Tag Archives: politics

1,000-strong Christian Bloc joins Together Alliance march against the far-right

Posted on by symonhill

You can tell when a march is big if you’re near the back of it. It you have to wait for hours before you even start moving, it’s a good sign that there are far more marchers than were expected.

The people at the front of yesterday’s Together Alliance march in central London reportedly reached the end of the route only shortly after those of us near the back had begun to march. Organisers estimated that half a million people had taken part.

There were people of many faiths and none, of many backgrounds, ages, nationalities, sexualities and genders; students, workers, unemployed people, young people and pensioners. There were trades unions, community organisations, faith groups and campaign networks.

We were united in rejecting the racism and hatred peddled by far-right groups such as Reform UK, Restore Britain and Unite the Kingdom. We were united for an inclusive, compassionate Britain in which resources are divided fairly and minorities are not scapegoated for the actions of billionaires and the consequences of unjust structures.

Amongst the many “blocs” (loosely organised sections) of the march was the Christian Bloc.

The point of the Christian Bloc was not to divide Christians from the other marches. That would undermine the unity that the march was championing! Rather, it was to the challenge the far-right’s attempts to co-opt Christianity. Christian nationalism has been increasingly visible in the UK in the last two years or so. Far-right figures claim to be defending “Christian Britain” as an excuse to demonise Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ+ people and others. We wanted to send a clear message that these people don’t speak for Christianity. There are many British Christians ready to stand in solidarity with our neighbours of other faiths and none.

When the idea of a Christian Bloc was first talked about, I thought we might get a few dozen people – perhaps over a hundred if things went well. A few days ago, organisers from groups including Better Story and Christians for a Welcoming Britain were suggesting there would be hundreds.

But I still hadn’t quite taken it in. When friends messaged me to say they would be in the Christian Bloc, I responded by saying “See you there!” – or similar words. Christian blocs at protests are usually small enough that if you know someone else who is going, you can be fairly sure that you will bump into each other. It hadn’t occurred to me that the Christian Bloc would be so big that I would simply not see many friends or acquaintances who were also there.

My first big surprise came when I arrived at Oasis Church Waterloo for the pre-march service. There were, by my admittedly rather rough estimate, about 400 people there. They were struggling to fit more people in. The numbers increased as the Christian Bloc assembled. As we marched down Piccadilly, the Guardian estimated that there were 1,000 people on the Christian Bloc alone.

We were not of course the only Christians on the march. I know that there were other Christians in the trade union blocs, the refugee blocs, the LGBTQ+ Bloc and elsewhere. They included some who had attended the church service before the march began. Nonetheless, I am delighted that so many joined a bloc that was specifically there to challenge the far-right’s misuse of Christianity and to reject Christian nationalism.

As the Christian Bloc marched, it was great to share greetings and encouragement with others, including Jewish and Muslim groups marching near us.

Well done and thank you to everyone who took part or expressed support!

Christian nationalism may be growing in the UK. So is the resistance to it. We need to keep going!

Christians must stand up for Muslims’ right to pray in public

Posted on by symonhill

For the first time that I can remember in my lifetime, there are MPs calling for an end to freedom of religion in the UK.

Nick Timothy, little-known Tory front-bencher and Shadow Justice Secretary, last week attacked an entirely peaceful public iftar that had taken place in London’s Trafalgar Square. This Muslim event, which involves sharing food and includes prayer, was open to people of all faiths and none.

It was the sixth time it had happened, but perhaps Timothy had only just noticed it. The more likely explanation is that racist dog-whistling has become more politically acceptable than it was five years ago.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, he attacked “the domination of public spaces”. Apparently with no sense of irony, he described this peaceful event that was open to all as an “act of domination and division”.

Nigel Farage – perhaps alarmed that far-right hatemongering was going on without him getting any headlines out of it – quickly joined in. In his usual style, he went further, and called for Muslim public prayer to be banned.

I cannot recall a previous case of a party leader (at least not the leader of a party mainstream enough to be in Parliament) calling for members of a particular religion not to be allowed to worship as a group in public.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has shamefully backed Nick Timothy, although they seem a bit vague about Farage’s “ban” call.

To their credit, some other Tory MPs have disassociated themselves from Timothy’s vile remarks, most notably Emma Best, the Tories’ deputy leader on the London Assembly. All the centrist and left-wing parties have thankfully condemned Timothy and Farage’s comments.

