Nestlé and Cadbury are not the same organisation. They both have exactly the same purpose and extremely similar methods of achieving that purpose. Their chocolate products, retail technique, marketing, manufacturing process and ingredients are in essence the same kind of thing.
Not the same organisation
Police Scotland and the famously corrupt Crown Office (the Scottish prosecution service) are treating the Leonardo 3 as terrorists, on the grounds Shut Down Leonardo must be Palestine Action because it has similar aims and methods. That is the Nestlé/Cadbury fallacy.
[Note for pedants. I am using familiar competing brands with different ownership. The ultimate ownership of Cadbury is irrelevant here.]
The young women are being treated appallingly. They are held in the terrorism interrogation centre at Govan police station. The police have repeatedly refused the request by their families to pass on to them the name of the solicitors briefed to represent them, and have also knocked back that solicitor.
It appears that at least one of the women has had access to the local duty solicitor. That is a lottery but this particular solicitor does appear to be well motivated and doing their best.
All this for three young women who have never harmed anybody nor expressed any intention to hurt anybody, who slightly damaged a fence and sat atop a minibus. That anybody involved – judge, prosecutor, policeman, MI5 officer – goes along with the fascist absurdity of calling this “terrorism” is truly shameful.
That the crushing powers of the Terrorism Act and full panoply of state repression are being visited on innocent, unarmed, young, female protestors is a historic shame on Scotland.
The Lord Advocate sits in the Scottish Cabinet. The SNP should step in and stop this now.
I once again refer you to the decision in the London High Court of 4 July in refusing to delay the proscription of Palestine Action. This explicitly stated that direct action is not aggravated to terrorism.
Underpinning Chamberlain’s judgment of course is the repudiation of the Nestlé/Cadbury fallacy. Not all direct action for Palestine is by Palestine Action, just as not all chocolate is Nestlé.
It is the organisation, not the activity, which is proscribed.
To be terrorism, the Crown Office would have to show it is the same organisation as the former Palestine Action. As Chamberlain states, even involving former members of Palestine Action would not show that. It would need to show it is actually the same organisation active since the proscription of Palestine Action on 5 July.
By choosing to hold the women without charge under the Terrorism Act, reporting restrictions are not in place. I can therefore tell you there are no such links. Shut Down Leonardo is a distinct, and Scottish, organisation.
The Scottish Government has to wake up and shut down fascism in Police Scotland and the Crown Office. Otherwise the whole fabric of our society is changing and fundamental freedoms are being lost.
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The proscription against P@le$tine Acti@n includes the wearing of clothes judged supportive of the proscribed group.
The Scottish Premiership begins in a couple of weeks.
Red boilersuits are apparently a trademark of P@le$tine Acti@n.
What happens when the Green Brigade fills an entire stand at Parkhead with folk wearing red boilersuits and ski masks?
Are Polis Scotland going to arrest everyone under the Prevention of Terrorism Act?
Genius has its limitations, stupidity is not thus encumbered.
@Vivian O’Blivion, historically red coats were worn to project terror on colonial subjects, which USAmericans later got some vicarious revenge in with the mayfly life-expectancy of Star Trek’s red shirts. Opportunities for ‘I am Spartacus’ moments? Of course. But we’ve been ruled by extremists for the last millennium by their employment and valorisation of legions of terrorists from among popular ranks. Though signs of a waning in the notion that it is sweet and noble to die (or rather kill) for one’s country may be some form of encouragement.
OTOH.
Spartans used to wear red to hide injuries and blood during battle. So, maybe the wearing of red boiler suits can be interpreted as standing proud and firm even when severely wounded by evil forces.
@Stevie Boy, so in your reckoning the slave-oppressing, child-endangering, belligerent Spartans are not the evil forces? What about cardinals? Or those First Order types? Or the Masque of the Red Death? Or the Gilead-inspired protesters? Roman military cloaks? Or maybe red is just a colour onto which any number of meanings can be projected, varying in time and culture. Like football strips. Though human blood, I grant you, is perhaps our strongest association, and something we appear psychologically hardwired for, assuming we can reliably detect the colour in the first place (not everyone can).
Child-endangering Spartans? Child-murdering is more like it. And slave-murdering. See the Krypteia, the Eton “Pop” of its day.
“Though signs of a waning in the notion that it is sweet and noble to die (or rather kill) for one’s country may be some form of encouragement.”
“Help for Heroes” is a big thing in Britain. Sure it’s a PR campaign “inside the company”, so to speak, with the “company” being the regime’s armed forces, and it doesn’t mean much for people who have never been in the armed forces and who don’t have family relations who are in them now or who were in them recently. Nonetheless, it’s still a big thing. In most wars, the number of injured survivors among service personnel exceeds the number of service personnel killed.
