His review on ‘political violence and disruption’ suggests some groups pay for policing of their protests and calls to restrict protest groups organising or raising money if they ‘cause serious disruption’
An ‘independent adviser’ to the government has been grilled about accusations of impartiality over his lobbying links, ahead of launching his review recommending tougher action for protest groups including for Palestine liberation and against climate change.
… [‘Whore’] Walney, also know as John Woodcock, quit Labour in 2018, after being accused of sexual harassment, and is now a crossbench peer. He was made the UK Government’s ‘independent adviser on political violence and disruption’ and his report ‘protecting our Democracy from Coercion’ was laid before parliament today.
He was tasked by the government to lead its crackdown on protests, including ones against the climate crisis and global arms trade, however he was accused of a conflict of interest with links to both the fossil fuel and weapons lobbyists.
Woodcock chaired the Purpose Defence Coalition with members including one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers Leonardo, which has links to the Israeli government. Co-founder of campaign group Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, said it was a “sham” for the government to claim Lord Walney is an ‘independent’ adviser.
Ammori said: “By writing this report, he is working to protect the interests of Israel’s military supply chain, over the will of the British people, who overwhelmingly support an arms embargo on Israel.”
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
The Government’s ‘independent adviser’ on domestic extremism, Lord Walney aka former Labour Politician John Woodcock, has issued a report calling for organisations like Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil to be banned.
The report outlines that any group engaging in action where the maximum penalty is imprisonment should be restricted through sanctions, including removing the right to assemble and fundraise. The report also calls for new measures that would enable individuals to sue organisations like Just Stop Oil.
Last week, it emerged that far from being ‘independent’, Mr Woodcock serves vested corporate interests in the arms and fossil fuel industries, whose profits are being threatened by the groups he’s proposing to ban.
Amongst other roles, Woodcock chairs the Purpose Defence Coalition, whose members include Leonardo, one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, with extensive links to the Israeli government. He is also a paid adviser to Rud Pederson, lobbyists, whose clients include the oil and gas giant, Glencore as well as Enwell Energy, which describes itself as ‘a highly focused oil and gas business’. He is also a paid adviser to the Purpose Business Coalition, whose members include BP.
Woodcock resigned from the Labour party in 2018 amid sexual assault allegations, and was subsequently granted a lifelong peerage by Boris Johnson after calling on the electorate to vote for the Conservatives.
The report has been laid before the House of Commons using the ‘motion for unopposed return’ procedure, which means there’s no scrutiny of it by Parliament, but it benefits from Parliamentary privilege, ie: Walney can’t be sued for defamation.
Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour peer and human rights advocate, said the government was hiding behind procedure.
“It is ironic that a government that consistently attacks protesters by press releases and reading the riot act to police chiefs now hides behind arcane procedure and abuse of parliamentary privilege,” she said.
The revelations echo a previous attempt by the so-called ‘think-tank’, Policy Exchange to brand climate defenders as ‘extremists’ in 2019. It later emerged that Policy Exchange was also being funded by Big Oil.
A Just Stop Oil Spokesperson said:
“Lord Walney is directly funded by oil and gas companies, as well as by the weapons manufacturers responsible for the deaths of countless innocent civilians in Gaza. His direct financial ties to the very companies whose profits are threatened by the groups he’s proposing to ban, means he is entirely compromised. It is yet another case of open corruption. As such, Just Stop Oil does not recognise the legitimacy of this report.
The governments’ climate strategy has been declared unlawful for the second time and their response has been to licence yet more oil, as our climate spins out of control. Who are we going to sue for the inconvenience of flooded fields, crop failure, spiralling food costs and empty shelves? Just this morning, the High Court has ruled that Suella Braverman acted unlawfully in making it easier for the police to criminalise peaceful direct action. History will come to regard the acts of this government and its cronies as the real criminals, which is why they will stop at nothing to silence those telling the truth and acting like we are in the emergency that we are in.”