The controversy exposes the hypocrisy of right-wingers who like to condemn what they call “cancel culture” and who claim to be proud of Britain. Surely one of the greatest reasons to be proud of Britain is British traditions of freedom of religion and civil liberties. We have these rights because our ancestors struggled for them, often in the teeth of opposition from monarchs, militaries and – at times – religious leaders.

I am pleased to have seen a number of people of other faiths stand up for the right of Muslims to practise their religion.

 As a Christian, I am glad to see Christians challenging Farage and Timothy and speaking up for religious liberty. At the same time, however, I am disappointed. Christians as a whole, particularly Christian leaders, need to be far more vocal in showing solidarity with our Muslim neighbours.

As Christians we need have no fear of religious liberty. The Gospel of Christ advances by love and compassion, not by coercion and proscription. Many other religions such as Islam and Judaism share our trust in the God of love, even while we disagree about important matters such as the divinity of Jesus.

It is not other religions that pose the biggest threat to Christian faith. It is the destructive idols that we have created. These are the idols of money and markets and military might – and the idols of nationalism and sectarianism.

Most of the people who struggled for religious freedom in British history were themselves Christian history. As a Baptist I am proud that Baptists have always rejected state control of religion.

The first book calling for freedom of religion of Muslims and Jews in England was written in 1612 by Thomas Helwys, one of the first British Baptists. Helwys declared that, “The king is a mortal man, and not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them”.

Calling for religious liberty was outrageously radical when Helwys wrote those words. In the 21st century, I would have thought that rejecting religious liberty would been far outside acceptable political debate. But far-right rhetoric has now become so mainstream that this is no longer the case.

Christians in general and church leaders in particular must speak up in support of Muslims who are under attack for peacefully praying. This is partly a matter of loving our neighbours as ourselves. It is partly a working out of Jesus’ teachings about breaking down barriers and recognising that those who are different to us are indeed our neighbours.

It is also a matter of self-interest. Every time that someone’s rights are suppressed, the restriction of the rights of others becomes more likely.

As the Jewish News put it on Thursday, “If you think that could not happen here, you are kidding yourselves. Uphold religious rights for all – you’ll never know when you’ll be glad that you did.”

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There will be a Christian bloc at the Together march on Saturday 28th March 2026 in central London. The march unites people of all faiths and none, including trades unions, migrant groups and community organisations, in challenging the far-right. Join us!

Church House Westminster are legitimising the far-right

Posted on by symonhill

A prominent London conference centre linked to the Church of England has been hosting the far-right political party Reform UK.

This is Church House Westminster, previously known as the Church House Conference Centre.

If this sounds familiar, it is because this is the same Church House Westminster that drew protests over several years for hosting military conferences sponsored by arms companies. I was arrested outside Church House in 2017 as the Land Warfare Conference took place inside.

At that point, Church House Westminster came out with the disingenuous excuse that they are a separate legal entity from the Church of England. They are making the same assertion now when challenged about hosting Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform party.

On 2nd March, the chief executive of Church House Corporation, Stephanie Maurel, said that Church House Westminster was “an independent commercial entity and is not part of the Church of England”.

This is a legal technicality. Church House Westminster is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Church House Corporation. This legal technicality does not explain why the Christians who run it think they should operate by different ethics than they would bring to an entity that was officially part of the Church of England.

Church House Westminster’s own Lettings Policy seems to contradict their statement about being an independent entity. It states that they may “refuse any bookings which would be contrary to the witness and mission of the Church of England”.

After the controversy over the arms industry conferences, Church House Westminster took the bizarre and frankly ridiculous step of hiring Oliver O’Donovan to carry out a review of the ethics of their lettings policy. O’Donovan is Emeritus Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh. He is one of Britain’s most prominent Christian ethicists.

The commissioning of O’Donovan’s review was not a sign of progress. It was a sign of the appalling attitudes of the people running Church House Westminster. Who needs a Professor of Ethics to determine whether a Christian conference centre should take money from companies that sell weapons to tyrants?

To add an extra level of absurdity, the results of O’Donovan’s review were not made public.

Church House Westminster have allowed Reform UK to use the building for their press conferences multiple times, including the recent announcement of the party’s “shadow cabinet”.

