【L0ve Bite (2024) Part 2 Hindi Web Series】

It probably isn't what the bride and L0ve Bite (2024) Part 2 Hindi Web Seriesgroom had planned for their big day.

But one man's tweet about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding and homelessness has snowballed into a national debate. And it threatens to play itself out on the very, very international stage of the royal wedding.

So as it stands now, in attendance at the wedding will be 1,200 members of the public and 1,440 others -- and potentially thousands of activists hoping to draw attention to the issue of homelessness.

SEE ALSO: Not everyone's celebrating the royal wedding. Some want the monarchy abolished.

It all started when Simon Dudley, the Conservative councillor for the area that includes Windsor Castle (the venue for said wedding), tweeted that the police should "deal with" rough sleepers in the area ahead of the #RoyalWedding on 19 May. He followed up with tweets and replies saying he believes that some people are "choosing" to beg on the streets and aren't involuntarily homeless.

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Dudley followed the tweets up with a letter to Thames Valley Police, who are in charge of the extensive security operation surrounding the wedding. He asked them to deal with "anti-social behaviour, including aggressive begging and intimidation", and said they could use existing powers like the 1824 Vagrancy Act and the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, which effectively can treat rough sleeping and begging as criminal acts.

"The whole situation also presents a beautiful town in a sadly unfavourable light," he wrote.

His comments have angered a lot of people and prompted countless news articles and think pieces. All of a sudden the homeless people right on the Queen's doorstep are being held up as an example of a larger national problem.

"How can we make the invisible, visible?"

And so despite the fact that the couple has chosen the homelessness charity Crisis as one of their seven charities to donate to in lieu of wedding gifts, Dudley unwittingly created the most high-profile link between homelessness and the royal wedding.

Almost instantly after Dudley's tweets, protest groups starting organising on Facebook. If you believe the replies, thousands of people are planning to turn up to demonstrate, and even more will hold solidarity events around the country.

One person who was especially angered by Dudley's remarks is 46-year-old Simon Bramwell of the social change group Rising Up, which is organising the protest event NO JACKET REQUIRED.

"I was just like, 'fuck that,'" he said. The idea for the event was inspired almost instantly. Bramwell says he's experienced homelessness for a short period of time, and protesting Dudley's remarks "seemed like a no-brainer," he said.

The group is really considering what they want to achieve by staging such a protest. "How can we make the event not just against the wedding? How can we make the invisible, visible?" Bramwell said. "We're floating a lot of ideas. We don't want to hold the event under any one banner."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The group hasn't firmed up its plans yet but some ideas include setting up a mobile kitchen to feed the homeless, and staging a die-in (in which people lie on the floor to symbolise dead bodies) to draw attention to the at least 78 homeless people who died over winter.

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Another big event on Facebook is the Royal Sleepover. Organiser Chris Dudley, 43, from Brighton, says he was really surprised by how many people are interested in sleeping overnight along the royal wedding procession route.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"When I posted it to Facebook I imagined that I'd be able to get together a dozen or so friends to come and sleep out with me in Windsor on the night before the royal wedding in solidarity with our homeless brothers and sisters. I never imagined that so many would feel the same as me," Boyd said. So far 7.6K people have expressed interest and 1.1K say they are going.

"The idea that we could, or would want to, sweep the homeless under the carpet for a lavish royal wedding is, for me, utterly appalling," he said.

Both organisers are aware of the heavy security that will be surrounding the event, and say they are only interested in peaceful protest.

Protesters are planning on bringing sleeping bags and placards to show solidarity with people sleeping rough in Windsor. Credit: jack Taylor/Getty Images

"I have spoken to the police and am lead to believe that provided everyone behaves properly, which we fully intend to, that our event will be allowed to go ahead unhindered," Boyd said.

Thames Valley Police, which is responsible for policing the event, told Mashable, "Everyone has a right to express their views peacefully, however anyone looking to disrupt the event will be dealt with in a robust yet proportionate manner.”

"Harry and Meghan are just a couple getting married."

The police said that everyone entering Windsor will have to pass through security scanners and every bag will be checked. This includes things like placards and sleeping bags, which the protestors plan on bringing along.

"We will be taking a common sense approach to ensure that people have the right to make peaceful protest, further to ensure that those who want to watch the procession have room to do so," a police spokesman said.

So we have thousands of people planning on turning up for peaceful protests, and police ready to facilitate this. Well done, democracy. But how helpful will it actually be to the people who need it the most?

"Harry and Meghan are just a couple getting married," said Murphy James, Project Development Manager at Windsor Homeless Project, which offers food, washing facilities, and assistance to the homeless in the area. James seems wary of the link that's being made between the royal wedding and the issue of homelessness, and all the attention it's getting.

"That original tweet should have never had #royalwedding," he said. "Without that tweet we wouldn't have had any of this."

"We don't want to turn this into something it's not," he said. "If the royal family was linked to homelessness, there would've been protesters at Kate and Will's wedding." (This is true -- there were anti-royalist protests and people dressed as zombies at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wedding in 2011, but not a significant turnout of anti-homelessness protesters.)

Despite not wanting to be linked to the anti-homelessness protests, the charity has its own royal wedding link that it would like you to follow to help them, help people. It's collaborated with Revolt Communications to create royal wedding merchandise you can purchase, with the proceeds going to the charity.

And there's a music video, too.

While it remains to be seen whether all this outrage and raised awareness will put enough pressure on the government to do something urgently, the one thing everyone does agree on is that homelessness is a big problem in the UK that needs to be addressed.

"We're all there with the same aims; to highlight the homeless epidemic and to pressure those in power to take some proper action," Boyd said.

"Sometimes we need to disrupt the collective mind of society to raise awareness," Bramwell said.

"Homelessness is on everyone's mind," said James.

It may be just another couple getting married on 19 May, but their nuptials could provide an springboard for meaningful change for many people.

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Topics Activism Social Good