that LLP are confident that a Saturday afternoon march will cause maximum disruption and affect not only non-loyalist shoppers, but all traders too.  LLP believe that wrecking are economy will bring about an equal society for all, specially for loyal Pradisan so they do.

Remember you can keep donating to are appeal for the Civil Rights Camp at Twaddell. The phone number is at the end of this video.

No surrender.



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