Farage and his cronies repeatedly claim that Reform is not a far-right party, despite their constant demonisation of refugees in particular and migrants in general, as well as attacks by many of their politicians on Muslims, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, benefit recipients and other minorities. The rich and powerful are almost the only minority that Reform UK don’t attack.

Church House has been urged not to host Reform UK by groups including Christians For a Welcoming Britain, Christians Against the Far Right, and Better Story.

Keith Brindle, a Church of England priest and co-ordinator of Christians Against the Far Right, has said, “By opening its doors to an agenda of hostility, Church House has provided a veneer of spiritual legitimacy to Reform’s anti-migrant and anti-Muslim politics, and their cynical scapegoating.”

He added, “As followers of Jesus, we must refuse to let the architecture of our faith be used to endorse the dehumanisation of our neighbours. The Church must be a sanctuary for the displaced, not a platform for their expulsion.”

Going on their past behaviour, it is likely that the authorities at Church House are planning simply to ignore the controversy and carry on. We need to make sure that that they can’t.

Why is a Christian church hosting a far-right party?

Posted on by symonhill

Why is a Christian church hosting a far-right party’s conference?

The Emmanuel Centre, part of Emmanuel Church in Westminster, is today the venue for a major event run by Advance UK.

The Centre has so far failed to respond to concerned Christians and journalists who have asked why they are prepared to profit from hosting a racist party.

If you’re not familiar with Advance UK, they split from the far-right Reform UK, in part because they seemed to regard them as too soft and not right-wing enough. The main figure associated with Advance UK is Ben Habib, a former senior figure in Reform who fell out with Nigel Farage and went off to set up his own party.

Other Advance UK members include Rikki Doolan, a far-right Christian minister best known for his role in the reported conversion to Christianity of racist activist Tommy Robinson.

I cannot of course see into the hearts of Robinson and Doolan. It is not for me to judge the sincerity of their faith. What I can say is that I see no connection between the views they promote and the teachings of Jesus.

Doolan spoke at Robinson’s far-right “carol service” in London in December. He repeatedly attacks Muslims, refugees and LGBTQ+ people.

Meanwhile, you only have to look fairly briefly at Advance UK’s social media stream to see claims about refugees that can easily be demonstrated to be factually untrue. They confuse asylum-seekers with “illegal immigrants”, even though claiming asylum is entirely lawful and an internationally recognised human right.

As with most far-right parties, the one minority who they don’t attack is the rich and powerful.

Racism, deceit and demonisation of minorities are clearly at odds with the most basic aspects of Jesus’ teaching. Like many other Christians, I often fail to live up to the values that I believe in. I am not expecting all Christians to agree with me. The far-right’s misuse of Christianity, however, is a fundamental distortion of the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus tears down barriers and upholds the value of all people, while the Bible is full of calls to welcome migrants and other people who are marginalised.

As a Christian, I believe in loving my enemies. I am not suggesting that members of Advance UK should be barred from churches. There is a big difference, however, between welcoming people as individuals (while also challenging them) and using your church to promote a party and their policies.

So why did the Emmanuel Centre think it was acceptable to host this party’s conference?

It won’t wash to say that Advance UK were simply booking a room in a conference centre. Most churches (and many other venues), have ethical lettings policies setting out who they will and won’t rent rooms too. It is inconceivable that a major conference centre in central London has given no thought to the question of who may be barred from hiring space there.

Even if they had allowed the Advance UK booking through naivety or incompetence, they have received emails and messages in recent days from a number of Christians expressing their alarm. Thus, while it’s hard to believe that the Emmanuel Centre’s managers were ignorant of the reality of Advance UK, it is literally impossible to believe that they still are.

The Emmanuel Centre urgently need to:

  • Explain how they came to host Advance UK’s conference.
  • Rule out hosting them in future.
  • Publish their lettings policy and rule out all bookings by far-right groups.

At a time when the far-right is on the march, it is vital that Christians work with people of other faiths and none to resist fascism and racism. Far from resisting far-right groups, Emmanuel Church are promoting and profiting from them.

If you want to urge the Emmanuel Centre not to host the far-right again, you can contact them at enquiries@emmanuelcentre.com or on 020 7222 9191.

Challenging the arms trade at Birmingham NEC

Posted on by symonhill

Arms fairs are not called arms fairs by arms dealers. They have a wonderful array of nonsense names and elaborate euphemisms. The arms fair taking place in the West Midlands this week is called the Specialist Defence & Security Convention (SDSC).

