The Guardian | Protest

We’ve been calling for peace in Palestine – these sinister Tory proposals would silence us | Ben Jamal

Instead of seeking to demonise protesters for justice, the government should be putting pressure on Israel

Israel’s devasting military assault on Gaza has now killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, 70% of them women and children, with thousands more missing, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes. Every weekend, thousands of people attend marches in London; across the nation, there have been protests in dozens of towns and cities. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the largest Palestine solidarity organisation in Europe, has been at the forefront of these actions, and support for our work has mushroomed. Yet as public pressure has built for a ceasefire, the efforts to repress these calls have accelerated, too.

I made a recent speech calling for people to peacefully lobby their MPs inside parliament. I said that so many protesters would arrive that parliament would have to lock its doors. But this was reframed in national media as a call for violent insurrection. Peaceful but loud and vigorous protests at council meetings and outside MPs’ offices have been characterised as acts of physical intimidation. Now we have Lord Walney, a politician with a track record of unabashed support for Israel, calling for political leaders to ban any contact between MPs or councillors and members of the PSC. Rishi Sunak has told us he will carefully consider these proposals. We must resist this political desire to shield Israel from accountability and from the charge of genocide, and attempts to suppress people’s right to protest, manifested in the repressive legislation passed by this government.

Ben Jamal is director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Continue reading...

Met chief says force cannot be both ‘woke and fascist’ as he defends policing of protests – UK politics live

Sir Mark Rowley responds to implicit criticism from Rishi Sunak about how police have handled pro-Palestinian marches, saying officers feel undermined

Sir Mark Rowley has hit back at Rishi Sunak’s criticism of the policing of anti-war protests, dismissing claims officers are failing to enforce the law as “inaccurate” and claiming officers were being branded as “woke and fascist” at the same time.

The Metropolitan police commissioner spoke out on Tuesday after police leaders were last week summoned to a summit at Downing Street.

We’re always operating in a very challenging political environments where tensions remain high and hate crime is still a long way above pre-October 7 levels.

Policing is used to being criticised. But where it isn’t justified, I do worry about the impact it has on our officers and staff, and on public confidence as we strive to operate without fear or favour.

In February, two separate YouGov polls showed that most Britons would prefer the government prioritise public spending over tax cuts …

A variation of that same question which more explicitly notes that the cuts would be on taxes that “everyday people pay” closes the gap considerably, with 41% supporting tax cuts in this scenario, although this is still lower than the 47% who would prefer to put money towards public services.

Continue reading...

Met chief defends policing of anti-war protests after Sunak’s criticism

Mark Rowley said officers were being branded ‘woke and fascist’ at same time and felt undermined by lack of government support

Sir Mark Rowley has hit back at Rishi Sunak’s criticism of the policing of anti-war protests, dismissing claims officers are failing to enforce the law and saying officers were being labelled “woke and fascist” at the same time.

The Metropolitan police commissioner spoke out on Tuesday after police leaders were last week summoned to Downing Street to discuss their forces’ approach to the marches against the conflict in Gaza.

Continue reading...

No 10 faces Tory backlash over plans to broaden extremism definition

Figures on right of party fear move could have unintended impact on those with socially conservative views

Downing Street is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs and peers over moves to create a broader of definition of extremism in response to what Rishi Sunak describes as the threat of “mob rule”.

Michael Gove, the communities secretary, is expected to unveil plans next week that would allow the government, universities and local authorities to cut off links to groups identified as “extremist”.

Continue reading...

‘It was so wrong’: why were so many people imprisoned over one protest in Bristol?

More people have been imprisoned for rioting during a single day in Bristol in 2021 than in any other protest-related disorder since at least the 1980s. What was behind this push to prosecute so harshly?

On the afternoon of 21 March 2021, Fleur Moody hurried through the graffiti-sprayed backstreets of Bristol. She and her partner were on their way to join a march against proposed laws that would give the police extensive new powers to clamp down on protests. They caught up with the march just before it streamed into a park overlooking the city’s harbour.

Moody, who was 26 at the time, was getting her life back on track after years of mental health problems and addiction. She sat on the grass with friends sharing food and drinks in the last of the sunshine. “I was quite fragile,” she told me recently. “But I’ve always believed people have a right to protest and have their voices heard.”

Continue reading...

A Tory party that stokes hatred is the real threat to our democracy | Letters

Readers respond to Rishi Sunak’s speech on how extremism has taken hold in Britain

I totally agree with Caroline Lucas’s condemnation of Rishi Sunak’s nauseating speech on Friday (‘I’m still reeling from Rishi Sunak’s shameless, dangerous speech’, 3 March). Sunak’s hypocrisy was breathtaking, even by this government’s low standards. No one has done more to promote division and intolerance than the Conservatives, or to demonise and insult those they dislike or disagree with.

