Asked if this was a “dark step” to limit the fundamental right to protest, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood replied that having a freedom “doesn’t mean you have to use it at every moment of every day”.

London’s Metropolitan Police arrested another 492 people over the weekend after a protest Saturday in Trafalgar Square, as the Starmer government accelerated its crackdown on opposition to the Gaza genocide.

The entirely peaceful protest was held to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action. It was organised by Defend Our Juries and attended by over 1,000 people. Of the arrests, 488 were for holding up signs declaring, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.

  • yucandu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    491·
    8 hours ago

    That’s a funny looking labour government you got there UK.

    How did you guys go from Corbyn to this? Is it so hard to have a labour party leader that doesn’t back Israel or Russia?

    • Small_Quasar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      6 hours ago

      Starmer is terrified of Reform. So he’s taken the really smart stance of pulling Labour to the right to court a demographic that would never vote Labour anyway, and in the meantime utterly piss off his core base.

      • Avicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        5 hours ago

        This almost always fails and only ends up moving the country average to right and make extreme right seem more mild.

        Also I don’t think right wing voters have that strong an opinion on Israel. This is more likely zionist lobbies pulling some of Starmer’s strings.