Category: Yvette Cooper
Policing: by consent or coercion?
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/policing-consent-or-coercion
The unnecessarily violent police intervention at a Quaker place of worship is a PR disaster and will only serve to deepen the chasm between them and the public. SYMON HILL reports
THE police raid on a Quaker place of worship last week was not about preventing crime or arresting criminals. It was an attempt to intimidate peaceful protesters. It will not succeed.
At about 7.15pm on Thursday March 27, at least 20 police officers broke down the door of Westminster Quaker Meeting House in St Martin’s Lane in London. They could have just rung the doorbell.
The police, some armed with tasers, charged into a room where the non-violent protest group Youth Demand were holding a welcome talk. Women in their late teens and early twenties were grabbed and handcuffed behind their backs.
They swarmed through the rest of the building, entering every room, including one that had been hired by a life drawing class and even a room where a private counselling session was taking place.
This horrific incident was made possible by the draconian anti-protest laws introduced by the previous Tory government and maintained by their Labour successors. The police reportedly used the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act as they arrested six women. The youngest was 18.
When the Act was passed in 2022, we were told that the police would use it only in extreme situations. That promise is now as broken as Westminster Meeting House’s door.
In their media statement, the Metropolitan Police said that Youth Demand are planning civil disobedience in London. In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in campaigners being arrested for things they are only talking about doing. Even so, this went further.
This Youth Demand gathering was a welcome talk. It was a public event, open to people who had never even considered engaging in civil disobedience before. The police arrested other Youth Demand members in London and Exeter on the same day.
The police’s thuggery seems designed to intimidate Youth Demand from going ahead with their plans for April. The police may hope that the publicity around the raid will deter others from joining in.
Typically, the police have seriously underestimated the determination of people whose rights are denied.
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/policing-consent-or-coercion
Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest. 
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA Related: Met Commissioner refuses to meet Palestine Coalition
Labour held secret meeting with top Israeli arms firm
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-held-secret-meeting-with-top-israeli-arms-firm
Keir Starmer with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. (Photo: Benjamin Cremel / Alamy) DECLASSIFIED UK Exclusive: Home Office met with Elbit Systems amid crackdown on Palestine Action, documents reveal.
Keir Starmer’s government held a private meeting with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, Declassified has found.
The meeting occurred in December 2024 and was attended by three representatives from Elbit Systems and three officials from Yvette Cooper’s Home Office.
It took place months after Israeli forces used an Elbit drone to kill three British military veterans in Gaza who were protecting a humanitarian aid convoy.
The revelation comes in documents obtained by Declassified through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Under the previous Conservative government, the Home Office also met with Elbit Systems and attempted to encourage the UK police to crack down on pro-Palestine activism.
Elbit’s efforts to counter Palestine Action in Britain seem to have gone even further.
Documents seen by Declassified reveal the company has its own “intelligence cell” and shares “information with the [UK] police across the country on a two weekly basis”.
The Home Office is refusing to release details about its most recent meeting with Elbit Systems, including which officials were present and what was discussed.
It said that a recording of the meeting was made “but by mutual agreement [with Elbit] this was agreed… not to be released” through FOI.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori told Declassified: “There is clear evidence of collusion between government, prosecutors, police, the Israeli government and Elbit Systems in a bid to crackdown on Palestine Action’s relentless direct action campaign.
“Such collusion likely amounts to political and foreign interference in our judicial system, a potential abuse of process in prosecutions against Palestine Action”.
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Palestine Action’s Huda Ammori added: “Eighteen Palestine Action prisoners are detained under counter-terrorism powers in an unprecedented crackdown against anti-genocide activists.
“There must be full transparency of meetings with the government which reference Palestine Action, and an independent investigation into the validity of prosecutions against us, given the evidence of judicial interference”.
The Home Office and Elbit did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-held-secret-meeting-with-top-israeli-arms-firm
Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest. Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA Labour ‘bans MPs from criticising government’ after Waspi embarrassment
Labour’s refusal to honour an ombudsman recommendation to compensate Waspi women has been deeply unpopular LABOUR MPs have been banned from publicly criticising government policies in a new clampdown by the beleaguered Starmer regime, it was revealed today.
It is understood that Labour whips have written a threatening letter to the 10 Labour MPs who voted against the government’s refusal to compensate the Waspi women over pension maladministration, as recommended by an ombudsman.
In an unprecedented injunction, the letter includes the warning that “you are not entitled to criticise the government in public.”
The move forms part of an increasing authoritarianism by Labour’s leadership as the government’s popularity plummets in the polls.
Three left MPs have had their six-month suspension for an earlier rebellion over the two-child benefit cap extended for an open-ended period, indicating that they are unlikely ever to be readmitted to the parliamentary party.
Government business managers had only imposed a one-line whip, the lightest form of parliamentary discipline, on the Waspi vote, since it was on a purely symbolic motion tabled by the Scottish National Party.
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Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-bans-mps-criticising-government-after-waspi-embarassment
Labour’s immigration crackdown plans set a ‘dangerous precedent,’ campaigners warn
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on patrol with officers from West Yorkshire Police during a visit to Halifax Police Station, December 20, 202 LABOUR boasts of an immigration crackdown and plans for sweeping new seize and search powers set a “dangerous precedent” and embolden the far right, campaigners warn.
Ahead of a crunch parliamentary vote on their Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government has gone on the offensive, trumpeting thousands of arrests of exploited “illegal” migrants made since assuming office in July.
Between polling day and January 31 2025, 5,424 visits were made by immigration officers to workplaces across the country, leading to 3,930 arrests — numbers they proudly proclaim to be 38 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Hailing a record 609 arrests in January alone — almost twice the tally of 352 a year earlier under ther Tories — Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government was boosting enforcement to “record levels.”
She said: “The immigration rules must be respected and enforced.
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Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-immigration-crackdown-plans-set-a-dangerous-precedent-campaigners-warn