The SDSC (arms fair) will be held at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) on the edge of Birmingham on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th February.

One of the problems for arms companies is that wherever they gather, people tend to turn up and protest. That’s why arms industry events keep getting moved around.

It’s a reminder that resistance to the arms trade is not futile. When we protest, we often succeed in pushing it back – another step on the journey to the day when we are free of the arms trade altogether.

That’s why this arms fair – which used to take place in Malvern – is no longer there. Local people resisted every time it turned up. The locals had support from groups including the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), as well as from other people around the Midlands and the UK.

The local protesters chased the arms fair out of Malvern. It moved to Telford – and held on for even less time before moving again.

That’s why it’s at Birmingham NEC this week.

This is not an event on the scale of the massive DSEI arms fair that happens in London every two years. But it another part of the chain. Many of the world’s governments and armed forces will be sending representatives to the NEC this week.

There will be protests and other actions by people of several faiths and none on both days of the SDSC arms fair. You can find out more on the Stop SDSC website – a wide range of groups and individuals are involved.

A Peace Pilgrimage to the site has already taken place, with an interfaith group of pilgrims walking from central Birmingham to the NEC yesterday (pictured).

The protests will include a Christian act of worship and witness near the entrance to the arms fair on Wednesday morning. Please let me know if you want details!

I am just one of many people of good faith joining resistance to the arms fair this week. I’ll do my best to answer any questions – or pass them on to others if they are better placed to answer.

Make sure no-one’s fooled by the far-right’s Christmas event

Posted on by symonhill

Well done to the Church of England, who have sharply criticised Tommy Robinson’s far-right Christmas-themed event planned for London this coming Saturday.

I was getting a bit frustrated with the CofE for their failure to condemn the event sooner, but I’ll happily put that aside and focus on the fact that they have done so now. In the case of some CofE leaders, they have done so more strongly than I had dared to hope.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church had already condemned Robinson’s plans, along with various other churches and Christian groups.

Some Christians would prefer just to ignore the far right. I understand about denying them the “oxygen of publicity”. The problem is that if they’re already getting publicity for the lies they tell, we need publicise the truth.

Robinson’s and his band of far-right clergy have put out a slick and sophisticated video and social media posts. The video includes a handful of racist and homophobic clergy, mostly from tiny right-wing denominations. They claim that this event is “not political”. They clearly want to give the impression that this is an innocuous Christmas carol event.

Their propaganda seems to be working. I have been saddened and disturbed to read posts in Christian Facebooks groups from people either approving of Robinson’s rally or urging people not to condemn it. Some of these are not from out-and-out racists; some are even from people who might be considered theologically progressive.

The far right event is called “Putting Christ Back Into Christmas” and involves carols and worship in Whitehall on Saturday. It is organised by “Unite the Kingdom” (UTK), whose aim is to divide the kingdom. This is the group who organised the racist rally in London in September, which included violent assaults on people of colour and peaceful counter-protesters.

For resisting the far-right’s narrative, and for reaching out to people who are taken in by UTK’s claims about the nature of the event, there are some helpful resources out there:

  • The Centre for the Study of the Bible and Violence have collated a range of resources – from artworks to writings to discussion materials.
  • The Joint Public Issues Team – who represent the Baptist Union, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church – have links to various resources on their website.
  • Jon Kuhrt has written a helpful article contrasting the organisers’ claims about the event with Robinson’s description of it to his own supporters.
  • There will be some alternative acts of worship on the day, not all of which can be publicised in advance. Please let me know if you are interested in details (although I don’t know about all of them!).
  • There is a counter-demonstration for people of all faiths and none at Downing Street from 1pm on Saturday.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The above image of the Bus Stop Nativity is produced by Andrew Gadd, who is kindly allowing it to be reproduced for free.

Palestine Action arrests threaten all our rights

Posted on by symonhill

I wrote the following article for the Church Times, who published it on 29th August 2025.

The Vice-President of the United States, J. D. Vance, has reiterated his claim that free speech is under threat in the UK. Any valid points that he might have about the policing of abortion protests are undermined by his failure to mention that hundreds of people are being arrested for supporting Palestine Action (PA).

The banning of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act had only just come into force last month when footage went viral of the arrest of the 83-year-old priest the Revd Sue Parfitt at a protest. After less than two months, the number of those arrested in connection with PA has exceeded 700. Among them are clergy of at least four denominations.