Personally I think British culture is highly militarist, but…this margin is too small to contain the argument.
Except to say…in a Scottish context, the working of the British identity often involves positive feelings about the armed forces. (As is also true in England.)
And yet you are still not a socialist, let alone a communist.
Resistance to Polis Scotland becoming a goon squad for the Spookocracy must come from the rank-and-file.
The fraud squad at Gartcosh attempted to circumvent the corrupt Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service by leaking to the press regarding the obstacles placed in their way relating to the pursuit of Operation Branchform.
Every organisation will contain individuals who regard personal morality as a burdensome encumbrance to their ascent up the slippery pole.
Honest and brave whistleblowers are desperately needed. Potential whistleblowers would be greatly emboldened by words of encouragement from on high.
Will FM John Swinney display some haw maws and speak oot?
A widnae haud yer breath.
I think the resistance is the slow rot.
Like the armed forces,the police to a lesser extent are suffering chronic recruitment shortfalls and inability to retain experienced & competent personnel.
After all the questions of whom and what, they’re serving has to occur to anyone. With half-a-brain and/or a smidge of integrity.
“Like the armed forces,the police to a lesser extent are suffering chronic recruitment shortfalls and inability to retain experienced & competent personnel.”
I have a friend who used to be a police officer. She said that the force was always looking to save costs by reducing the number of officers, but that they can’t fire or make mass redundancies, because that would look very bad politically. So they just assigned her to boring unfulfilling jobs that didn’t expand her experience. Eventually she got fed up with it, and resigned. She is now in a good job that she enjoys.
Naw , Viv , Swinney The Invertebrate will do whatever-the-fck he’s told – just like he’s always done : as I know you know . Just like the spine-free snP rump left in WM after last year’s well-deserved electoral thrashing ( the pity is two of the most worthless imbeciles , ie Wishart & the moron who claims not to know if she’s a woman , despite having given birth – Blackman survived to dribble inanities for another 5 years ) sat like the dummies they are and raised not even a whisper of protest when the proscribing of Palestine Action was being voted-on .
The snP have become just another collection of head-nodding , question nothing , war-supporting , citizens-rights removing Brit Establishment monkeys with an added twist of babbling * Trans * * Rights * idiocy : the latter being the only thing they seem to care about , Scottish Independence , ie the supposed raison d’etre of the Party they , allegedly , represent , is way down their list of priorities .
The current UK Political Class is the worst in living memory – ditto Europe & the * West * generally , The ones that get into power anyway . I’m sure there are still some decent politicians around , the problem is they never seem to get anywhere near the shit-filled ” Corridors of Power ” ( more like the manky Tunnels of Power ) . Any individual or Political Party with genuine humanitarian instincts/values now faces almost insurmountable obstacles to electoral success : they always have , but the malignant strength of the opposition to such decency is much greater , insidious & perverted than it ever was .
We can’t stop trying nevertheless . We have no choice .
Let’s hope J Corbyn’s proposed new Party can avoid the same mistakes that contributed to the downfall of Labour under his leadership ( and look what that Party has become in his wake – a putrid monstrosity ) , eg allowing himself/itself to be caught – up and frazzled by the utterly ridiculous ” Anti-Semitic ” slander . Hopefully he will have learned there is no placating those fanatics . Give them not an inch and show them no quarter when they raise their ugly heads again ; which they almost certainly will . The difference this/next time being when they start their hysterical wailing we can point to Gaza and say ……” You did this “
“Let’s hope J Corbyn’s proposed new Party can avoid the same mistakes that contributed to the downfall of Labour under his leadership ( and look what that Party has become in his wake – a putrid monstrosity ) , eg allowing himself/itself to be caught – up and frazzled by the utterly ridiculous ” Anti-Semitic ” slander . Hopefully he will have learned there is no placating those fanatics . Give them not an inch and show them no quarter when they raise their ugly heads again ; which they almost certainly will . The difference this/next time being when they start their hysterical wailing we can point to Gaza and say ……” You did this “”
I agree with this to a large extent, i.e. don’t try failed methods a second time, although I would phrase it a bit differently.
