6 ms·

Women visited by police after raising concerns over sewage to local MP

131 points by stuaxo 4y ago

lloydjones 4y ago
Given the murder of David Amess, I can see why MPs are a little twitchy over people who are potentially out of a given area (though not constituency) attending Perhaps involving the police was heavy-handed and there could have been another way…
- some_random 4y ago
  Another way to do what? Intimidate a woman into silence for the crime of petitioning her elected official?
  - mikrl 4y ago
    I bet their petitioning elected official licenses were expired.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Perhaps informing the women that the meeting was only open to town residents? Oh wait... After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock... Looks like the police were sent anyways. Unless there was more content in the emails than has been reported, this was absolutely heavy-handed intimidation.
  - ghufran_syed 4y ago
    they weren’t “sent”, at least, not by the MP. The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized
    - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
      >The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized Right, but the MP almost certainly knew exactly what process he was kick starting by telling them to look into it. The beauty of the system is that everyone has plausible deniability.
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        Give it a few weeks. If this is a pattern it should start to come to light once a few cases are publicised.
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      Complaining to your MP about toxic conditions in local waterways is "unusual"? That's exactly the type of correspondence an MP should expect. Referring such correspondence to the police is ridiculous. The MP should have told the women the town hall was closed to non-residents and left it at that. The cynic in me believes the MP knew exactly what the police were going to do when forwarded "unusual" emails.
      - ghufran_syed 4y ago
        interesting that they didn’t publish the emails - that’s suggests that they somehow don’t support the narrative “ After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock, but Mr Loder replied: “Let me know which villager has invited you and I will come back to you to see what we can do.” Which implies the two women claimed to have been invited by one of the villagers eligible to attend the meeting? Strange that that wouldn’t be explained in the article if it was true, suggesting the claim was NOT true. And that I think could reasonably be seen as unusual by someone responsible for security for an event.
- stuaxo 4y ago
  Its suspicious that they tried to meet him before and he got out of it with excuses like his laptop battery being broken. Tory MPs often seem to be in bed with privatised industry and its not a leap to suppose that's what's happening here.
- joshenberg 4y ago
  Worse, the MP was clearly giving them the run-around from previous meetings. Sending police to ask questions the citizens themselves likely answered in their emails, or answerable via telephone, is an escalation of this tactic. Political assassins seem very very unlikely to politely inquire about attendance.
bearmode 4y ago
As typical, police wasting time investigating potential lefty protestors instead of doing something useful for society.
- prlmarket 4y ago
  They do this for any perceived dissent from the current government opinion, like re-tweeting a joke about the latest official pride flag: https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested-uk-causing-anxiety-27639423 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested...
  - bearmode 4y ago
    Then why have the police, for decades spent overwhelmingly more resources investigating and infiltrating left-wing groups than far-right groups? When was the last left-wing terror attack in the UK? I know right-wingers like to latch on to the handful of examples of police overreach when targeting right-wingers, but the reality doesn't match up. There is a huge discrepancy.
    - drak0n1c 4y ago
      Maybe the broader issue is the sheer amount of government licensure in the UK and the cover that provides for civil servant and enforcer abuse, rather than defining cases as a right/left problem.
      - bearmode 4y ago
        It's very clearly a right/left problem. The police exist as a force to protect capital interests. No threat to capital? Police aren't likely to be interested in you. Left-wing groups are threats to capital, and that's exactly why they're targeted so much more than groups of neonazis.
        globalreset 4y ago
        Your whole thread here makes it clear that you are ideologically biased.
dazc 4y ago
- bacza2 4y ago
  What does it explain?
- jai_ 4y ago
  For context, the Bluetits seems to be an association of people who enjoy outdoor swimming in colder waters: https://thebluetits.co/pages/about https://thebluetits.co/pages/about Not sure exactly what this implies other than they are likely to care more about the quality of the local river water.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
If the government (and by proxy it's enforcement agencies) didn't have so much unaccountable power over people being visited by a police officer over something frivolous wouldn't be nearly as intimidating nor would the government's enforcers wouldn't have to deal with allegations of intimidation over such actions in the (probably majority of) cases where they are not being used to intimidate. The intimidation here is entirely predicated on the police's ability to screw these women over with no recourse on a whim.
photochemsyn 4y ago
Who says Britain and China don't have a lot in common? There's little doubt that when British (and American) politicians and bureaucrats look at China's authoritarian system of control, their essential emotion is one of envy.
- throwaway92931 4y ago
  Whataboutism is the worst. In Britain, I can freely say that Rishi Sunak is, I dunno, some random insult like a "paki". In the US, I can go even further than that: I can freely say that Joe Biden is a child molester. On a public website. I can register joebidenisachildmolester.com if I wished. In China, if I say that Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh, I can be put in jail and disappeared. Much less say something absolutely true, such as Xi Jinping being a two-bit dictator. There is very little in common between Britain (or the US) and China.
  - photochemsyn 4y ago
    The systems of authoritarian control in the USA and Britain are different in style from those employed in China, but they do share the same goal. Note also that the United States still has the world's most populated prison system, whether one measures in in absolute numbers or as a per capita percentage.
    - PM_me_your_math 4y ago
      USA also has a lot of violent and career criminals, many of them decades-long repeat offenders, so that should be factored into the equation or risk appearing disingenuous.
SanjayMehta 4y ago
Seeing how the UK treated and is treating Assange, this is no surprise.
- linuxftw 4y ago
  It truly is a police state. Massive surveillance with CCTV, as well as online, strict speech laws, a literal monarchy that at the very least has massive political power if not absolute political power.
hgsgm 4y ago
matt-p 4y ago
Living in London almost all my life I sometimes feel like I live in a different country when I read stories like this. I just genuinely can't imagine this happening here. Totally mad and I can't believe the officer followed his bosses orders.
thro1 4y ago
No comment. (I live in UK)