PA was banned after its members broke into RAF Brize Norton to damage weapons. But the people accused of entering Brize Norton have been arrested under existing laws, as have other PA members. The ban does not target PA’s activists, but those who publicly agree with them. It criminalises opinions.

Most people who have been arrested so far have carried signs that read “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” I wonder whether I would be arrested for a sign that read “I broadly support Palestine Action, but think some of their tactics are misguided.” I easily could be. The first five words are illegal.

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has doubled down. She claims that many PA supporters do not understand the nature of the group. So, why criminalise such apparently ignorant people? She says that court restrictions prevent her revealing “the full nature of this organisation”. In other words: trust the people with power: they know more than you do. I doubt whether this sort of request will work.

 PA was founded in 2020, when I was on the staff of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), Britain’s leading pacifist group. One of PA’s two founders is a PPU member. Impeding the arms industry has been the core of PA’s activity. The group’s critics label its members as violent. But, whatever the rights or wrongs of destroying property, the word “violent” surely refers to harming a living being. To describe the destruction of weapons as violent is to give property the same value as people.

Only the most grotesque priorities can lead ministers to condemn damage to weapons while continuing to supply those weapons to regimes that bomb children.

It is when they have deviated from targeting arms production that PA’s members have lost support. When they daubed paint and scrawled graffiti on Rico House in Manchester, protesting against Israeli landlords, their target was far from obvious to people working in rented offices there, many from the mostly Jewish local area. Whatever their intention, PA gave the impression that they were targeting Jews rather than genocide. This deterred potential Jewish supporters, and led to criticism from PA sympathisers who were keen to combine opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza with resistance to anti-Semitism.

When it comes to targeting weapons, however, widespread revulsion against genocide in Gaza has increased support for PA just as they have been banned.

Nonetheless, it is possible to disagree completely with PA, even to want its activists imprisoned, and still to oppose the group’s proscription under the Terrorism Act. Mass arrests for expressing opinions are a threat to all our rights

“I was there to bear witness to the call of Jesus to stand with those who are being silenced,” said the Revd Dr Sally Mann (pictured), a Baptist pastor arrested in London on 8 August. Passionately opposed to British arms sales to Israel, she said that she would be just as opposed to arming Hamas.

Like several other clergy, Dr Mann received support from her congregation. The morning after the Roman Catholic priest Fr John McGowan was arrested, he was applauded at mass; but, when he had arrived at the demonstration the day before, he heard someone calling out “Where are the church leaders? Why aren’t they saying anything?”

Several bishops and denominational leaders have condemned the supplying of arms to Israel, but have avoided mentioning the ban on PA.

Among non-churchgoers, the reaction is quite different. Look at social-media footage of Ms Parfitt’s or Dr Mann’s arrests and you will see comments from people saying that their perception of Christianity has improved. They have heard people speaking of Jesus as their reason for standing against genocide and risking arrest.

If this discovery leads them to attend a church, will they find the same enthusiasm for justice and peace?

Sixty people already face trial for supporting PA. More than 300 prominent British Jews have called for the PA ban to be reversed. The Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, and several politicians, are backing Amnesty International and Liberty in calling for a review of terrorism legislation.

Silent bishops and denominations will face a choice as their own members stand trial for their beliefs. They can ignore one of the biggest issues facing us today; or they can bless those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. As Dr Mann puts it, “It is costly, but we need to call out genocide and war crimes no matter who commits them. Jesus shows us how to do this.”

My book, The Peace Protestors: A history of modern day war resistance (Pen & Sword, 2022) can be bought online from the Church Times Bookshop.

Backlash continues over police raid on Quaker Meeting House

Posted on by symonhill

Churches Together in England (CTE) have become the latest organisation to criticise the police raid on Westminster Quaker Meeting House.

CTE are a bit late to the party, given that a full two weeks passed between the raid on 27th March and the CTE statement on 10th April. Nonetheless, given that CTE includes Christians with such a range of views, and that as a body it’s not exactly known for progressive positions, the statement is very welcome.

CTE have asked for a meeting with the Metropolitan Police and called for “an appropriate review by the police and its accountability structures”. While police “accountability structures” are weak to the point of barely existing, it would be interesting to see what comes out of a meeting between CTE, the Quakers and the Metropolitan Police.