J Corbyn was the finest leader of the Labour party since Clement Attlee and perhaps since Keir Hardie….but…he lost…
If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard a genuine sounding anti-Zionist give quarter to the Occupation, I’d be rich. Back in the 1980s there were those who said things such as look, a two-state solution is workable, the Zionists are being silly, the Palestinians would allow them their early warning stations on the West Bank! It was if they were saying the damn fool Zionists didn’t know when they had a good deal. And five minutes before, the same person who was saying such nonsense was saying well-informed and sensible things about the struggle…
More recently J Corbyn when asked in a parliamentary committee whether he recognised the Occupation’s right to exist, he said “I recognise they do exist”. What an idiot. He should have said first, this is supposed to be a British parliament not a foreign one, and would you mind remembering that – thanks; and second, no I do not recognise the rights of settler colonies, any more than I think French Algeria was cool or British rule in Kenya was cool.
This is not me being a table-banging nutter. I’m basically saying what the 121 “intellectuals” said in France in 1960:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_the_121
Unfortunately we don’t have 121 “intellectuals” of similar calibre in Britain. What we’ve got is mostly those who say “Israel” is being a bit wicked to the servants, or in some kind of “left wing Zionist” joke, “Israel is a bit shit at the moment”. (Some people actually think it’s cool and amusing to talk like that.)
If we had a “manifesto”, it would say the struggle of Palestinians including Hamas against the occupation is legitimate, and the Jewish-supremacist occupation is not legitimate and should go into the dustbin of history currently lived in by Ian Smith, Hendrik Verwoerd, Adolf Hitler, and Robert E Lee.
But Robert, I think you will soon find that the time for having much hope in principally legal struggle is gone. We are in the early stage of a very very tough epoch. It is not going to be possible to “win over the majority” in the foreseeable future. Methods of struggle should be used that recognise that.
” ……I think you will soon find that the time for having much hope in principally legal struggle is gone. We are in the early stage of a very very tough epoch. ” . I couldn’t agree more , Brian .
The excerpt of my comment you quote was written not with any expectation that a new Corbyn ( or , really , anyone else , that I can see at the moment ) Party would/will have much success in mounting a serious challenge to the horrors that are being perpetrated by the murderous psychopaths of the United States of Israel , or the Proxy War ” Project Ukraine ” that was instigated by the U.S , inflamed by the VdL Neue Reich Idiotocracy + Sire Queer Starmer’s Whatever-That-Is-? Party and will now be funded by monies extorted from the * citizens * of Europe . What an outrageous scam that all is ……the Yanks saying ….” look , we’ve got bigger ( Chinese ) fish to ( try to ) fry , you dumb Euro Clowns are going to buy our MIC’s eye-wateringly expensive weapons and give them to Liitle Zelly & his Crew , right ” ……Rutte & the aforementioned Euro Clowns ..” yes , Daddy , of course , we’ll just use the pensions and social securities of our gaslit/bamboozled people to pay for them ” .
I think the best we could hope for from a Corbyn-led Party is as a voice of resistance within the UK to the appalling conditions referred-to above and the abject , truly shameful complicity of ALL the current UK Parties in those conditions . I believe there is an demographic hungry , starving for such an alternative to the ” moronic inferno ” , though I’m not sure J Corbyn is the one to lead such an entity ; decent man though he is , he maybe lacks the requisite toughness-bordering-on-ruthlessness that will be required to break through the social inertia & MSM stranglehold on information that sustains the sclerotic UK status quo .
” a very very tough epoch ” indeed
Aliases
Section 3(6) of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows the Home Secretary to specify by order that an alternative name or alias is to be treated as another name for a proscribed organisation listed in Schedule 2 to the act. The Home Secretary can make an order where they believe the proscribed organisation is operating under that alternative name or that an organisation operating under a name not included in Schedule 2 is for all practical purposes the same as the proscribed organisation.
The use of an alternative name which has not been formally recognised in an order does not prevent the police and Crown Prosecution Service from taking action against an individual for proscription offences. For a successful prosecution, it is necessary to demonstrate that (1) the organisation in question, whatever name it professes to be operating under, is for all practical purposes the same as the proscribed organisation listed in Schedule 2; and (2) that the person in question has committed one of the proscription offences in relation to that organisation. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations–2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version
The Home Office paper goes on to say what are proscription offences including these, which the police are using as suspicion to arrest, i.e.
wear clothing or carry or display articles in public in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation (section 13)
publish an image of an item of clothing or other article, such as a flag or logo, in the same circumstances (section 13(1A))
The question is. has an order been made by the Home Secretary? If not, the three women should not be charged under the terrorism act, even if the police consider the actions of the three women are similar to Palestine Action.
“Alternative name” – ok right.
How about “Handala”.
Yvette Cooper could try banning that.
Well fortunately however much this gets suppressed at home, the reputation and scope for nefarious activity of the Westminster regime abroad will continue to take hits.
After all what foreign leadership or general population could listen to the UK’s “human rights” horseshit, without struggling to hold back scornful laughter?
