BANNING PROTESTS in UK: The END of Free Speech?

Right, so Labour Friends of Israel, even once they are outside of the Labour Party and no longer part of LFI, the bending over for the apartheid state of Israel continues it seems, though when Sunak’s Tories and Starmer’s Labour seem to be in competition with each other in the sycophancy stakes in that regard, it is a bit of Animal Farm situation where you’re basically looking from man to pig and pig to man and cannot tell the difference.
Red Tories within the Labour ranks are nothing new though, they certainly are far more authoritarian now and throwing their weight around a lot more, but they’ve always been there, and one example of a yesterday’s man, is former Labour MP, turned crossbench peer having been put into the House of Lords by the Tories, so underlining that man to pig example all the more, John Woodcock, now posturing as Lord Walney and indeed this is how he gets presented in the press. Not only did he accept a peerage from the Tories despite supposedly being a Labour man though, he is now the Tory government’s advisor on political violence and in that remit he’s been producing a report, which has been subject to being leaked, with plans to ban so-called ‘extremist’ protest groups. Well where does the line get drawn on that, who draws it and given that Walney is a former chair of LFI and one of the groups he’s pointing at is Palestine Action, is this not blatant bias and abuse of our human rights, not to mention an act of political violence in and of itself?
Right, so political violence what is that when it’s at home? It might make you think of those two MPs who have been murdered in recent years, Jo Cox and David Amess. Perhaps you might be thinking instead of protesters rocking up outside Keir Starmer’s house and giving him a headache on his doorstep, my goodness didn’t the media slam them for that, and I don’t disagree, I don’t think people should camp out and intimidate people on their doorsteps, but where was the mainstream media when this was happening to Jeremy Corbyn? Oh they were joining in weren’t they? One rule for the pro establishment, another for everyone else.
Political violence is defined in British law and it works both ways, it can be committed against governments or by them and includes already things such as torture, ethnic cleansing, genocide, police brutality, assassination, terrorist attacks, guerilla warfare and can also include rioting, kidnapping, treason, or attempted coups. Protest, you will note is not in there, but you can look at that list and look at Israel and think, there’s a good example of political violence being carried out against occupied people in which case, but it isn’t them that Lord Walney is interested in and as a former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, I can’t imagine why he’d cast a blind eye at that, but you can absolute surmise it might be behind his decision according to leaked documentation to accuse those protesting against Israel right now as extremists.
Yes, he wants to bring in a new category of protest, extreme protest and two groups, Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil are in his sights and he’s advocating for them to be proscribed and restricted in what they can and cannot do and should he get his way, sanctions could include preventing them from assembling and meeting and also fundraising. Here’s an excerpt on what’s been said:
‘"Militant groups like Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil are using criminal tactics to create mayhem and hold the public and workers to ransom without fear of consequence," Lord Walney said.
"Banning terror groups has made it harder for their activists to plan crimes - that approach should be extended to extreme protest groups too."
Just Stop Oil said the government were the “dangerous radicals that are endangering all of us” through their climate policies.
Palestine Action claimed its actions were in line with most of the British public who want an arms embargo between the UK and Israel, and the proposals would not deter their campaign.
The new restriction orders "would be distinct from proscription on terrorism grounds", the report will say.
But the mechanism could limit the activities of organisations that have a policy of using criminal offences or causing serious disruption to influence government or public debate.
If a group’s actions were persistent, and used to promote a political or ideological cause, that would count against them, according to the recommendation.
It will come as part of a review into tackling political violence by Lord Walney - the former Labour MP John Woodcock - which was commissioned three years ago, but is yet to be published.’
Right, so their criminal tactics means they are being accused of political violence does it? There’s no violence. Just Stop Oil, will sit in the road, they will slow walk, they will graffiti, they will throw soup at paintings, they are very fond of throwing orange paint around, but it washes off. Protest is supposed to be disruptive, it happens when people with strong feelings aren’t getting listened to. You can certainly argue that some of what they have done perhaps crosses the line of criminality, however the right to protest does not preclude this. You might not like it, but if you aren’t listening, all they can do is escalate. At no point have they, or Palestine Action acted in a violent manner towards anyone however, certainly the police have to them, we have seen police brutality at protests and that does come under political violence, how come I seem to know more about your brief than you do Woodcock? It’s a fine line, a small step between labelling these people, these groups as extreme protesters now, to labelling them as something more like terrorists later on and you can be sure the mainstream media will hurry that up and before long you end up in a situation where protesters are labelled as such, just like for example, anti-Zionists being labelled as antisemites when the two are not mutually exculsive.
Indeed Walney himself gave the game away there in a quote from that piece published by the BBC, when he said:
‘Banning terror groups has made it harder for their activists to plan crimes - that approach should be extended to extreme protest groups too.’
This is intentional language to conflate the word activist with the word terrorist and it needs spotting and calling out wherever it is seen and I’d remind you, this guy, used to be a Labour MP, yet is acting like the most right wing of Tories.
To weaken the right to protest is to weaken our freedom of speech and expression and of course these are protected under the European Convention of Human Rights, which Rishi Sunak keeps threatening to take us out of anyway, so this would be just another reason to try and do so, as no doubt these moves against these protest groups would result in legal action which the government would lose. There’s no violence here, but moving the goalposts of the law, frankly all the Tories have ever seemed to do for years to get their own way, is what this is all about.
Starmer is apparently supportive of all of this as well, he’s certainly the same factions as Woodcock was, even if he lied about that to get where he is today, and who can forget him saying in regards to Just Stop Oil:
‘Get up, go home, I’m opposed to what you are doing.’
Protesting for change? The very thing the Labour Party was built on? You do surprise me Keith!
Both Starmer and Woodcock are avowedly pro Israel, so targeting Palestine Action can be seen as nothing short of a cynical ploy in line with their biases. Israel is a genocidal state meting out political violence, yet protesting that is what will get recognised as political violence in this country if Woodcock gets his way and his report when finally published gets enacted on and law is changed as a consequence and not for the better, because that is basically a given at this point isn’t it? A genocidal apartheid state and the Tory government’s man political violence advisor will in all likelihood advocate to see protesting that labelled political violence instead. It’s all just one more reason why on top of electoral reform, Lord’s reform comes hotly after.
Indeed Labour’s position on protests was underlined in no uncertain terms not all that long ago, when Palestine protesters hit a Labour Party fundraiser, being hosted by Angela Rayner and if you still think she’s somehow one of the good ones in the party, then please watch this video recommendation next and see if you still think that going by her reaction and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.