Democracy under siege

Under cover of freedom of speech and citizenship rights, power has moved from parliament to the streets

Red paint sprayed into an aircraft engine in the attack on RAF Brize Norton

This is an extended version of my column in today’s Times (UK £)

A demonstration is planned to take place on Saturday with the specific aim of overwhelming the state’s attempt to enforce the law.

The protest is against the government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Although this is being challenged in the courts in November, anyone who supports the group is open to prosecution under the Terrorism Act.

The organisers represent the alliance of Muslims and left-wing agitators that has been on the streets ever since since the October 7 2023 Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel and the war in Gaza that’s followed.

The protest’s organisers want at least 500 people to turn up and invite arrest by holding up placards declaring their support for the group. The aim is to overwhelm the police and make the law unenforceable.

The group’s briefing document says the police couldn’t cope with arresting so many people, and even if it could the political fallout would be “incalculable”.

The risks this poses to the authorities are indeed considerable. The police, courts and prisons are already operating well beyond their capacity. Mass arrests would threaten to overwhelm them. In addition, it wouldn’t be a good look.

Alongside Muslim radicals, many middle-class, middle-aged or even elderly people who have bought into the narrative of wicked Israel and suffering Gaza also support Palestine Action and may well turn up with their placards to take a stand for the cause.

Such people are furious at the suggestion that they are therefore supporting terrorism. They say it’s wrong to criminalise demonstrating for Palestine which should be viewed as legitimate freedom of speech.

The prospect of silver-haired folk in cardigans and sensible shoes being dragged off by the police can hardly be filling the hearts of government minsters with unalloyed joy.