The MintPress podcast, "The Watchdog, " hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know - including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media.
Support for the British Monarchy has rapidly declined, especially among young people, where near equal amounts of respondents say the country should become a republic as continue with the current system. In this episode of "The Watchdog," Lowkey speaks to Symon Hill, a British activist who was recently arrested for questioning the proclamation of Charles as King following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth.
Lowkey begins by scrutinizing the infrastructure of information in British society. In doing so, the British-Iraqi rapper makes multiple references to the coordinated smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, and how it was orchestrated by private organizations following his nomination to lead the Labour Party. The conversation then shifts to the main topic of today, the unpopularity of King Charles III. Charles has been pelted in public with eggs on two separate occasions since his mother's death.
Protesting the proclamation of King Charles III, Symon Hill, who had been arrested, stressed how he:
Finds it hard to stomach that in the 21st century, anybody being told that we must accept a head of state, with no say at all in who that is...so when this was said about Charles as Lord and King, I called out, who elected him?..."
Talking about his detention, Hill added:
It was me who they grabbed hold of and dragged me away and arrested me...what really appalls me, if you watch the video of that man heckling [Prince] Andrew, is that a few royalists in the crowd basically grab him and start beating him up and yet the police don't arrest them."
Formerly a campaigns manager at the Peace Pledge Union, Hill currently teaches history via evening courses for the Workers' Educational Association. "...If you can be arrested for saying a couple of sentences in the street that the establishment don't like, then I think we're in a very scary place," he said.
The conversation steers to the absurdities of the recently passed Police Crime Sentencing Courts Act (2022). Equipping the Metropolitan Police with arbitrary powers, the law will "restrict movement at protests...it allows them [the police] to close down protests that are considered too noisy," Hill warned. According to many domestic organizations, the act itself is a fundamental threat to the ideals and standards of British democracy and should be repealed immediately.
Watch the whole interview here , exclusively at MintPress News.
Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic, political campaigner, and a MintPress video and podcast host. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique, and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network, and The Peace and Justice Project founded by Jeremy Corbyn.