This Weekend, We Saw the UK Descend Into Censorship, Brutality, and Authoritarianism
Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper's government arrested elderly protesters, a blind man using a wheelchair, and others – all in the name of providing diplomatic cover for a genocidal regime.
Marianne Sorrell is an 80-year-old retired teacher from the idyllic rural English town of Wells in Somerset. About a year ago, I met Marianne after speaking on a panel at the Wells literary festival. She bought my book, Vulture Capitalism, and asked me to sign it.
Last week, police raided Marianne’s home and confiscated a number of her possessions, including her signed copy of Vulture Capitalism. Her crime? Attending a protest, in which she held up a sign that read “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Police took Marianne into custody and held her for 27 hours. In an interview following the arrest, she said she had been deeply traumatized by the experience, telling The Guardian that she wakes up every morning feeling sick with fear at the thought that she has been designated a “dangerous terrorist.”
The protest Marianne attended was organized by Defend Our Juries, a group founded to “expose the corruption of democracy.” After Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization – making it a criminal offense to express support for the group – Defend Our Juries announced a campaign of civil disobedience, designed to render this grotesquely unjust law unenforceable.
This weekend, more than 500 activists were arrested for participating in the campaign. Activists sat silently outside the houses of Parliament holding placards reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Those arrested included a blind man using a wheelchair, National Health Service workers, and the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Half of those arrested were over 60 years old. Videos showed police carrying several people, including elderly protesters, by their arms and legs. Many of those arrested reported being denied access to water and being kept for long periods of time in the sun.
This is modern Britain: a country descending into censorship, brutality, and authoritarianism, all in the name of providing diplomatic cover for a genocidal regime.