Both police officers and protestors were injured during an anti-lockdown protest at Trafalgar Square today following the announcement of new Covid-19 related restrictions.
Police wore riot helmets and used batons to disperse a crowd who chanted "pick your side," claiming the new restrictions are an intrusion on their liberty.
The Metropolitan Police released a statement saying those who attended the protest could face criminal penalties because they "have not complied with the conditions of their risk assessment and are putting people in danger of transmitting the virus".
"This has voided their risk assessment and we have informed the event organisers they are no longer exempt from the regulations.
"We are now asking those in Trafalgar Square to leave. Officers will be engaging with crowds and informing them of this development."
There were some very notable placards on show at the protest, with some alluding to George Orwell's 1984, a book they have almost certainly not read.
Below, you can see a variety of some of the signs being held aloft. One of my personal favourites is "fear is more contagious than Covid." Behave.
But the one just to the left, which reads: 'When tyranny becomes law, resistance becomes duty' while appropriating the commonly used black power fist as a symbol of resistance against rules that are meant to stop vulnerable people being infected with a deadly virus really takes the biscuit.
I feel obliged to clarify that the statement in the below sign is completely false and very dangerous. Sure, the case numbers are probably some way off the official numbers, but mainly down the incompetence of the government and their shambolic test and trace system. It is quite frankly too generous to the government to believe they would be able to pull off a conspiracy theory of this nature even if they wanted to.
Never read a book in their life, guaranteed.
