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Comment by gib444 | Hacker News Reader

This is the country where organised marches must have police approval and follow an approved route (and most acute in London). Hardly a surprise!

London's vibe is: 'privately owned, and you're lucky to be here'

Edit: I'm British btw (and currently sat in a pub in London) in case people downvote me thinking I'm a yank lol. There are many people who dislike London and the UK who aren't yanks

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In most countries in Europe organized marches and protests must be run by authorities. It's pretty normal here.

Protesting is a legal right but the authorities do have the right to restrict it for public order reasons. For example they often will insist on separate routes to keep conflicting groups apart. It makes sense too.

> This is the country where organised marches must have police approval and follow an approved route

You have to notify the police not get approval. They can "impose conditions and restrictions" for safety or to limit the rights of others to travel freely, after which they'll also be somewhat liable to protect you from counter-protesters, or lunatics trying to drive their car at you.

Just about every country requires some kind of advance notice if its not just a few people walking along the pavement/sidewalk and your going to obstruct traffic or block others movement

https://groups.friendsoftheearth.uk/resources/your-rights-an...

I know that you think you just mitigated the extreme character of what he said? But you exacerbated it.

Exactly my thoughts lol

You have a right to _peaceful_ assembly, and others have rights that larger marches impinge on. Police are charged with maintaining public order; which includes balancing rights.

So, how would you manage it?

NB. It's article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights[1] which gives us "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."

Reform's manifesto includes[2]: "Stop the Boats with our 4 Point Plan. Leave the European Convention on Human Rights."

[1] https://fra.europa.eu/en/law-reference/european-convention-h...

[2] Page 5 of https://reformuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Reform_UK...

Disagree on that vibe. The museums are usually free in London, for example. Haven't seen that in many other cities.

> Haven't seen that in many other cities.

Really? In my limited experience in Europe I've often seen attendance to museums are free. When we were in Ireland and Scotland, most museum/galleries were free with suggested donations. In contrast, museums in Italy had fees for attendance.

I know here in Spain, most attractions run by Museos Estatales are free on Saturday PM and Sundays, but some are also free every day (e.g. Museum of Fine Arts here in València).

Granted, that's a very limited subset of European countries/cities, I'd be interested in the pricing structure of other European countries/cities because we are definitely planning to travel in Europe more often now that we live here.

As a sidebar, I can't recommend The Chester Beatty museum enough - https://www.chesterbeatty.ie

There are thousands of protests per year in central London. The larger ones (tens of thousands of people) are going to be disrupting public transport routes than people rely on. There's an approved route so that disruption can be managed. Nothing to do with being 'privately owned'. It also doesn't help that for a large number of people 'protesting' means travelling into London, getting drunk, and fighting.

Its not as if things are any better in the country that boasts the most about its freedoms regarding access to supposedly public spaces: https://www.instagram.com/780_lord_of_bench

Even within London people dislike each other!

Saw many non-Arsenal fans cheering for PSG yesterday.

How many protestors did the U.K. police kill in the last few years, compared to, say, a very free country… like the U.S?

edit: responding to your edit, of course many British people hate London and for many valid reasons, but your reasoning is very American. Very few British people share that American view of freedom and would describe London as “privately owned”.

> but your reasoning is very American.

For god's sake how ridiculous. Give over

What's your basis for commenting on us Brits? You can't even spell UK correctly (we don't use full stops. That's an Americanism / hypercorrection). You spell with a z, so not a Brit

I am no less British than you. I was born in England, raised in England, educated in England, voted in England, my parents were born in England, my grandparents were born in England, my great grandparents were born in England… so on and so forth. I am very sorry that my choice to use American spelling on an American website offends you.

The irony is that the beliefs you’re espousing are an infection caused by U.S. cultural dominance of politics on the Internet. Anti-woke right wing people are heavily influenced by American political attitudes. Do you also believe in Birmingham’s no-go zones?

British people are miserable and cynical and hate everything about our godforsaken country but London being “privately owned” is not one of those things. Civilized protest is not one of those things.

How many protestors did they arrest?

and the city of London is literally a private corporation.

The City of London is a novel anachronism making up a square mile that nobody British would ever refer to as “London” nor do they complain about it being “private”.

No, it isn't. It is called 'City of London Corporation' in the sense of being a municipal corporation, but effectively it's just a local authority... except that businesses still get a vote along with citizens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_corporation

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