Mailwatch(ed) Forum

What my missus can't get her head around is how how the police selected who they arrested as everyone there was breaking the law as it stands. Why did they choose to arrest, amoung others around her, a 90 year old woman, a partially sighted man in a wheelchair and the 88 year old bloke who was trembling with fear as he was bundled away by a load of Welsh police officers.

Why did they choose to arrest, amoung others around her, a 90 year old woman, a partially sighted man in a wheelchair and the 88 year old bloke who was trembling with fear as he was bundled away by a load of Welsh police officers.

An easy nick?

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 3:25 pm

That is bollocks on steroids. What it is all about, is a Labour government, for which we had such high hopes, is hellbent upon criminalising the Birkenstock brigade and radicalising the Jack Wolfskin wing to the point of raiding the grandkids' pencil cases.

Cooper - a candidate for chief grown-up-in-charge, if there ever was one - is now making an utter fool of herself.

Or a bunch of middle-class people are outraged on behalf of an organisation that they probably never even heard of before, and think is Extinction Rebellion but for Palestine and are protesting about that rather than what is happening in Gaza.

I’m sorry but what is so massively important about Palestinian action?

mattomac wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 6:51 pm I’m sorry but what is so massively important about Palestinian action?

It's an opportunity to attack Starmer plain and simple which is far more important than the plight of Gaza.

It's called "losing the dressing room".

Without the usually-benign-but-grumbling-when-pushed corpus, any British government is on borrowed time. c.f. the poll tax, covid knees-ups.

I would bet that you would go a country mile before finding anyone who supports criminal damage, Rather, the issue here is that HMG is turning a tin ear to the right to protest and supporting the criminalisation of people harmlessly scribbling "I don't support Palestine inaction" on a sheet of A4. The affront is palpable.

This is the generation which had tea, crumpets and a hair wash before watching the almost unbelievable horror of World at War on a Sunday evening. It is a generation which only knew progress as the prevailing force until the Arab Spring, and now has experienced fifteen years of the worst possible outcomes coming to pass.

This is just the latest iteration. Moreover, we Europeans believe that we have the strength of mutuality and persuasive dialogue with our kindred spirits in all that is good, especially the very concept of Israel, but that feral government has wrapped itself in a bestial cloak of murderous intent.

It no wonder that people are royally pissed off and are being brought on the streets with the news of every further arrest.

I commented that my missus travelled from Tyneside to be at the protest yesterday and I'm disappointed to see her dismissed as a clueless sandal wearing, middle class, virtue signally poser. She spent 35 years teaching kids in the arse end of Newcastle and Sunderland so I'd like to see her critics say that to her face. Not to mention the couple of years attempting to convince the Jewish girls of Gateshead that it might be worth learning something before they have their 8 kids.

Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for Palestinian Action I do think that they probably crossed a line when they caused £3m worth of damage to RAF jets. That being said rather than waste time and money fighting the ban why doesn't somebody just set up an alternative organisation that can channel all the energy towards helping people in Palestine. This is exactly what most right wing organisations have done when they have been banned.

Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn could use his new found popularity to set up a group called Your Palestine.

After my own heart.

satnav wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 9:17 pm Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for Palestinian Action I do think that they probably crossed a line when they caused £3m worth of damage to RAF jets. That being said rather than waste time and money fighting the ban why doesn't somebody just set up an alternative organisation that can channel all the energy towards helping people in Palestine. This is exactly what most right wing organisations have done when they have been banned.

Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn could use his new found popularity to set up a group called Your Palestine.

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone's been arrested for supporting a proscribed fash group. Because they might not be the brightest, but they know there's always another fash group to support.

Exactly, if you're actually concerned about the plight of the Palestinians, why not do something to help them instead of wasting time on demos in London? Let alone the absurd pretence that anything Palestine Action have done is of any benefit to anyone.

Give money to the Red Crescent or Medecins sans Frontieres. That makes a difference. Waving a placard doesn't.

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 9:41 pm Give money to the Red Crescent or Medecins sans Frontieres. That makes a difference. Waving a placard doesn't.

