Last Night, Anti-Maskers Protested Lockdown – While Wearing Masks

London’s annual Million Mask March was a quieter affair than usual last night. The 5th of November demonstration, popular with anti-government and anti-capitalist protesters, landed on the first evening of the UK’s second national lockdown.

That timing – paired with the threat of arrest for attendees, who were gathering in a group of more than two, breaching coronavirus rules – meant there were far fewer feet on the ground than in previous years. Still, those gathered were just as vocal as ever.

“I do not believe that the coronavirus is as big of a threat as they make it out to be,” said Alicia, a 31-year-old entrepreneur wearing a V for Vendetta mask. “It has a 99.7 percent survival rate, so only 0.3 percent of people die, and the majority of those people are old. I believe in my rights, I don’t like my life being turned upside down, I don’t like my rights being taken away, I do not like being told what to do, who I can spend time with, where I can go, whether or not I can go to the gym.”

Alicia’s claim of a 99.7 percent survival rate is unsubstantiated (it may stem from a viral, but incorrect, Facebook post claiming the survival rate is 98.54 percent). As the independent fact checking website Full Fact points out, we don’t know the true extent of COVID-19 cases in the UK, so are unable to accurately measure the survival rate.

Nevertheless, Alicia’s sentiment was echoed by several people I spoke to, some of whom took a Darwinian stance when I pushed them on the ethics behind the claim that “some deaths are OK, because most of them are old”.

“What the fuck is this? It should be survival of the fittest, not fucking survival of the weakest!” said Chris, a smartly-dressed middle-aged man. “It’s pathetic what we’re doing. It’s all to do with the drug companies’ interests.”

There is no evidence to suggest that a national lockdown has been imposed for the benefit of drug companies.

Among the protesters were individuals dressed as Father Christmas, a banana and somebody in a bright red cardinal’s outfit.

“They’re going to shove everyone in camps, they’re going to drug us up on vaccines, it’s going to be fucked. It’s all planned. It’s been planned for decades,” the cardinal said on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields church, after a speech by the conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn. “They’re going to inject you with nanotechnology, they’re going to control you and turn you into a robot. It seems ridiculous, I know. It sounds like something out of a movie.”

It seems ridiculous, because – again – there is zero evidence to suggest that the coronavirus pandemic was planned for decades, or that the British government intends to put the population into camps or inject us with nanotechnology.

At one point, a mask-less Deliveroo driver stopped to shout, “Freedom!” from his bike. “I’ve been forced to work,” said the man, who gave his name as Will James. “I’m a musician, I’ve got an album coming out called The Age of Fear. I’m a freedom fighter.”

Police managed to move the crowds up towards Soho by 7:30PM, clearing Trafalgar Square. Later on, a few hundred protesters were kettled on Oxford Street, after an hour of playing cat and mouse with police. Today, Scotland Yard said they had made 190 arrests under new coronavirus legislation, 189 of whom are being investigated for a fixed penalty notice, with one being investigated for a £10,000 fine.

As I was leaving, I met Emily and Zach, an anti-masker couple from Essex who have attended a number of anti-lockdown marches this year. “It’s all about power and control,” said Emily. “I don’t think it’s anything to do with the virus. I think it’s part of a bigger agenda.”

Zach added: “People only believe what they’re told.”

@Jak_TH _/_ @christopherbethell

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