Since 2010, we have seen the Home Office hire a fleet of vans telling immigrants to “go home”, heard the unemployed described as skivers not strivers, homelessness described as “a lifestyle choice”, opponents of Brexit portrayed as unpatriotic or ridiculed as “remoaners”, rightwing vigilantes vandalising Ulez cameras in London defended, and senior Conservatives recently insulting the Muslim (Labour) mayor of London. Meanwhile, young people are routinely derided as snowflakes, while anyone who believes in social justice or basic human decency is sneered at for being woke.

Continue reading...

Why does Rishi Sunak talk down the UK? I blame David Cameron | Zoe Williams

It takes a rare mix of melodrama and disloyalty to stand outside No 10 and declare that the country is going to the dogs. But other Tory PMs blazed the way

The worst thing you can do with a Rishi Sunak speech is think about it too hard. The words won’t make any more sense and they’ll just come down over your regular thoughts like a thick fog. Nevertheless, there was something strange about last Friday’s apparently impromptu thoughts, and I can’t leave it alone.

Sunak is worried that extremists are tearing this country apart. Fair enough, good point, except he wasn’t talking about Suella Braverman or Lee Anderson: he was talking about the Gaza protests.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

No 10 berates Chris Packham for ‘irresponsible’ Just Stop Oil comments

BBC presenter defends climate activists’ right to target MPs’ homes amid debate over politicians’ safety

Downing Street has accused the BBC presenter Chris Packham of being “irresponsible” after he said Just Stop Oil had a right to protest outside the homes of MPs despite fears over politicians’ safety.

Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson said the police would consider such demonstrations “intimidatory” and use their powers to move on protesters under a policing protocol agreed last week.

Continue reading...

Ministers consider ban on MPs engaging with pro-Palestine and climate protesters

Plans call for ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to groups such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Just Stop Oil

Ministers are considering proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

The plans, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a “zero-tolerance approach” to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop “hate” on marches.

Continue reading...

Never judge a farmer by her husband | Brief letters

Meeting farmers | Gove’s legacy | Democratic choice | Enemies of the state | Funeral forewarning

Re Adrian Chiles’s article (I thought I knew what farmers’ lives were like. I was so wrong, 29 February), many years ago, while at the South of England Agricultural Show, I took my small group of children to the “meet a farmer” stand. When the lady who greeted us said to the children: “I am a farmer. What would you like to ask me?” The look of disbelief on every child’s face caused her to shrug and say: “I’ll go and get my husband.”
Barbara Tomkinson
East Grinstead, West Sussex

• May I thank Andy Beckett for his perceptive profile of shapeshifter Michael Gove (Anderson and Braverman shout loudest, but one man has led the toxification of the Tories: Michael Gove, 2 March). As one of thousands of teachers who suffered from his zealotry, it was a reminder of the dangers presented by politicians who put self-promotion above the public good. Or, as the US satirist Ambrose Bierce put it: “A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”
David Hughes
Bath

Continue reading...

I’m still reeling from Rishi Sunak’s shameless, dangerous speech | Caroline Lucas

The prime minister’s address on Friday was a masterclass in gaslighting and made a new art form of rank hypocrisy

  • Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

“We must face down the extremists who would tear us apart,” Sunak declared to the country on Friday evening. And perhaps never were truer words spoken – at least not by this morally bankrupt prime minister, who is rapidly proving to be one of the most dangerously irresponsible leaders this country has ever faced.

I am still in disbelief at the sheer chutzpah of Sunak wheeling out the No 10 lectern and calling on the whole nation to tune in to an emergency address. Because what came next was not the announcement of a major natural disaster or attack. It wasn’t, as we saw from other world leaders that day, a condemnation of open gunfire against starving people trying to reach aid trucks in Gaza, or a statement of solidarity with Russian protesters against Putin. It wasn’t even the calling of an election.

Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

Continue reading...

Australia to announce Gaza aid as pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters rally

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Sydney to demand a ceasefire while a separate pro-Israel rally against antisemitism took place in Adelaide

Pro-Palestinian protesters have taken to the streets after more than 100 Palestinians were killed while trying to secure food as Australia flags more humanitarian aid.

About 120 Palestinians were killed as they tried to access humanitarian resources from an aid convoy, the local Hamas health authority said, attributing the deaths to Israeli gunfire.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Pro-Palestinian protesters voice disgust at Sunak ‘extremist’ comments

Day of action takes place at almost 50 Barclays branches across England and Wales including one in central London

Protesters have gathered in London and at almost 50 other locations across England and Wales over Israel’s war in Gaza, a day after Rishi Sunak said democracy was being targeted by extremists.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) singled out Barclays for its day of action, with hundreds of people taking part in a demonstration outside the bank’s Tottenham Court Road branch in the centre of the capital.

