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Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Braverman Chickens Out

The days are ticking down to the weekend; just four to go before another, possibly the largest march in solidarity with the Palestinian people, sets off from Hyde Park, its destination the US Embassy, its route not via Whitehall, and therefore nowhere near the Cenotaph. And with each passing day, the deplorable behaviour of Suella Braverman is exposed for all to see.


For some reason elevated to the rank of Home Secretary, despite her only obvious qualification for the job being her ability to blame everyone else for her shortcomings, Ms Braverman, far from pouring oil on troubled waters by calling for calm and restraint, has whipped up the far right, with the most probable outcome that peaceful marchers run the risk of being attacked.

She has paved the way for the more wacko part of the right-wing commentariat to smear those wanting to see people given relief from round the clock rocketing, bombing and shelling as terrorists, and worse. Typical is the screamingly batshit Allison Pearson, who has claimed, I kid you not, that “The Armistice march has been organised by Hamas leaders”.

The Hamas leadership, living in Qatar, may be surprised to hear of this. But for Ms Pearson, there is no need to worry, because “A lot of normal people are heading for London this weekend to defend our country”. This is, let us not drive it around the houses for too long, normalising violence - the kind doled out by the far right. Who will be allowed to march as usual.

You read that right: what the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press choose not to tell their readers is that the National Front, the original British chapter of the twitchy right arm brigade, gather together their few followers and join in the march past at the Cenotaph on Sunday. No howls of protest from Ms Pearson. Not a peep from the Express, Mail, or Sun.

What those titles have peeped about is the march not on Sunday, but the previous day, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Generally, there has been an attempt to conflate Saturday’s march with Sunday’s gathering at the Cenotaph, with the Murdoch Sun getting the poppies out and howling “SHOW SOME RESPECT”. The Express has called for the march to be banned.


But here a problem enters: the headline thunders “Million-strong march ‘not appropriate’ as nation pays respects to war dead … POLICE: CALL OFF PROTESTS ON ARMISTICE WEEKEND TO AVOID VIOLENCE”. But the cops are not banning the march. That’s because they can’t. Not unless action is taken by … the Home Secretary. Who has not thus far taken action.

Yes, Suella Braverman has repeatedly smeared those protesting as “Hate marchers”, thus dog-whistling the far right, who will, with the certainty of night following day, rock up in the capital on Saturday for a bit of afters. Having riled up the mob, Ms Braverman has not yet made the decision to force banning of the protests, thus also ensuring the march will go ahead anyway.

Instead, she has responded to the Met’s pleading with “I welcome this statement from the Met Police. The hate marchers need to understand that decent British people have had enough of these displays of thuggish intimidation and extremism”. Peaceful march redefined to whip up the mob, thus guaranteeing the far right will bring real thuggery to London’s streets.

As human rights lawyer Shoaib Khan put it, “Yes. We really have had enough of thuggish intimidation and extremism. Things are dangerous enough as it is without you and your thuggish colleagues trying to intimidate communities. Please stop spreading this constant hatred”. But she won’t, having chickened out of banning the march. It was her decision; she failed to make it.

So who will be blamed for any disorder? Not those on the far right who have been riled up by the press and politicians. Not Suella Braverman, who has chickened out of taking the decision to ban the march. No, those carrying the can will be the overwhelmingly peaceful protesters showing solidarity with the Palestinian people. It’s almost as if Ms Braverman wants it that way.

This is a very dangerous game she’s playing. It’s high time it was stopped.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's difficult to avoid the thought that the woman has serious defects inside her head.

What would Freud have done for her?

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

With no other nominations forthcoming, we wish to announce that the:

2023 MIDDLE EAST BUTCHER OF THE YEAR AWARD goes to BENJAMIN 'BIBI' NETANYAHU

The trophy, a faithful reproduction of a barrel bomb carved in tastefully-tooled Palestinian olive wood and finished in Blood Red and Phosphorous White, will be presented in late December at a special ceremony in the ruins of Gaza's iconic al-Aqsa Hospital by previous winner Bashar 'Chemical Attack' al-Assad and his fragrant First Lady, Asma.

Government and Opposition figures from all leading Western nations are expected to be in attendance.




Peter said...

I thought she could only ban it if the Commissioner asks for a banning order. He hasn't asked, so she can't ban it.

Arnold said...

I think she's trying to get Sunak to sack her as part of her ambition to lead the Nasty Party.