Britain is becoming a global meme for dystopian neo-shit-lib oppression. The country has more political prisoners, stitch up victims and restrictions on people’s ability to go about their lives and be left the f*ck alone. Than many actual despotisms
Britain became a despotism when Blair took out the hereditaries.
Until that point there was the single check on the over mighty executive which was not under the control of the Crown. To quote myself:
Polis Scotland has a long history of appointing a Chief Constable from outwith its own ranks. They are not alone in this. It was standard practice in the RUC and now the PSNI.
This is not a bug, it’s a feature.
During the selection process, local knowledge of demographics, topography, law, culture, customs, and political and judicial structure, is not a virtue, it is an impediment to being hired.
The Chief Constable must show absolute loyalty to the British State, not the citizens they purport to serve. Any Chief Constable showing dangerous independence of though has the spectre of John Stalker dangled in front of them as a warning.
These ambitious men and women covet a cosy sinecure post their Police careers. The House of Lords, or the Chairmanship of some standing Committee. A position in the gift of the British, Permanent State.
Until it is demonstrably proven otherwise, I will assume Polis Scotland is subordinate to MI5, and not the Scottish Government (and by extension, the Scottish people).
You could say the very same for the Head of some / most council leaders and heads of department in Scotland. Meritocracy and being a local in many fields does you no favours in Scotland. Watering down the community and culture, or opportunity to belong, contribute, share knowledge or prosper.
I suspect that what will happen is that they will eventually be released without charge. Like the Kneecap ‘charges’ which have been dismissed. They don’t really want this new draconian police repression of protest tested in court. As long as they act like this, stringing detention out without trial (a true Israeli-style of illegal detention), or representation, the goal of frightening people, intimidating them, repressing protest and making their lives hell, accessing all of their data and storing it, thus incriminating friends and acquaintances, is achieved.
So it becomes ever more transparent what the deliberate proscription of a non-terrorist group was intended to achieve (and why of course they smugly boasted about how it was meant to be ‘draconian’) – the chilling threat to anyone who objects to genocide in Palestine, and the shutdown of any public protest, along with a policing of the discourse. From a so-called Labour government, aided by UK Lawyers for Israel and other Israeli allied groups, it is quite alarming how easily they have folded and ignored the basic presumptions and principles of human rights legislation which includes freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom to protest. See here:
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/advice_information/right-to-protest/
Well done Craig for trying to get justice for these people, and for highlighting how the police are now making up laws which don’t actually exist, and would be in conflict with basic human rights, which are supposedly ensured by legislation, but they seem entirely ignorant of. They are choosing to misinterpret the law on an entirely false premise. If the girls are released they should sue.for false arrest, denial of their human rights and illegal detention.
The state won’t care, but will consider it a lesson to everyone else, that Palestinian protest against genocide is now a grey area, and you may or may not be lifted and locked up. They want you to be uncertain, a bit scared and apprehensive about merely going out on the street with a. placard. It’s the secret policeman’s wet dream.
Ian, I agree with everything you say, in theory. But let me ask an honest question.
When you cite human rights law, are you making assumptions? Have you actually read the Human Rights Act. of 1998?
I suspect not.
Go and look it up.
You will find that the most important of all of the articles of the European Convention has been excluded.
Article 13 is NOT part of British law.
So what IS Article 13?
They will not take this to court because they do not want to publicise the legal vacuum that is human rights law in the UK. So the process becomes the punishment.
Indeed, a subtlety many people miss. So even if you don’t actually get convicted of anything, they’ve still put you through the degradation, worry, expense, time and energy dealing with the oppressive & byzantine bureaucratic legal procedure. Oftimes for an extended period.
Mayhaps even in the full knowledge that you’ll never get formally sentenced. Thus the ordeal which they can impose again at whim *is* the sentence.
Yes, exactly.
They know you have no remedy, and will eventually go away.
I think the right way to think about this is that an “effective remedy” is the equivalent to a nuclear weapon.
You don’t need to use it.
You just need your opponent to know that “all options are on the table”.
They tend to become more considerate.
Thanks for the lecture. So you have one point which doesn’t invalidate most of what I said. The point about the victims seeking redress afterwards is one I would like to see, of course, but also a long, expensive road which you cannot reasonably expect people to want to necessarily embark on. So it is not germane to my main point about the proscription act. But I am more interested in what Craig has to say, and what he can do, as well as the political ramifications of what is going on, and the principles behind the HRA, than scoring debating points in contested legal issues, as many here seem to want.
