We meet the ‘rebels on roundabouts’ spreading conspiracy theories in Kent

Ever since the Covid pandemic, protesters waving yellow placards have been popping up along the roadside in a number of Kent towns.

But who are these “rebels on roundabouts” and why are they so passionate about spreading their conspiracy theories? Local Democracy Reporter Dan Esson went to find out…

On a humid July Saturday in Maidstone, a group of activists gathered at the roadside waving yellow boards.

The signs bore messages including “honk if you think all politicians are crooks”, “kiss your human rights goodbye” and “CO2 is not a pollutant”.

Loosely coordinated through a website and messaging app Telegram, the so-called Rebels on Roundabouts have protested – in events they call “outreach” – in different towns around Kent and the UK most weekends since the pandemic.

One of their biggest concerns is the idea of “15-minute cities”.

Activist Michael Hughes, 60, told me: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s an infringement of freedom.

“Basically it’s just gaining control of the people and then dumping them into slavery.”

The concept of urban planning which makes all essential amenities accessible within a 15-minute journey isn’t especially new. But it has come to prominence in the past few years as city councils from Oxford to Canterbury have mooted traffic control plans.

Another of the protesters in Maidstone, 41-year-old Vidan, was quite convinced the leaders of the world’s cities are already signed up to the 15-minute agenda.

“The only question is when is it going to start happening?” he asked.

Vidan argued such schemes are part of an agenda to normalise restrictions on people’s freedom of choice.

“When people start living with limitations it’s going to plant a seed, unconsciously, that these limitations are good for us,” he added.

The idea of 15-minute cities take particular prevalence for the conspiracy theorists of today. Fears of highway-related authoritarianism mingle with anti-vaccine sentiment, 5G phobias, hatred of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and climate change denial.

While the roadside protest in Maidstone on July 1 passed off with no trouble, there is a darker side to the debate.

Former Canterbury City Council leader Ben Fitter-Harding told me he received a death threat in response to his controversial “zoning plan” for cars.

When the Conservative first started theorising solutions to Canterbury’s congestion problems, he never imagined some would see his plan as the work of dark international forces.

“I think I would’ve thought twice if I’d known just how bad it was going to get,” he said.

“I did have one specific death threat. I had a lot of really nasty stuff.”

Mr Fitter-Harding says schemes such as the Canterbury zoning plan generally require “a carrot and a stick in place to make that happen”.

In this case, the stick was to be ANPR cameras which would monitor journeys – with people fined if they drove directly between two zones.

However, he says the idea that he’s under the thumb of the WEF or United Nations, as his placard-touting foes think, is “incomprehensible”.

“It’s even more incomprehensible if you’ve been inside any element of government,” Mr Fitter-Harding said.

“Being on the inside of the political system really drives home how these sorts of super organisations cannot exist. There is simply no way – because our local authorities can’t even talk to each other and work with each other productively in an organised way.”

The former councillor even describes himself as a “pretty pro-car person”.

“Driving’s always going to be very important to me and keeping driving as cost-effective as possible,” he said.

Mr Fitter-Harding also doesn’t view the much-derided zoning plan as an infringement on freedom.

“I guess I don’t ideologically reconcile what I wanted to put out there and talk to people about with restricting freedom of movement,” he said.

But many at the Maidstone protest suggested to me that Mr Fitter-Harding and his ilk are the agents of an incoming worldwide tyranny.

Malcolm, from Folkestone, claimed 15-minute cities and similar schemes are part of internationally coordinated crackdowns.

“It’s communism, or fascism – the left and right cheeks of the same backside,” he declared.

Mainstream politics has yet to grapple with the question: why do people come to believe these things?

Mr Fitter-Harding told me: “There’s definitely a subset of people that get drawn to these types of things.

“A lot of people are looking for meaning – they’re looking for something that makes sense of the way things are around them.”

He added that the decline of organised religion has contributed to the rise of ostensibly secular and all-encompassing worldviews like conspiracy theory.

The trend has become more mainstream. Former Premier League footballers Matt Le Tissier and Rickie Lambert are among those to have recently changed their Twitter profile pictures to a logo which says: “I withdraw my consent to be governed by any corrupt, compromised, belligerent, criminal parliament or government. I will not comply.”

University of Kent social psychologist Karen Douglas argues that part of the allure of conspiracy theories is their power to explain major events in a way both neat and sinister – to provide a sense of esteem and meaning in belonging to a like-minded community.

“This perspective essentially means that anyone can fall into conspiracy theories if they have psychological needs that are not being met at any particular time,” Professor Douglas said.

“This is perhaps one explanation why we tend to see a lot of conspiracy theories when things happen like sudden deaths of celebrities, or during pandemics. People are looking for ways to understand why this terrible thing happened. A simple explanation is often not very appealing for such a significant event.

“People assume that a big event must also have a big or more sinister cause, which is why conspiracy theories can be appealing under these circumstances.”

Perhaps some people are prone to believe in conspiracy theories. Decades ago, those I met in Maidstone – who were back out protesting in Hythe at the weekend – could well be fixated on the illuminati or the freemasons rather than the WEF.

Fears of shadowy global forces manipulating the governments of the world aren’t new, but the specifics of modern conspiracy theories are unique to our time.

Plans to regulate traffic or pedestrianise cities really are experienced by many drivers as an imposition on their lives. Traffic control schemes such as those instituted in Oxford or planned in Canterbury are broadly unpopular. Oxfordshire County Council’s own survey revealed 80% of local businesses were opposed to the scheme.

The rules and regulations of the state are perceived by many not as the product of a democracy they take part in, but as the arbitrary whims of an external force, leading to voter apathy. In local elections, a majority of people never vote, and fewer still are actively involved. In the 2023 local elections, turnout in Canterbury was only 38%, and nationally it hovers around 30%.

The easy option is to believe that those who are anti-vax, who think 5G masts will give them cancer, or that pedestrianised neighbourhoods are the first step towards global despotism are simply delusional.

But outlandish as the views of Rebels on Roundabouts and their ilk are, it’s important to look beyond people and their beliefs and to the context in which they’re formed.

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