Yvette Cooper in the House of Commons, 2018, sporting a rosette marking the centenary of (some) women getting the vote
Four days ago Yvette Cooper – UK Home Secretary, expenses cheat and wife to rottweiler for Israel Ed Balls – announced that Palestine Action, a group committed to peaceful direct action, is to be placed alongside ISIS and Al Qaeda on the list of proscribed terrorist groups.
This will make membership of or support for Palestine Action an offence punishable by up to fourteen years in prison.
The ostensible trigger – perish the thought of ‘The Lobby’ playing any part in this – is Palestine Action’s break-in at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, a former US air base now used by the RAF for transport and air-to-air refuelling. The group sprayed paint onto engine parts in as clear a case of trespass and criminal damage as any Crown Prosecutor could wish for.
The conundrum for Britain’s genocide complicit government being that maximum sentences for criminal damage may not suffice to instil fear in those whose antisemitism – what other motive could they possibly have? – might otherwise extend to actively opposing ‘our’ helping a rogue regime rip open babies skulls with livestreamed bullets.
Hence Ms Cooper’s stroke-of-a-pen solution.
Seven years earlier, to mark the centenary of (some) women getting the vote, she’d stood in the Commons proudly wearing a rosette to mark a victory owing in no small part to the actions of suffragettes who didn’t just throw paint. They threw bombs.
Which killed people.
I’m not knocking that, you understand. Sometimes ends really do justify means. I’m pointing out the hypocrisy is all.
Speaking of which, there’s the matter of Josh Richards, arrested in 2003 while trying to get into RAF Fairford with pliers, cigarette lighters and petrol mixed with washing-up liquid. Contesting charges of attempted arson and intent to damage property, his barrister argued that he’d acted to prevent crimes far more serious; namely war crimes.
The barrister? One Keir Starmer.
Meanwhile I know two people who intend to join Palestine Action as a direct consequence of Yvette Cooper’s cowardice. And I know one commentator who, though I take issue with him on other matters, is excellent at skewering this kind of thing. Over to you, Owen.
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The Palestine Action website lists UK showings of its film, To Kill a War Machine. I’ll be watching it in Sheffield this weekend. If there’s a screening near you, do verify time and date directly with the venue. Clicking “more info” for my venue gave a different time and day from those in the top level screen.
Just saying.
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“perish the thought of ‘The Lobby’ having any part in this”
See here:
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/26/israel-funded-caa-boasts-of-persuading-starmer-regime-to-ban-anti-genocide-palestine-action/
“An Israel lobby group that has repeatedly been funded by an Israeli government front group has claimed that the Starmer government’s move to ban – proscribe – anti-genocide activist group Palestine Action (PA) – is because of its influence and representations.
The so-called ‘Campaign against Antisemitism‘ (CAA), which has received hundreds of thousands in donations from the Israeli ‘quasi-governmental’ Jewish National Fund and has been described by Jewish anti-genocide activists as “to limit freedom of speech by attacking as ‘anti-Semitic’ opponents of the Israeli state”, boasted on its X account that it was behind Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s proscription decision:”
Meanwhile, here’s another video from another observer who, like Owen Jones and Richard Murphy, too often demonstrates difficulty in following the advice of E M Forster:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkVO4F_38I&ab_channel=DoubleDownNews
Though I’d be obliged if you did not open or share it until after Wednesday next week as due to having to go on a low fibre diet for – lets go with – a “test/procedure” at the Hallamshire porridge is verboten.
Well there we have it. Thanks Dave.
PS – for those not acquainted with E M Forster, the primary leitmotif of his novel, Howard’s End, is Only Connect …
Meanwhile…….(13 minutes 39 seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pq2co_Bhw&ab_channel=DeclassifiedUK
“Sir Richard Dalton tells Declassified the US and Israel pose greater threat to Middle East peace than Iran.
– Keir Starmer’s flouting of international law over Gaza and Iran does a “disservice” to Britain
– “Intense” lobbying by Israel exerts undue influence over UK foreign policy
– “Majority” of Iranians may support their country acquiring nuclear arms after Israeli/US attacks
– “Israel is not an ally” of Britain, former UK ambassador Sir Richard Dalton has told Declassified in a wide-ranging interview.
He also warns that Britain’s Israel lobby is getting “stronger” and exerts “a very powerful force in our society” including over politicians and political parties.”
To single out one of Dalton’s claims, an upsurge in support for an Iranian nuke was an entirely predictable response to the US-Israeli war crime of June 13.
Looks like the BBC are having a little trouble in managing The Official Narrative:
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/28/bbc-cuts-to-bob-vylan-to-avoid-kneecaps-pro-palestine-set-vylan-death-to-the-idf/
The Bob Vylan segment can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NGVe62pT1uU
Meanwhile, there is a petition on the proposed intent to proscribe Palastine Action:
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/28/hundreds-sign-legal-experts-open-letter-demanding-no-proscription-of-palestine-action/
The link to the petition can be found at the end of the article.