At long last the police are cracking down on hard marches

[mids2019]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6mjg13dz6o

I think it's great that the police are starting to take supporting terrorists seriously and are now using anti terror legislation to start making the arrests that should have happened some time ago. As predicted as the Gaza conflict has ground on there are more and more pro Palestine looks prepared to flirt with proscribed groups.

Maybe some halal time or fines will make these people think a bit more.

I won't "get over" it.
My opinion. You have yours
I think he's unspeakably vile.

Specsavers is your friend.

Again, I'd like some solid examples of terrorist atrocity perpetrated by "terror group" Palestine Action.

Would you like to wait until we have them, by which time the tragedy is irreversible? I'd say attacking military bases and smashing up Jewish shops is enough to show that their intentions are not benign.

I prefer to have working aircraft intact. There are going to be some very rude awakenings when people realise they've been backing the wrong horse.

I thought the vandalism of a Jewish shop in Stamford Hill rather chilling. Palestine Action claimed responsibility for that attack.

Everyone’s fixated on the ‘expensive planes’ while ignoring the broader picture.

No, I'd simply like some sort of evidence that suggests proscribing PA a terror group is in any way a proportionate response to any of the conduct attributed to PA so far, rather than a simple abuse of legislation in order to attempt to shut down a group the government considers embarrassing.

This is JSO all over again. Government can't stop their perfectly legitimate protest any other way, so it's taken the "terror" sledgehammer to a problem behaviour that is already covered by existing laws.

The only difference here is the Tories pushed it through, but this time it's a Labour government abusing their power.

I wasn’t pointing out he’s a Zionist to defend him 😂

I am concerned that the definition of terrorism is being watered down from injuring/killing people to incite terror for political aims into property vandalism for political aims where no one suffers a single scratch and were safely miles away tucked up in bed.

Yes, it is criminal damage, but we have laws to prosecute people for vandalism. Using the Terror Act here along with 14yr prison terms is an expansion of de facto policing protest that should concern all of us. It reeks of lawfare against free speech.

Our justice system is supposed to be based on prosecuting people and proscribing organisations for the crimes they have actually committed not crimes they might hypothetically commit when there is no evidence they are conspiring to do that sort of crime.

Otherwise it’s a bit Minority Report-esque and we need a PreCrime Police Unit.

Actually thats not the case with terrorism. Terrorism is managed through intelligence and monitoring with the intention of preventing terrorist attacks and preparing terrorist attacks is in itsrlf a crime. You don't wait for them to kill a lot of peoole and then limit their activities.

Proportionate?
Arson in a naval dockyard was a hanging offence till relatively recently, as actions against UK forces (breaking into an airbase and causing expensive damage to military aircraft) have been quite frowned upon historically.

There is unease in Europe and beyond and increased focus on defence generally, you may have been focussing too much elsewhere

I do understand that, but these are not typical acts of vandalism by disaffected youth, such as kicking in a bus stop. The increasing use of violence by this covert group, expressing contempt for government / military / Jewish targets, should sound alarm bells, especially as the UK’s intelligence services and counterterrorism experts consistently identify Islamist terrorism (specifically from radicalised individuals or groups) as the most significant terrorism threat to the country.

https://www.counterextremism.com/countries/united-kingdom-extremism-and-terrorism

Edited to add: you may have felt safely tucked up in your bed, but I doubt the Jewish population is feeling quite so relaxed.

I stand by calling him "fascist" and calling him "vile".

My god. This thread is unbelievable.

@SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice ” It reeks of lawfare against free speech.”

If they’d have kept their protests to banners and speech, they wouldn’t have a problem.

Indeed, and had you participated in either, you'd have been dealt with appropriately and in accordance with the relevant laws.

The issue I have, is the sole purpose of the recent legislation is nothing other than to enable government to outlaw groups it simply finds irritating, rather than groups which inarguably pose a significant, existent threat to security and safety of the UK population, hence why we are now in a situation where a sufficiently large enough group of MP's with a mind to do it can simply vote to proscribe any group which sufficiently rankles a "terror" group.

This used to happen on the advice of security services, and only after there was sufficient evidence to suggest a group did, in fact, pose a serious risk to the security of the UK and safety of the citizenry, whereas now, if your group simply argues for the wrong variety of baked beans, the government can, without any other consideration, simply vote to put you into "terror group" status and ban your organisation, rendering it a criminal offence to both be a member of your organisation, voice support or sympathy for it, and to do whatever it is you do, including what was previously perfectly legitimate, legal protest. It's an appalling abuse of executive power and has no place in a supposedly free and open society, because it's nothing other than State repression and subjugation of legitimate protest dressed up as "anti-terror".

If this law was around back in the 70s and 80s, the Greenham Common protestors would have been proscribed, rounded up, tried, and imprisoned, as would the various groups who campaigned around Faslane and occasionally trespassed on the RN base. Terrorist organisations? Of course not, but no less ridiculous than proscribing JSO or PA

Ah, I had no idea you were privy to security service briefings. My apologies.

Lucky I don't eat baked beans often, do we know which brands are the most contentious?

Same. I am from a country who recognise Palestine as a state. Also proud not to be British.

You don't need to be privvy to security briefings to recognise that the UK had a perfectly functional methodology for proscribing groups in the past, and considering this, the recent Tory change is blatantly nothing more than a political expediency, i.e. they can forego the old mechanism, avoid contention with security services, and proscribe any group they like, including groups of pensioners pissed off at the destruction of the environment, on the premise that holding up traffic constitutes a national emergency.

Funny that when farmers do the same, nobody rushes to proscribe the NFU

It is, quite clearly, not about terror, and simply about dispensing with anyone or anything the government deems a pain in the arse or too troublesome to deal with via perfectly adequate existing law.

Quite easy to avoid tbh I live in a big city and there is always space to avoid or ignore. I also avoid the tourists, the big gig goers, the football, rugby and cricket fans that decend every week, the hoardes of language students and actual students. I barely notice the protestors unless I choose to.

So by that definition, acts of vandalism that happened during Kristallnacht can be described as mere criminal damage?

Surely you can see their actions are racially motivated? But that’s ok, because Jews don’t matter?

Eyes wide shut.

Evidence of acts consistent with Terrorism please.

The decision, thats just been made -in parliament. Stop making excuses for the naive, hard left.

That is not, in any form "evidence".

What "hard left" are you talking about?