If you’re not yet aware of this incident: at least 20 police broke down the door of Westminster Quaker Meeting House on the evening of 27th March. They swarmed through the building and arrested six young women attending a welcome talk by the nonviolent protest group Youth Demand.

Police also entered the other rooms in the building, including a room being used by a life drawing class and – staggeringly – a room hosting a private counselling session.

Youth Demand is not a Quaker group. However, they share with many Quakers a commitment to nonviolent direct action, in this case over climate change and war in Gaza.

Quaker Meetings were frequently broken up by the authorities in the seventeenth century. Now as then a place of worship has been attacked by violent representatives of the state seeking to stop peaceful people from acting on their conscience.

There has been coverage of the Meeting House raid in many places, including on the front page of the Sunday Times on 30th March. Personally I have written about it for the Morning Star and for Premier Christianity.

Other critics of the police raid on the Meeting House include Christian Aid, the Green Party, several MPs and members of the House of Lords and even Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The much shorter list of people who have refused to condemn or even question the raid includes Yvette Cooper, the Labour Home Secretary.

Police raid Quaker place of worship hosting campaign group’s welcome talk

Posted on by symonhill

On Thursday 27th March, at least 20 police officers broke down the door of a place of worship in central London and arrested young people who belong to a peaceful protest group.

New anti-protest laws have in recent years allowed the police to become ever more heavy-handed and anti-democratic in their approach to protest. Raids on people who are planning direct action – and not even doing it – have become more common.

Nonetheless, the police attack on Westminster Quaker Meeting House (pictured right) is particularly alarming for several reasons.

Firstly, the event was described by Youth Demand as a “welcome talk“ that was “publicly advertised”, to discuss protests against the genocide in Gaza. In other words, this event was open to anyone. That includes people with no experience of taking part in, or even talking about, civil disobedience or direct action. Anybody who went along out of interest may very likely be frightened of attending any political meeting again. This is police intimidation.

Secondly, it seems you can now be raided for having conversations about actions that you might take. Given that this was a welcome meeting, it is disingenuous for the police to imply that everyone there was in the middle of some sort of high-level planning of mass disruption. The police comment given to the media focused on what “Youth Demand have stated” their intentions to be. This is very different to everyone present being intent on taking part in such things. Given that the police raided other Youth Demand members’ homes in London and Exeter, it seems that they were attempting not only to arrest certain members of Youth Demand but also to intimidate all the others.

Thirdly, the police have raided a place of worship. Apologists for the police have been quick to jump on social media and point out that the people arrested were not Quakers (or at least, probably not Quakers). This is irrelevant. Quakers have a strong theology of not separating the “sacred” and the “secular”, so they do not believe their buildings to be more sacred than other places. This is also irrelevant, however. Religious groups expect their buildings to be places of safety and welcome; those who visit them should be able to expect this (speaking personally, Westminster Quaker Meeting House was a great place of welcome and community to me after I nervously moved to London 20 years ago). Westminster Quaker Meeting House is also the home of two Quaker wardens, who have now experienced the violation of their home by the police.

The police are clearly abandoning the sort of sensitivity and caution that might once have made them reluctant to break into a place of worship. A statement from Quakers in Britain described the incident as “an aggressive violation of our place of worship”.

Of course, this whole incident cannot be understood without the context of the genocide in Gaza, which is enabled by Keir Starmer’s government. Like the Tory government before them, they are happy to arm Israeli troops killing civilians in Gaza and Saudi troops killing civilians in Yemen – and many other vicious regimes around the world. The young people arrested in Westminster Quaker Meeting House were not planning violence. They were seeking to resist violence.

This police raid seems fairly clearly to be an attempt to deter people from taking part in Youth Demand’s upcoming protests. For this reason if for no other, let’s make sure we support them! Tessa, a member of Youth Demand speaking outside Bromley Police Station yesterday insisted that “this blatant act of intimidation by the Met Police” would not stop them.

Among other things, it is vital that religious groups condemn the police’s behaviour and their violation of free speech, freedom of assembly and religious liberty. This time it was a Quaker Meeting House. Next time it could be a church, mosque, temple or synagogue.

After Starmer’s disabilty benefit cuts, I would rather saw off my own arm than vote Labour again

Posted on by symonhill

There was a time when governments might have been more subtle about cutting support for disabled people in order to spend more money on weapons. Keir Starmer’s government are not even trying to frame it differently. They’re celebrating their increase in “defence” spending at the same time as they’re boasting about making disability-related benefits even harder to claim.