“Articles 1 and 13 of the ECHR do not feature in the HRA because, by creating the Act, the UK has fulfilled these rights. ECHR Article 1 outlines how member states must fix the rights included in the Convention in their own jurisdiction, which the HRA achieves in the UK. ECHR Article 13 states that if people’s rights are violated they. must be able to access an effective remedy, like taking their case to a court for judgement. The HRA ensures that this can happen too.”
https://eachother.org.uk/the-uks-human-rights-act-explained/
And just to emphasise my point, a man was arrested in Glasgow for having a sign which urged people to ‘take action’
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/18/man-arrested-in-glasgow-for-holding-sign-allegedly-supportive-of-palestine-action
It’s pretty obvious that ‘action’ has an open-ended myriad of connotations which do not mean illegal activity. But of course that’s not the point
The sign was in its visual impact almost equivalent to a placard that others have been arrested for carrying. The article says that he was warned and did not put it away. Therefore the Scottish police seem to have behaved reasonably. A placard promoting BDS (or even “Yvette Cooper”) might have been better.
Fair enough Ian. I’m sorry you felt lectured to.
For anybody else that has an interest (and an independent mind)
The reason there is no Article 13 is because it clashes directly with the Treason Felony Act of 1848. The sovereign (queen) cannot be bound by law, and should anybody seek so to do it is they who are breaking the law.
I suggest you use that independent mind to ask yourself if that Eachother explanation makes any sense, or is just one more example of gaslighting by the British establishment.
Recall, the ECHR was drafted by English lawyers immediately after the war fought for democracy. If those people considered the right to an effective remedy to be an essential part of human rights, who are we, or indeed who is Eachother, to say otherwise.
Only those who consider these laws to be functioning well (look at the state of the British people) will hold no suspicions when a chancer like Tony Blair leaves out the “unimportant bits”.
Craig knows only too well the importance of choosing your words extremely carefully when attempting to communicate views and opinions in a totalitarian state. His doggedness in the face of such overwhelming odds is to be admired. By the way, don’t expect to receive any help or support from the Scottish Government. We’re on our own here.
Re: ‘To be terrorism, the Crown Office would have to show it is the same organisation as the former Palestine Action. As Chamberlain states, even involving former members of Palestine Action would not show that.’
No, it wouldn’t. As per Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the COPFS would only have to show that serious criminal damage to property has been caused for a political, religious or ideological aim – which obviously depends on your definition of ‘serious’. It doesn’t matter what organisation the accused are members of, if any.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/1
All that Judge Chamberlain has stated is that being a former member of Palestine Action will not aggravate anyone’s future convictions for terrorism, etc in support of the Palestinian cause.
… which requires an organisation with a publicly-articulated set of objectives. If it cannot be proved that it is an identical organisation with Palestine Action, then the proscription order is not concerned. It is not a terrorist offence to take direct action in support of the Palestinian cause – recall, PA had been active a few years before allegations of terrorism entered into the frame.
As for aliases, according to the legislation as set out by statute, the Home Sec should issue an Order …
Thanks for your reply Nick. I’m afraid that in the UK it is a terrorist offence to take direct action in support of the Palestinian cause if that action involves serious damage to property or serious risk to other persons. There’s no requirement to belong to an organisation with publicly stated objectives. The fact that the police haven’t charged Palestinian Action members with terrorism offences previously is neither here nor there. In the early days, they didn’t charge Extinction Rebellion activists with blocking public highways. That situation changed with the passage of time, and some of them – like former leader Roger Hallam – are now serving years in prison. I don’t make the ****ing rules.
Assume that Palestine Action never existed, and hence were never proscribed.
I’d suggest that the action of these 3 women are in and of itself sufficient to be covered by the definition of “terrorism” in the Act.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/1
I’d guess they’re using 1(2)b or 1(2)d as their justification, I’d guess the latter.
So the question is really what are the charging standards for COPFS (or CPS, as I’d guess on this they’d be essentially identical).
Hence unless there has been some official statement to the effect that they’re associating this with PA, I’d suggest your suggestion of a link is premature and a distraction.
Wrong, since s1(1) requires (a) + (b) AND (c) – before you’ll get to 1(2)anything. Read it again …
Actually, I was of the view that 1 b and c were obviously already present. Hence why I was concentrating on 2.
a) the link to 2 which I discussed
b) the action was to intimidate a section of the public, namely the workers at the company
c) the political / ideological cause is that they’re against providing arms to Israel
That ‘c’ was made out should have been blindingly obvious. So one only had to pick the part of ‘b’ which was engaged.
