On Friday night, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a speech outside 10 Downing Street. Even in normal times this would have been a chilling speech; in the current climate it is frankly terrifying.
He began with the following statement:
“In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality.“
Would this be the extremism from members of his party, one of whom was until 3 months ago his Home Secretary, one of whom was Deputy Chair of his party until January, and one of whom was the actual Prime Minister less than 18 months ago?
Of course not. He meant the extremist disruption caused by hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors exercising their democratic rights.
“Now our democracy itself is a target.”
Would this be a reference to the debacle of the SNP Opposition Day Motion in February, when the Speaker, the Conservatives and Labour contrived to hijack parliamentary process to turn a motion calling for ceasefire into a political playground game?
Of course not. He meant the dangerous radicals who have the effrontery to protest outside Parliament, council meetings and MPs’ offices, trying to get their voices heard by a political establishment that seems increasingly deaf and blind to the horrors that are being played out to us on a daily basis. As if to ram this point home, Sunday Times columnist and Director of the thinktank The Centre for Policy Studies Robert Colvile took to social media to explain to those at the back:
So in the first few sentences of his speech, Sunak had managed to twist the dystopian cruelty being peddled by the political and media establishment, and lay the blame at the feet of you and me, the little people, the real extremists who want to bring down democracy.
To be fair to him, Sunak did acknowledge the contributions made by immigrants:
“Immigrants who have come here have integrated and contributed. They have helped write the latest chapter in our island story. They have done this without being required to give up their identity … and all underpinned by the tolerance of our established, Christian church.“
However, it was not all good news for immigrants. Sunak announced that those here on visas would have their right to remain revoked if they “spew hate” on protests; considering that the definition of hate changes by the day, the message is clear: stay in your lane, or we will deport you. Is this something that we should be hearing from a healthy and free society?
He went on to announce “a new robust framework” for dealing with protest. For a start, the police have been instructed to heighten their actions during protests, with the promise that the government will support them in whatever they do. The Metropolitan Police have a long and sickening charge sheet against them; trust in them from many communities as low as it can be, and now we have our government giving indemnity to their future abuses. Is this something that we should be hearing from a healthy and free society?
He then moved on to what we can do in schools:
“We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism.”
The Prevent programme, of course, has a long and notorious history of repression of thought and action, and is disproportionately used as a weapon against Muslims. Considering that Amnesty International have condemned Prevent as “fundamentally incompatible” with human rights, is this something that we should be hearing from a healthy and free society?
“We will demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus.”
Universities have not been slow to condemn and attack those involved in pro-Palestine actions. I shudder to think how SOAS, UCL, QMU and others will react now they’ve been given the green light to step up their actions.
“We will also act to prevent people entering this country whose aim is to undermine its values.”
And back to immigration.
“When these groups claim that Britain is and has been on the wrong side of history, we should reject it, and reject it again.”
Taken together, this should ring so many alarm bells. We already have a culture where there is a revolving door between politics, the media and business. With the rise of academies, there are increasing links between politics, the media and education, very often far-right politics as well. But add in draconian laws, the demonization of dissent, painting those who call for peace as dangerous, a portrayal of an idealised nation where outsiders are a threat, and we have something that sounds eerily familiar.
One factor of a functioning society is a robust opposition holding the government to account. So should we rest easy in our beds knowing a general election is coming?
But the UK is not unique in this, nor even the worst offender. For instance, it’s only a few short years since Germany was held up as the ideal of liberal democracy. People would talk of how it had thrived after reunification, how bravely and how well it had come to terms with its Nazi past and the unimaginable horrors of the Shoah. Well that edifice has fallen as surely as another fell in 1989.
By שי קנדלר – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127597674
The documentary No Other Land, a film about displacement in Masafer Yatta by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian activists and journalists, won the Documentary award at the 2024 Berlinale film festival
Accepting the award, the Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham gave an acceptance speech echoing the themes of the film:
Condemnation followed from the public and politicians. Pointing out the unequal rights and injustice faced by citizens is apparently now antisemitic.
Kai Wegner, Governing Mayor of Berlin, was particularly blunt in his appraisal. More alarmingly, though, Claudia Roth, the Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and a member of the supposedly left-leaning Green party, was quick to point out that any applause she may have given were for the Israeli filmmaker, and not the Palestinians.
What sort of climate of racism and flat-out denial of reality allows this? Perhaps the climate that emboldens the Neukölln council district in Berlin to urge schools to distribute a leaflet called Myth of Israel 1948, which, among other claims, states that the 1948 Nakba was a myth. There is a horrifying irony in this that I do not want to put into words.
Are these all different stages on the same path to authoritarianism and repression of the people’s voice? I look at the skewed headlines, I listen to the politicians twisting the facts, I see myself and hundreds of thousands of comrades being held up as dangerous radicals. But worst of all I see the slaughter, the suffering, the cruelty in this war, and I see how our institutions are letting this happen. I think I know the answer.
For the first time since the height of the cold war, “Western” leaders are seeing their hegemony under threat, and are fighting back with the only weapons they have. Threats overseas are being attacked, physically and diplomatically; domestic threats are being subjected to evermore draconian restrictions.
We have a right to protest, we have a right to dissent. In recent months hundreds of thousands of people have used this right to call for justice for Palestine, but it is more important than ever that we redouble our efforts in the face of authoritarian attacks from the government. This Saturday, every Saturday, go out and protest. Keep the pressure on our establishment, because the moment we ease off, they will move.
Politicians have taught us that however extreme they may be, the next generation will normalise and build on their extremism. If we don’t speak and act against this now, when will we do it?
Act for the people of Gaza.
Act for your rights.
Act for the future.
Educators for a Free Palestine 
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