Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The double standards of the London protestors

Black Lives Matter activists protest at Trafalgar Square (Photo: Getty)

So now we know. All the things said about Dominic Cummings – that he shattered the lockdown, that he thinks it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else – are far truer of those protesting at the big Black Lives Matter demo in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, than they are of Cummings.

The demo’s message was clear. It shouted to the nation that the virtuous and right-thinking are more important than the rest of us. Their views and their rights count for more than ours. So while people will be shamed for sitting on a beach or taking part in VE Day celebrations, those who have the right opinions can press the flesh in a huge public gathering with seeming impunity.

Politically, the gathering on Sunday was a confused affair. Quite what the British government can do about the brutal killing of George Floyd in a country 3,000 miles away is anyone’s guess. Shouting ‘Fuck the police’ at the cops at Downing St, who bear no more responsibility for police brutality in the US than the protesters themselves, was particularly bizarre. It was hard to escape the conclusion that the protest was tweeting made flesh, a noisy display of virtue disguised as a radical assembly.

But at least one clear statement shone through this disjointed display of rectitude: ‘We can do what we want.’ It was a genuinely remarkable sight: the same people who have been raging against Dominic Cummings over a mere car journey to Durham were now thronging together in spectacular defiance of the lockdown guidelines. It’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

Many of those on the left were at the forefront of demanding the lockdown. They sneered at people in Warrington who did a socially distanced conga line to celebrate VE Day and mocked anyone who attended anti-lockdown protests.

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