You’re relying on Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate in Scotland to do the right and proper thing – you’ve no chance, the COPFS will do what they are told to do – I’ve no doubt the SNP are pro-Israel, and lets not forget Angus Robertson pulling the strings from behind the curtain – those brave young women will be scapegoated to set an example in Scotland – unless of course a judge with integrity throws it out – nah, what am I thinking – this is modern Scotland.
The SNP MPs abstained in the vote on whether to proscribe Palestine Action. Performative parasites to a man (mother of two Kirsty Blackman is unsure whether she is a biological woman).
I support the parliamentarians who opposed proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. I support your talking about Shut Down Leonardo as an organisation. These sound like decent young women making a decent symbolic point incurring minimal criminal damage in a good cause.
The Electronic Intifada has an interesting report about the effects of Netanyahu’s war-mongering on the Israeli economy, and indeed that their own army chief has warned the lunatics on the extreme right that what they want (eg a permanent occupation of Gaza) is impossible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1QtqzR3dqE
During the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland that became known as the Troubles the IRA and the INLA were both proscribed paramilitary groups which used violent action, including many homicides, to try and force the British state to withdraw from Ireland, and yet this concurrence of ends and means never inspired anyone in an official or legal position to assert that the organisations were one and the same thing. For non-violent protesters repining against mass murder and the complicity of the UK government in the same shows that we are indeed living in chilling times.
Back in the day, certain pubs in Glasgow (usually East of the Trongate) would put a pre-teen lad outside on a Saturday afternoon, dressed in a paramilitary uniform , and standing next to a collection bucket for “the men behind the wire”. I also recollect this happening in Paisley, so it was probably commonplace across West, central Scotland.
We tolerated this at the time, despite it being pre IRA ceasefire, and pre Good Friday Agreement.
Of course Sinn Féin doubtless kept books which ringfenced the funds collected for the dependents of prisoners, and not say, to purchase Armalite rifles at American gun fairs.
Now, our politicians are sock puppets for the Security Services.
There are increasingly many men and women behind the wire who deserve support now.
https://rebelsinprison.uk/
I went in one of those pubs on the edge of the East End. It had lots of Celtic football photos, and IIRC boxing was also an interest. And according to firsthand accounts although I didn’t see it myself, it occasionally had nights where there was community crack in neither the Irish nor the druggie sense.
Another memory from Glasgow is being on a late-night double-decker bus driven by a guy who was pished oot of his heid. I mean he was completely out of it and didn’t know which way was up. Fortunately a passenger rose to the occasion and helped him by telling him how to steer and turn. We were lucky there was no crash or fatal casualties.
Many years after leaving Glasgow, I am becoming nostalgic about the place thanks to the recent fine actions of the Green Brigade.
How about Humza Yousaf reads Saul Alinsky and says something edgy in the Scottish Parliament in support of direct action anti-genocide activities?
Or a single MSP?
This, or bye-bye to the present role for lawful struggle?
If a single MSP has the guts, then we could find out whether the powers reserved to the UK regime such that the Home Secretary can ban activities in Scotland applies to what elected representatives in Scotland’s national parliament are allowed to say there.
Yousaf could say
“The Scottish government should take and support Palestine action, by which I mean action to prevent genocide in Palestine. The British government, which I understand to be shitt-overeign in such matters, should take and support Palestine action. And, Presiding Officer – and I say this regardless of whether or not you have a bank account in Tel Aviv or a handler from the Israeli embassy – the international community should take and support Palestine action. And since not much is happening in any of these departments, it is clear that the people of Scotland and the world should take and support Palestine action. In this, I am happy to say that our friends who support Glasgow Celtic football team are showing us the way. I do not mean to advocate support for any kind of proscribed organisation. Perish the thought. I am talking about Palestine action where the “a” is not a capital “A” but a lower-case “a” that is 60 thousand times larger than normal, to honour the 60 thousand Palestinians who are known to have been slaughtered since October 2023 by the colonial settler regime.”
If the rulers want a fight over words, give them a fight over words AND TYPOGRAPHY.
Then he could wait for the police to come and arrest him on camera at Holyrood. Or perhaps he could barricade his office.
I would happily vote for him on a pro-independence ticket if he ever does anything like this. Indeed I would happily work for his campaign for free.