131 points by stuaxo 4y ago

Given the murder of David Amess, I can see why MPs are a little twitchy over people who are potentially out of a given area (though not constituency) attending Perhaps involving the police was heavy-handed and there could have been another way…

some_random 4y ago
Another way to do what? Intimidate a woman into silence for the crime of petitioning her elected official?
- mikrl 4y ago
  I bet their petitioning elected official licenses were expired.
alistairSH 4y ago
Perhaps informing the women that the meeting was only open to town residents? Oh wait... After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock... Looks like the police were sent anyways. Unless there was more content in the emails than has been reported, this was absolutely heavy-handed intimidation.
- ghufran_syed 4y ago
  they weren’t “sent”, at least, not by the MP. The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    >The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized Right, but the MP almost certainly knew exactly what process he was kick starting by telling them to look into it. The beauty of the system is that everyone has plausible deniability.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      Give it a few weeks. If this is a pattern it should start to come to light once a few cases are publicised.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Complaining to your MP about toxic conditions in local waterways is "unusual"? That's exactly the type of correspondence an MP should expect. Referring such correspondence to the police is ridiculous. The MP should have told the women the town hall was closed to non-residents and left it at that. The cynic in me believes the MP knew exactly what the police were going to do when forwarded "unusual" emails.
    - ghufran_syed 4y ago
      interesting that they didn’t publish the emails - that’s suggests that they somehow don’t support the narrative “ After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock, but Mr Loder replied: “Let me know which villager has invited you and I will come back to you to see what we can do.” Which implies the two women claimed to have been invited by one of the villagers eligible to attend the meeting? Strange that that wouldn’t be explained in the article if it was true, suggesting the claim was NOT true. And that I think could reasonably be seen as unusual by someone responsible for security for an event.
stuaxo 4y ago
Its suspicious that they tried to meet him before and he got out of it with excuses like his laptop battery being broken. Tory MPs often seem to be in bed with privatised industry and its not a leap to suppose that's what's happening here.
joshenberg 4y ago
Worse, the MP was clearly giving them the run-around from previous meetings. Sending police to ask questions the citizens themselves likely answered in their emails, or answerable via telephone, is an escalation of this tactic. Political assassins seem very very unlikely to politely inquire about attendance.

