Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
www.bbc.co.uk
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.

There has been major disruption at the Port of Dover, the UK’s biggest international ferry port, after masked “stop the boats” protesters block access

Traffic was initially stopped from going in and out of the port - it says access roads to the site are “now free flowing”

A government spokesperson says: “The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but we condemn the behaviour in Dover and the travel disruption it has caused”

Images from the scene appear to show hundreds of demonstrators, dressed in black and wearing face coverings

Protesters were chanting “stop the boats” and have been marched by police towards Dover railway station, our reporter in Dover writes

Earlier, local Reform UK councillor Paul King said he had been told it is a “stop the boats protest”

Kent Police says it is aware of the incident and is “engaging with protesters”

  • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
    51·
    5 days ago

    Could someone kindly remind me what happened to the climate protestors that blocked roads? Presumably the same will happen here as we are a middle-of-the-road, centre-ground, non-extremist country that treats everyone the same?

    • Mr Poletski@feddit.ukEnglish
      7·
      4 days ago

      I seem to remember people getting years in prison just for planning to hold up a major road.

    • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      By gluing themselves to the asphalt the climate protestors made themselves significantly easier to arrest.

  • PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    35·
    5 days ago

    By “engaging with the protestors”, do they mean that a lot of them are actually just the police in a different uniform?

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      17·
      5 days ago

      I mean, hiding your face is generally good practice if you’re doing something the government really doesn’t like. Of course these guys are fascist, but in general there are things you’d rather the government not know you’re protesting for.

      • mindlesscrollyparrot@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        13·
        5 days ago

        I too have been on protest marches. Evey government for over a decade has talked about being hard on immigration and stopping the boats. This lot need not fear that they’re doing something the government really doesn’t like. They deserve mockery because it’s clear that they don’t want people to identify them. My guess is that are known neo-nazis, and they want to pretend to be ‘ordinary concerned citizens’; my second guess is that they are a rent-a-mob, funded through Nigel’s dodgy £5M, and this is a distraction from the C4 illegal donations story. It can be both, of course.