As a human being! One has the right to in any way and every way possible, to stop the Israeli genocide slaughter brutality rape sodomy starvation, revoking medical care, even water, in the Israeli concentration camps that is Gaza, West Bank AND NOW RAFAH of defenceless civilians, Palestinians, men women and children! Because England votes for Tory and labour MPs friends of Israel, pass Nazi laws to murder legally, the old, the infirm the mentally weak, the ill, just as Hitler and the Nazis did in WW2, our ancestors fought WW2 and won, isn’t it wonderful these three ladies set the example to every one of us! Because England recently passed legislation to murder a child 60 minutes from being born, just as Hitler and the Nazis did in WW2 again the example of humanity towards the Palestinian’s brings a tear to my eye! Because England has basically become a fascist rules nation, didn’t Hitler also murder those Germans brave enough to stand up to Nazi rule? I hope English government doesn’t go that far, but when millions demonstrated in every city town and village against the illegal Iraq war, those few in power in Westminster could ignore those millions and millions of people! And as we now know the Iraq war was based on bLairs lies and American lies, but both lie equally! But these two nations NOW represent all those things these UNITED nations fought AGAINST, in WW2! Not to mention all the volunteers who from 1930s fought in Spain, against the same scourge that now has infested the corridors of power in England! Are these brave women are they the last vestiges of what these nations once stood for and against?
@Highlander – What’s the 60 minute reference?
In Germany the mass slaughter started with the physically and mentally disabled, and in particular with babies. And medics were heavily involved. Anyone who thinks it started with Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, criminals, political opponents, etc., is seriously ignorant.
I have said this before, but the persecution of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon – a persecution which led to the death of a small baby whose parents were trying to protect her from state kidnappers – is an absolutely crucial case for all who want to understand fascist Britain to wrap their heads around.
Yes Craig
It’s called ‘ Branding’
Political Branding.
They are all the same brand in the eyes of the Law.
It only shows how Western Democracies are losing their confidence.
Rapidly.
I imagine they will be saying: ‘They all look the same to me ‘ next
People need to think here.
Take a look at how the name “ALF” was used, for example. (Animal Liberation Front, for those who don’t already know).
And look at our enemies’ use of Pepe the Frog.
Both of those were used very successfully.
I love PA but they haven’t yet started operating organisationally on the level of the ALF.
As usual, it’s irrelevant whether they are charged or released, to the regime. The process is the punishment, and it serves to keep others in line.
It can be compared with kettling. People go on a demo, they get kettled for five hours, and they think “F*** this for a game of soldiers, I mean I still oppose loads of stuff the rulers are doing, but I don’t want to go through that experience again”.
More arrests in Glasgow as the Keystone Cops aka Police Scotland arrest more folk for pointing out the genocide in Gaza – even though they haven’t said they support the proscribed group PA.
“Police Scotland confirmed that the 64-year-old man, who had been speaking to a small group of protesters gathered at Nelson Mandela Place in the city centre on Friday afternoon, had been arrested in connection with an offence under the Terrorism Act “for displaying a sign expressing support for a proscribed organisation”.
The sign read “Genocide in Palestine, time to take action” with the words Palestine and action larger than the others. Another man wearing a T-shirt with the same slogan was charged with a similar offence last weekend at the TRNSMT music festival in Glasgow Green.”
This is a piccy of the sign that got them arrested.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/18/man-arrested-in-glasgow-for-holding-sign-allegedly-supportive-of-palestine-action#img-2
Good thinking. That sign is good stuff.
Brian Red.
What a terrible state of affairs this is Brian when, people are charged with terrorism for trying to oppose a genocide – what has happened to the world – there are so many evil people in power in the West.
Exactly it is a crystal clear logical fallacy, and therefore should not hold up in court. The fallacy is also present on the street with Kent police threatening to arrest people holding signs and placards opposing Israel’s genocide, as supportive of Palestine action. You might as well accuse vegetarians of being Nazis because Hitler was a vegetarian. There should be a class action lawsuit for wrongful arrest if this becomes widespread.
Is there a log being kept of arrests, charges, court appearances, for allegedly displaying signs or saying things that might be suspected of amounting to support for the proscribed organisation Palestine Action?
Most cases I’ve read about have ended with the filth – the same filth who set the ball rolling by making the arrests – saying they won’t proceed.
You could say there was a “who controls the streets?” angle to this. Or the “right to protest” to describe it from another angle.
Remember Pussy Riot? Even Macca supported them.
A courageous senior citizen.
“81 year old former magistrate, Deborah Hinton, arrested under the Terrorism Act in Cornwall.
She held a placard which said: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
https://nitter.poast.org/DefendourJuries/status/1946533290438987795#m
Courageous she is, even if I wouldn’t copy her.
Full coverage: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/19/protesters-arrested-jewish-state-chants-pro-palestinian/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first
So much food just waiting outside the gates of Gaza – yet children are starving to death every day in Gaza, whilst adults are lured with the promise of food – only to be killed by the Zionists and their mercenaries.
“UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of #Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry.
The supplies are available. The systems are in place.
Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children”
https://nitter.poast.org/UNRWA/status/1946495329928388841#m
“Israeli soldiers in Gaza are reportedly turning the targeting of Palestinian children into a horrifying and systematic “human-hunting game,” according to British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard.
He testified: “These children are being targeted almost as if it’s a game… One day they’re all shot in the head, the next day in the neck, and another day in the testicles… There is a clear and deliberate pattern to the injuries.”
https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1946555320924615115
This is what the police (and the state) are implicitly defending by their policy of crushing public protest. Perhaps it could even be called terrorism (clutches pearls).
Well done, the police, where would Scots would be if we had to listen to the facts and the subsequent protests about the killing fields and hunger games of Gaza. We must be protected from such clearly antisemitic behaviour.
“One mistake westerners keep making is thinking of Israel’s supporters as normal people with normal moral standards”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/if-youre-still-supporting-israel-2025-something-wrong-person/5895422
96 people have been arrested today for opposing the ban on Palestine Action.
“The Met Police said 55 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action“. (Sic) (The figure of 55 was in Westminster only.)
What an illustration that the authorities are huge hypocrites when it comes to real terrorism, and only even use the word “terrorism” when it suits their purposes. It’s standard practice that when someone has murdered loads of people in a terror attack, the state’s position is that there are no indications yet that it was terrorism, or it’s still being looked into, so don’t speculate about it on social media.
All of the arrestees deserve strong support.
Nonetheless, I think that kind of headline will be celebrated at the Zionist embassy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20rvdexj8jo
the terrorism here is state sponsored terrorism as they’ve expressed it towards these 3 individuals.. maybe they could go after these terrorists, but it appears they are the terrorists! and they are increasingly being legalized by the state, thus the term ‘state sponsored terrorism’…
Just when you think that Israel could not possible stoop lower, be any more savage, barbaric and unimaginably cruel, vindictive and sadistic, you read about the best of Gaza, the heroic surgeons and medics, gifted and dedicated people, and their fate. Likely raped to death in an Israeli jail, according to reports on Sky News, it is hard to see how any country on the planet should tolerate this without protest and not deliver supplies and aid to Gaza, using force if necessary to stop this insane holocaust of people who, by accident of birth, were deemed non-human, just garbage to be destroyed.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/24/dying-in-hell-palestinian-medics-jailed-by-israel
Ben-Gvir boasted of the abominable conditions in his prison systems, writing on X: “Since I assumed the position of minister of national security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law.”
Earlier the same week, he released a video saying: “Prisoners should be shot in the head instead of being given more food.”
All of these people are held without trial or charges.
The deliberate destruction of institutions like hospitals, schools, housing, administration and utilities along with all of the professionals who run them, along with poets, writers and journalists, are clearly part of a systematic plan to destroy and erase an entire society and those who are its key components.. The very definition of genocide.
And don’t forget, a mile or two away from this, people lounge around their pools, hang out in cafes, go to well stocked supermarkets, have access to the medical care they need and drive their SUV;s. All unimaginable to the human carnage a short drive away. Before settling down on the couch to cheer on the latest news of demolition and destruction.
And on the subject of the destruction of Gaza’s health service comes the news that The Telegraph has assisted the IDF to target one of the brave people who helped the excellent documentary makers of Gaza:Doctors Under Attack. Basement Films have posted this statement. Words fail me:
“A national newspaper has run a piece which is essentially an invitation to target a journalist who worked for us in Gaza on #GazaDoctorsUnderAttack. That film chronicles the destruction of the Gazan health service and the killing of 1500 medics; each one a potential war crime. We begged them not to run this as it was absolutely untrue and also potentially lethal for him as over 230 journalists have been killed in Gaza according to the UN. He shared viral social media posts without comment on the events of October 7th – with video showing what was happening as he was as shocked as anyone else; he did that as a journalist. They have used this to put a target on his back and told us – despite everything – they did not consider it would endanger him. We would complain to @IpsoNews but they are chaired by the @Telegraph’s editor; it’s a fait accompli. It’s beyond disgraceful; and that newspaper has now further traduced itself, with 60,000 dead and war crimes it largely ignores, and now a man who was trying to feed his family in a territory being starved, is wondering whether they will survive the night. Unable to criticise the content of the film, they’ve gone for the most vulnerable. You run out of words. You can’t say you didn’t know, you can’t say you couldn’t see it; you can’t say we didn’t tell you.
11:13 PM · Jul 19, 2025
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BTW, what happened to the famous British humo[u]r? I’ve looked through these and, political bias aside, none of these cartoons are funny.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/telegraph-cartoons-june-2025/