Today’s report comes hours after the High Court ruled the Home Office’s threshold for “serious disruption” in the Public Order Act 2023 was unlawful.
dizzy: Looks like the title Whore would be more appropriate for Walney.
‘If the government is concerned about fraud, it would be serious about the £15.2bn that multinational companies hide from the UK via tax havens.’
As the government continues to crack down on so-called benefit fraud and reform the welfare system with stricter measures, newly released statistics by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that there were almost no recorded cases of disability fraud in the financial year ending 2024.
Disability Living Allowance fraud was just 0.1 percent, rounded off to £0m. Personal independence payment (PIP) cheating was found to be 0 percent in the same period, the data showed.
PIP overpayments represented 0.4 percent, equating to around £90m lost in a year, marking a significant decrease from the previous year, when such overpayments stood 1.1 percent (£200m). The overpayments were said to be mainly due to errors made by the department when allocating award levels at the assessment stage.
In response to the DWP’s figures, Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK described PIP fraud as a ‘non-issue.’
“New data shows what we, as disabled people, have known for years – PIP fraud is a non-issue. PIP fraud is now the lowest on record – despite the government placing fraud front and centre of their latest public announcements,” said Erhardt.
Phoebe Plummer (left) and Chiara Sarti outside Southwark crown court in London. Photograph: Hesther Ng/Story Picture Agency
Phoebe Plummer, Chiara Sarti and Daniel Hall took part in protest march last year in Just Stop Oil campaign
Three climate activists have been convicted of “interference with key national infrastructure” by marching in the road in west London for 20 minutes, in the new offence’s first test at trial.
Phoebe Plummer, Chiara Sarti and Daniel Hall were the first defendants to face a jury trial on the new section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, which bans any act preventing harbours, airports, railways or roads “from being used or operated to any extent”.
Critics have called the law repressive, and claimed that it gives authorities a licence to crack down on virtually any protest at their discretion.
The defendants had sought to persuade the jury that convicting them under the new law could criminalise a swathe of legitimate protest. But after jurors were directed to only take into account whether or not the protest had caused “significant” disruption to the roads, they found the defendants guilty in an 11-1 majority verdict.
Activists with the Communist Party of Israel and Hadash made ceasefire and an end to occupation the central demands of their May Day 2024 actions. | Photo via Hadash
NAZARETH—Determined to derail a planned May Day rally centered on ceasefire and anti-occupation demands, heavily-armed police forces raided the office of the Nazareth branches of the Hadash coalition (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and Communist Party of Israel (CPI) on Friday evening. April 26.
Israeli police raid the Nazareth branch office of Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, and Zo Haderekh newspaper. This photo is a screengrab from a video taken by a member of Hadash during the raid. | @hadash.front via Instagram
When police stormed the building, activists from Hadash, the CPI, and the Young Communist League were involved in preparations for the central May Day demonstration being organized by Hadash and the CPI. At least two activists were arrested.
“We won’t let the fascists silence us!” declared Ofer Cassif, the CPI parliamentarian that the government has repeatedly attempted to suppress.
“Come to the demonstration, to raise a loud and clear voice against the criminal massacre in Gaza, against the ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, against the raging tide of fascism and in support of justice for all, before it’s too late!” he continued.
“The order of the day: Unite against fascism!”
Several rallies against the deadly war in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories will be held across Israel for May Day—in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Kufr Yassif, Western Galilee, Jerusalem, and other locations.
This is the third assault on the branch in Nazareth in the past year. Police raided the office on Nov. 10, tearing down political posters and spray-painting over murals. “The Ben-Gvir police continues its political persecution and attempts to intimidate and silence the Arab public and other forces opposing the war,” Hadash said in a statement, referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s national security minister.
“We will not put up with these provocations. We will continue to lead the joint Arab-Jewish struggle against fascism, war and persecution,” Hadash said.
A year ago, on April 28, 2023, just before the May Day demonstration in the city, in another raid police took down the red flags and the Palestinian flag at the Nazareth branch and arrested the secretary of the Communist Party in the city.
