To think Michael Gove wasn’t just out for a stroll through Victoria station last night

[Everythingnotsavedwillbelost73]

So Michael Gove just ‘happened’ to be strolling through Victoria station last night right through the middle of a pro- palestine sit in 🙄 How fucking stupid do they think people are?

Deflects nicely from Suella & right wing Tommy Robinson mob doesn’t it. The palestine March was mostly peaceful given the huge numbers but you always get a few dickheads on any March. The right wing mob however we’re fighting with police at the cenotaph. The state of this country.

Do people usually walk around with a camera crew in tow? So transparent it’s laughable. Can’t wait for this lot to leave government. He can then snort coke in obscurity with his mate Cummings.

When I first read about this yesterday I thought he certainly wasn't coming from his constituency because Surrey Heath (Camberley etc.) goes into Waterloo and then saw the Fail on Sunday cover story (not a story about the right wing thugs.) So at least interested to read he had been being driven.

To be fair… MPs and Ministers do travel by train to their constituency, and yesterday some major stations, including Victoria, had been granted a Section 14a, banning demonstrations in the station. So he might have felt it was business as usual.

I travelled through one of the other stations so protected yesterday afternoon and it was fine. Slightly edgy because there were groups of men dressed in black all over the general area, clearly there for the counter demonstrations, but not in the station. And no gathering of March participants in the station.

Yes people should be able to go where they want on a normal day but this was not a normal day. The Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said on Friday "There will be times this weekend where you see pockets of confrontation, despite the conditions and everything I've put in place to manage that."

The route of the march - with up to 500,000 people expected - passed right outside Victoria. Common sense would dictate that anyone not intending to be part of it should avoid the area, that it would cause traffic chaos and there was a risk of confrontations etc.

The MyLondon website's advice was to avoid a number of stations.
Where should I avoid if I don't want to get stuck in crowds?
The National March For Palestine route starts at Hyde Parkk_ and will see people march down Grosvenor Place, along Vauxhall Bridge Road, over Vauxhall Bridge then and past the US embassy to a stage further protest down Nine Elm's Lane.
There are many Tube stations near the march so if you are not taking part we advise avoiding Marble Arch (Central Line), Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Linee), London Victoria (Vitoria Line), Pimlico (Victoria Linee) and Vauxhall (Victoria Line) stations to not get caught in congestion. There is also a likelihood of large crowds at major National Rail stations such as Euston, Waterloo, London Bridge and Paddington as people travel to join the march.

But Gove leaves a car and walks around that area?!?!?

@kirbykirby Muslims and Jews should also be allowed to walk through their towns without being harassed but thanks to the stirring of our government to incite division and hatred, they are not.

Yes. Well done for highlighting it.

Of course anyone should be safe to walk anywhere. But… this was an obvious opportunity for this odious man to seek a headline.

It is though perhaps instructive to remember that Gove is a member of a party that has systematically defunded the police and criminal justice system along with an array of other parts of our state thus creating hardship and lack of safety for many.

Throwhandsupintheair
Do people usually walk around with a camera crew in tow?

Camera crew? You can quite clearly see several people filming Gove on their mobile phones (see videos and still photos in the Mail's article).

Well your post clearly states your opinion. The protest was absolutely full of racist, hateful signs and protesters. Anti semitism was in full view. You wouldn't see that though, because it doesn't fit your narrative, your cemented view. Michael Gove was verbally abused and physically assaulted. He, like anyone else, can go where the hell he want and not be subjected to abuse. I would absolutely hate to be Jewish right now, not one sign calling for the release of those poor kidnapped children. If you honestly believe this protest was not, largely, hate filled, I call you naive at best, but probably disingenuous. Next time there is a protest going on,why not come down to Forest Gate station in East London as people get on to go? You'll be in no doubt that it is hateful then.

Complete agree

Anything else is a complete affront to democracy

What a load of old tosh. Talk about shifting blame! Jesus...

Everythingnotsavedwillbelost73
"I know, why don't I walk directly through a Pro-Palestinian sit-in protest"

He was harassed and followed in the street first.

Absolutely agree.

Close family member went on the big march yesterday, they sent me photos, they said it was very peaceful and good natured and a real mix of ages and backgrounds. It is estimated that there were at least 300,000 to maybe 500,000 people there and a total of 150 arrests. Meanwhile over at the odious display at the Cenotaph there were 90 arrests and serious violence directed at the police. Make of that what you will.

YABU. Are you saying that he was asking for it?

I'm no Gove fan, but he, and anyone else, should have been free to walk through London without fear of the mob yesterday.

It’s true that he should be able to walk through a station without being harassed. However….

The point the OP is making us that it’s quite possible that this was staged, giving the Daily Mail a dog whistling headline. He is, as another poster just pointed out, married to someone who works for the DM.

The fact is that it was the right wing protesters that were fighting with the police but this didn’t make the DM front page. Gove did. If he hadn’t the right wing law breaking protestors, dog whistled by Cruella B, would have had to.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that him and his wife dreamt this up.

When you write 'horrible signs' do you mean antisemitic signs, encouraging violence, the erasure of Jews? Why temper your language? I wonder...

Everybody has the right to walk around without being "jostled", even if you do hate them OP.

But if the march was peaceful then even if it was a publicity stunt he wouldn't have been harassed at all.

Did he take his own photographer along with him or was it supplied by The Mail

Cupid Stunt

A close family member attended and sent you lovely cuddly photos? Well they would, wouldn't they?

@LizzieBananas , no he isn’t.

Not saying he asked for it but the Met police advised the day before that there would be confrontations. They can't control 3-500k people.

For him to go there as a public figure from a disliked government of a different political persuasion to the marchers was foolish. I didn't go to C London yesterday for my own safety. I changed my plans to accommodate the march. He should have given it more thought.

Well Braverman's "Stormtroopers" did what she wanted them to do didn't they !