bearmode 4y ago

As typical, police wasting time investigating potential lefty protestors instead of doing something useful for society.

prlmarket 4y ago
They do this for any perceived dissent from the current government opinion, like re-tweeting a joke about the latest official pride flag: https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested-uk-causing-anxiety-27639423 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested...
- bearmode 4y ago
  Then why have the police, for decades spent overwhelmingly more resources investigating and infiltrating left-wing groups than far-right groups? When was the last left-wing terror attack in the UK? I know right-wingers like to latch on to the handful of examples of police overreach when targeting right-wingers, but the reality doesn't match up. There is a huge discrepancy.
  - drak0n1c 4y ago
    Maybe the broader issue is the sheer amount of government licensure in the UK and the cover that provides for civil servant and enforcer abuse, rather than defining cases as a right/left problem.
    - bearmode 4y ago
      It's very clearly a right/left problem. The police exist as a force to protect capital interests. No threat to capital? Police aren't likely to be interested in you. Left-wing groups are threats to capital, and that's exactly why they're targeted so much more than groups of neonazis.
      - globalreset 4y ago
        Your whole thread here makes it clear that you are ideologically biased.

dazc 4y ago

bacza2 4y ago
What does it explain?
jai_ 4y ago
For context, the Bluetits seems to be an association of people who enjoy outdoor swimming in colder waters: https://thebluetits.co/pages/about https://thebluetits.co/pages/about Not sure exactly what this implies other than they are likely to care more about the quality of the local river water.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

If the government (and by proxy it's enforcement agencies) didn't have so much unaccountable power over people being visited by a police officer over something frivolous wouldn't be nearly as intimidating nor would the government's enforcers wouldn't have to deal with allegations of intimidation over such actions in the (probably majority of) cases where they are not being used to intimidate. The intimidation here is entirely predicated on the police's ability to screw these women over with no recourse on a whim.

photochemsyn 4y ago

Who says Britain and China don't have a lot in common? There's little doubt that when British (and American) politicians and bureaucrats look at China's authoritarian system of control, their essential emotion is one of envy.

throwaway92931 4y ago
Whataboutism is the worst. In Britain, I can freely say that Rishi Sunak is, I dunno, some random insult like a "paki". In the US, I can go even further than that: I can freely say that Joe Biden is a child molester. On a public website. I can register joebidenisachildmolester.com if I wished. In China, if I say that Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh, I can be put in jail and disappeared. Much less say something absolutely true, such as Xi Jinping being a two-bit dictator. There is very little in common between Britain (or the US) and China.
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  The systems of authoritarian control in the USA and Britain are different in style from those employed in China, but they do share the same goal. Note also that the United States still has the world's most populated prison system, whether one measures in in absolute numbers or as a per capita percentage.
  - PM_me_your_math 4y ago
    USA also has a lot of violent and career criminals, many of them decades-long repeat offenders, so that should be factored into the equation or risk appearing disingenuous.

SanjayMehta 4y ago

Seeing how the UK treated and is treating Assange, this is no surprise.

linuxftw 4y ago
It truly is a police state. Massive surveillance with CCTV, as well as online, strict speech laws, a literal monarchy that at the very least has massive political power if not absolute political power.

hgsgm 4y ago

matt-p 4y ago

Living in London almost all my life I sometimes feel like I live in a different country when I read stories like this. I just genuinely can't imagine this happening here. Totally mad and I can't believe the officer followed his bosses orders.

thro1 4y ago

No comment. (I live in UK)