Continue reading...

The ‘mob rule’ that Rishi Sunak fears most lies in the ranks of his own party | Andrew Rawnsley

The Tory leader has been flabby about policing extremism on his own side

Conservatives would usually be the first to complain when police officers are diverted from their duties tackling crime and maintaining order to participate in a publicity stunt. Yet it was Rishi Sunak who last week summoned police chiefs to Downing Street for no better reason than to provide him with an audience of blue uniforms to hear his unevidenced claim that there is a “growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in Britain. A consensus among whom? The hosts of GB News? The most rabidly rightwing tabloid ranters? The leadership of the Reform party?

The police chiefs themselves have been strikingly reluctant to endorse Mr Sunak’s contention that Britain is descending into “mob rule”. This sounds like the kind of thing a rent-a-gob reactionary backbencher might spit out in the hope of being quoted by the Daily Mail. You don’t expect to hear that kind of nonsense coming out of the mouth of the prime minister. Not least because it wouldn’t normally be considered either clever or responsible politics for the leader of the country to suggest that it was plunging into violent anarchy on his watch. Unless, that is, the leader was aiming to do a Donald Trump by seeking to gain advantage through fomenting fear, increasing division and toxifying the atmosphere to justify trampling on democratic norms.

Continue reading...

Police aggression towards Gaza march observers ‘on the rise’ in UK as woman says officers knocked her over

Legal adviser to pro-Palestinian protesters was taken to hospital by passersby after the incident on Westminster Bridge in London

A 71-year-old legal observer has accused a group of police officers of deliberately knocking her over and leaving her bloodied and unconscious on the ground during a Gaza ceasefire protest in London.

Lesley Wertheimer – who was wearing a hi-vis bib with “legal observer” printed on the back – crashed face down into the road when a phalanx of about 30 police officers ran towards Westminster Bridge during the first pro-Palestine demonstration of 2024.

Continue reading...

Peta protesters disrupt Victoria Beckham’s Paris fashion week show – video

Victoria Beckham’s show at Paris fashion week was interrupted by protesters from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), who invaded the runway to protest against her use of animal products. Protesters wore white T-shirts that read: 'Turn your back on animal skins' and 'Animals aren’t fabric'. They walked alongside models on the catwalk, holding up placards that read: 'Viva vegan leather'. The European president of the group said on Friday: 'No garment or accessory is worth violently slaughtering and skinning a sensitive and intelligent animal. We are urging Victoria Beckham to turn instead to the ethical and eco-friendly innovations available today, such as high-end leather made from apples, grapes, pineapples, mushrooms and more.'

Continue reading...

Pro-Palestine marches to continue after Sunak ‘extremists’ speech

Organiser suggests PM consider own MPs’ behaviour after speech about rise in ‘extremist disruption’

Pro-Palestine protests are to continue across the UK on Saturday after Rishi Sunak’s warning that democracy was being targeted by “extremists”.

In an address to the nation on Friday, the prime minister spoke about “forces here at home trying to tear us apart”, in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks by Hamas against Israel.

Continue reading...

Peta protesters disrupt Victoria Beckham’s Paris fashion week show

Activists protest against fashion designer’s use of leather, urging her to use vegan alternatives

Victoria Beckham’s show at Paris fashion week was interrupted by protesters from the animal rights group Peta, who invaded the runway to protest against her use of animal products.

Protesters wore white T-shirts that read “turn your back on animal skins” and “animals aren’t fabric”. They walked alongside models on the catwalk, holding up placards that read: “Viva vegan leather”.

Continue reading...

Rish! purposefully grips his lectern – but shows he has no grip of the country

PM spends 10 minutes sharing his innermost fears with the nation without offering any solutions

Nothing shouts “Don’t panic! Don’t panic” more than a hastily arranged speech from the prime minister outside No 10 at 5.45pm on a Friday. Still, on the plus side, those who chose to carry on watching Pointless on BBC One won’t have missed a thing. It would have been hard to tell the two apart.

Rishi Sunak is the politician’s anti-politician. If he ever came close to a real politician, he might dissolve on contact. Just as well there are so few of them in his cabinet. You could almost call it a talent – the unerring ability to do the wrong thing. To strike the wrong tone. To misjudge the situation. Every time you think things couldn’t get any worse, Rish! appears to say: “Hold my Coke.”

Continue reading...

Extremists trying to tear us apart, says Rishi Sunak in impromptu No 10 speech

PM condemns ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in wake of Gaza war, in sometimes rambling address

Rishi Sunak has claimed extremist groups in the UK are “trying to tear us apart”, in a hastily arranged Downing Street statement that came hours after George Galloway won a byelection in Rochdale.

Standing outside Downing Street late on Friday, the prime minister condemned what he called “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” after the 7 October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Continue reading...

Pages