# Quaker Meeting House London Protest **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 2, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489 "2025-04-02T01:54:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/21 "2025-04-02T15:53:12Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > The Quaker’s are going to protest what they rightly consider a violation of their Meeting House - as has been written, “for the first time in living memory”. > > They are going to sit in wooden chairs on the sidewalk in front of Scotland Yard. And glare at the detectives and the building. And if there is tea to be had, the cops are not getting any Under the circumstances, that strikes me as a very effective form of protest. No illegal actions of any kind. No shouting. No holding signs. Just sitting there silently. The police would have no valid reason and no pretext to stop them. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/22 "2025-04-02T16:03:04Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > the cops are not getting any. Maybe. I’d think these folks are more forgiving than vindictive. So they can all be friends over a cuppa and some scones. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/23 "2025-04-02T16:09:00Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > The Quaker’s are going to protest what they rightly consider a violation of their Meeting House - as has been written, “for the first time in living memory”. I understand the outrage but on balance I would prefer if religious buildings didn’t have special rooms which civil authorities are forbidden to enter. If a crime is being committed in a Meeting House, synagogue, church, mosque, gudjawara etc. my default stance is that it’s ok for the police to be able to go in and arrest people. Which isn’t to say that in this particular instance the cops weren’t being heavy handed, or they couldn’t have arrested people as they left rather than kicking in the doors etc. just that “we will rent this space out to any group, and in doing so offer them temporary immunity for any crimes they happen to commit within its walls” isn’t really a viable position. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/24 "2025-04-02T16:18:07Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Maybe. I’d think these folks are more forgiving than vindictive. So they can all be friends over a cuppa and some scones. Protest isn’t vindictive. The Friends have a history of non-violent protest. I don’t know how things are these days, but the question of hierarchy and ministers/sermons used to be a hot topic at Friends General Conference, with west coast skewing toward that structure.\* I have found Meetings in the west that are leaderless and silent, which is my preference. \*I don’t know the history, but wonder about this as possible syncretism of the religious practices of the non-Friends midwestern pioneers. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/25 "2025-04-02T16:34:08Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Mr Woolford described wanting to keep the situation calm but also to show his “outrage” - so he made a cup of tea and didn’t offer the police officers any. That is a very British and very sick burn. Those police officers could be off work for months while they try to process the emotional damage. Quakers in the UK are mostly known for Cadburys and being pacifists. Quite a few served during WWI as stretcher bearers as they didn’t believe in violence, but did believe in national service and duty. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/26 "2025-04-02T16:36:33Z")
Fry’s (chocolate) and Rowntree’s (chocolate) too - those quakers loved our livers, but didn’t serve our waistlines well. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/27 "2025-04-02T16:41:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Africa has the largest population of Quakers in the world In fact, they are 49% of the world’s Quakers. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/28 "2025-04-02T16:41:54Z")
Yeah it pretty hard to hold up the US as a benign example in any area of governance and law right now, but this is a good example of why the US constitution, with it’s small number of absolute rights, is better than the more wordy ambiguous protections in other countries. Also I am ironically enough reading (or is it apropos?) Blazing World a history of the English civil war and it’s aftermath. And the main theme of the chapter I’m reading is the legal persecution of the Quakers by the restored English monarchy for their liberal political and religious beliefs. One of the few things were the political spectrum has not shifted in the last four centuries (except the government doing the persecution here is nominally socialist) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/29 "2025-04-02T16:43:20Z")
I’d say persecuting Quakers is a bit of a stretch here! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/30 "2025-04-02T17:05:16Z")
This has nothing to do with Quakers other than they rented a room to the protest group Youth Demand. > **[Youth Demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Demand)** > > Youth Demand is an environmental activist and political activist group which opposes new fossil fuel licensing and production agreements by the British government for drilling in the North Sea and British arms exports to Israel. > The group was established in January 2024 after a meeting at the Old Print Works in Birmingham as one of four groups under a central coordinating group called Umbrella. The four groups under 'Umbrella' are the direct action group Just Stop Oil, Assemble, Robin Hood, a... > **[Who are Youth Demand? Protest group at centre of Quaker house arrest storm](https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/youth-demand-protest-quakers-b2724765.html)** > > Youth Demand will be holding open rallies every week during April ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/31 "2025-04-02T17:26:03Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > That is a very British and very sick burn The sky news (Murdoch) also had this > One quaker ( **Quaker** you non-editor-having-murdochs) was so incensed by the police tactics that he pointedly did not offer any officers a cup of tea, in a very British protest. I LOL’d. Good on Mr. Woolford! Scotland Yard surely has a PR person and if the BBC don’t get lost on the way to Scotland, surely The Guardian will have a reporter and photographer there. Get a photo with some director type detective (who knows, maybe a Quaker himself) shaking hands and sharing tea and scones, jam or cream on top, either way is legal and you win the day with that photo. The Quaker’s were hosting (allowing to use a room) of about twelve women plus a couple more I suppose curious-first-comers. Even if they had a undercover cop recording this “conspiracy to shut down London” (typically some kind of blocking of traffic) if this “case” goes to trial, Lionel Hutz would be enough to have it dismissed. Otherwise: “Why are all those old gentleman sitting on chairs staring at Scotland Yard?” “They are silently protesting the heavy-handed actions of the Metro Police.” “Is anything going to happen?” “Probably not.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/32 "2025-04-02T17:31:13Z")
> [@](#): > > “There were six very young women of about 20 years old, talking in a circle around a packet of breadsticks and a pot of houmous,” he said. How does Scotland Yard arm the Flying Squad to cope with these situations? (imaging shrieks of outrage, with flung gobs of hummus and spilt tea creating a serious health hazard) ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/33 "2025-04-03T01:20:12Z")
My brother in NYC, an advocate for groups related to this one, says it’s definitely on. As do the Quakers: > **[Scotland Yard Meeting for Worship](https://www.quaker.org.uk/events/scotland-yard-meeting-for-worship)** > > A silent Meeting for Worship outside New Scotland Yard to uphold our worshipping community and support all who speak up for truth and integrity in the face of increasing state oppression. Open invite: > Please do join us and spread the word. There’s a warm welcome to people of all faiths or none - whatever your beliefs, we can all come together in solidarity with those who stand for truth and integrity. The group “Youth Demand” say more people have signed up. The Metro Police HQ and Scotland Yard are adjacent, yet if you’re going to protest go for the latter. To paraphrase Lisa Simpson, “You’ve got the Yard, but we’ve got the power!” ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489/34 "2025-04-03T18:52:28Z")
Couldn’t find any in the mainstream press (including sky) other than from the Quaker’s themselves: # Silent but not subdued: Quakers hold vigil at Scotland Yard > **[Silent but not subdued: Quakers hold vigil at Scotland Yard](https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/silent-but-not-subdued-quakers-hold-vigil-at-scotland-yard)** > > A silent Quaker Meeting was held outside New Scotland Yard on Thursday, to bear witness to the police raid on Westminster Meeting House last week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaker-meeting-house-london-protest/1016489.md?page=1)