Precisely, all those train fares could feed a lot of people.

And I have also taught in the arse end of Sunderland...

satnav wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 9:17 pm Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for Palestinian Action I do think that they probably crossed a line when they caused £3m worth of damage to RAF jets.

That is undoubtedly so, but the proscription of a direct-action protest group as terrorist is, I think I’m right in saying, completely without precedent. I rather think it is this that has put a lot of people’s backs up - hence the demo today.

I also find it slightly baffling. What exactly are Yvette Cooper, and Keir Starmer, trying to prove or achieve ? Causing several million quid’s worth of damage to state assets is a very serious criminal matter- without a doubt, in penalty for which the full force of the law should be brought to bear. But terrorism ? They were not, and are not, trying to kill anybody or terrorise anybody.

If it’s possible for Yvette and Keir to back down from this action with a shred of credibility and dignity, then they should do so ASAP.

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 7:49 pm It's called "losing the dressing room".

Without the usually-benign-but-grumbling-when-pushed corpus, any British government is on borrowed time. c.f. the poll tax, covid knees-ups.

I would bet that you would go a country mile before finding anyone who supports criminal damage, Rather, the issue here is that HMG is turning a tin ear to the right to protest and supporting the criminalisation of people harmlessly scribbling "I don't support Palestine inaction" on a sheet of A4. The affront is palpable.

This is the generation which had tea, crumpets and a hair wash before watching the almost unbelievable horror of World at War on a Sunday evening. It is a generation which only knew progress as the prevailing force until the Arab Spring, and now has experienced fifteen years of the worst possible outcomes coming to pass.

This is just the latest iteration. Moreover, we Europeans believe that we have the strength of mutuality and persuasive dialogue with our kindred spirits in all that is good, especially the very concept of Israel, but that feral government has wrapped itself in a bestial cloak of murderous intent.

It no wonder that people are royally pissed off and are being brought on the streets with the news of every further arrest.

I'm sorry, but this is no better than the fever dreams the right have been coming out with all summer about how the country is ready to blow.

I don't know where this figure of £3 million has come from but the replacement engines for the two damaged aircraft alone are £2,5m each.
Estimates vary, but the total bill to the taxpayer for Palestine Action's vandalism over the last five years appears to be at least £45 million and may be as high as £55 million.
The Terrorism Act 2000 includes "serious damage to property" in it's definition of terrorism.
Now, we can debate the definition of "serious" and that will be decided by Court of Appeal but I suggest that some might say 55 million quids worth of vandalism is quite serious.
I wonder how many starving Palestinians could be saved with £55 million?
I also wonder if Palestine Action have ever given it a moment's thought?

Abernathy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 11:04 pm
That is undoubtedly so, but the proscription of a direct-action protest group as terrorist is, I think I’m right in saying, completely without precedent. I rather think it is this that has put a lot of people’s backs up - hence the demo today.

I also find it slightly baffling. What exactly are Yvette Cooper, and Keir Starmer, trying to prove or achieve ? Causing several million quid’s worth of damage to state assets is a very serious criminal matter- without a doubt, in penalty for which the full force of the law should be brought to bear. But terrorism ? They were not, and are not, trying to kill anybody or terrorise anybody.

If it’s possible for Yvette and Keir to back down from this action with a shred of credibility and dignity, then they should do so ASAP.

100% this. When you have the former base commander of Greenham Common saying this is too much, I think it’s clear it’s too much. It’s absurdly heavy handed, it feeds all manner of theories about donations from Israel-friendly groups to cabinet ministers, and it plays perfectly into the tiresome narrative that Starmer’s Labour are no better than, if not worse, than the Tories. And on this particular issue, there’s depressingly more than a grain of truth to that.

It’s a gift to the right as it shifts the Overton window yet again, it’s a gift to the left and Corbyn’s start-up as it disenfranchises Labour voters, and - above all else - it’s *wrong*. Other protest groups have done far more for far longer with no action remotely like this.