This bizarre decision reveals a class-based clash over what terms such as “security” and “defence” refer to.

For some people, these terms are simply about preparations for war. Indeed, even some opponents of increased military spending have fallen for the euphemism and talk about “defence” expenditure. But if you’re queueing at a food bank, unable to access mental health support or facing discrimination when applying for jobs, then security means much more than not facing a Russian invasion.

As your livelihood is snatched away, are you meant to rejoice that at least you’re being harmed by Keir Starmer rather than Vladimir Putin? As you shiver in the cold because you can no longer afford heating bills, should you celebrate at the thought you’re being impoverished and frozen by rich people in London instead of rich people in Moscow?

The expenditure on weapons seems to be based on the unquestioned assumptions that violence makes us safe and that spending more on violence makes it more effective. In reality, the combined military spending of NATO governments has been much higher than Russia’s for years. This failed to deter Putin’s vile invasion of Ukraine. I have yet to hear a journalist ask Keir Starmer why he thinks that throwing even more money at the military will somehow deter Putin when that has failed to work up until now.

Meanwhile, US troops whose Commander-in-Chief is Donald Trump are stationed at various bases around the UK. There is almost no media discussion of the presence of the troops of a dangerously erratic far-right regime in Britain.

Sadly, many of the opponents of benefit cuts seem unwilling to criticise military spending levels.

Thankfully, however lots of them have clearly framed the cuts as a political choice and presented meaningful taxation of the super-rich as an alternative. This is a message that can really hit home and that we need to keep repeating: the government is choosing to cut support for some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK rather than take even slightly more from the millionaires. They are taking millions from people with nothing, and nothing from people with millions.

Ministers are benefitting from misunderstandings that they seem happy not to correct. Anyone with an even basic knowledge of disability benefits knows that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not an out-of-work benefit. It is to help with the extra costs of being disabled. Many recipients of it are already in work. For some, cutting this benefit will make it harder for them to work. For example, it can help with costs of transport or assistance that may for some disabled people be more expensive but which enable them to get to work. The number of disabled people in work will not go up if PIP is cut. In reality, it will almost certainly go down.

Yet someone casually glancing at the media would easily get the impression that PIP is given only to disabled people who don’t work. I can hardly blame people for thinking this, given the way it is often presented. But I can blame the ministers and right-wing journalists who know very well that this assumption is factually untrue, yet seem happy to benefit from it all the same.

Even if a minister somehow misguidedly believes in the benefit cuts that they are proposing, nothing can excuse their willingness to benefit from the lies, half-truths and uncorrected misconceptions that are being used to encourage support for their cuts. There has been a spate of stories in newspapers such as the Daily Mail demonising disabled people. Such stories are only going to get worse and more numerous in the coming days and weeks. Ministers are able to gain support for their agenda at the cost of encouraging prejudice and hatred of a large group of people.

Anyone who thinks that PIP is too easy to obtain has almost certainly never gone through the process of applying for it, or supporting someone who has. Having supported friends to apply for PIP, I find myself thinking that anyone who manages to complete the contorted and degrading application process in the midst of mental ill-health should be given a medal and celebrated as a hero, let alone getting a benefit.

While the government may have decided that they will cope without the support of people who receive PIP, they may have overlooked the reality that a significant percentage of the population know somebody who receives PIP (or other disability-related benefits). They thus know that these lies are not true. And the message “tax the rich instead of cutting things for the poor” is a straightforward proposal that is simple as well as realistic. Thus I am not convinced that austerity and attacks on disabled people will work as well for this government as they did for the Cameron-Clegg cabinet 15 years ago.

Groups such as Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) have done great things in the last 15 years in challenging austerity. I’m now planning to contact them and similar campaigns to find out what I can do to join the resistance to Starmer’s evil policy.

It is a long time since I voted Labour. While I tend to vote Green, I have tended to hold out the possibility that I could vote Labour in certain circumstances in the future. But now we have a Labour government with a domestic economic policy worse than anything that I can remember even Tony Blair doing. They are demonising and impoverishing disabled people, including people with mental health problems, while increasing military spending and letting the rich off the hook.

I will never vote Labour again. I would rather saw off my own arm. Although I dare say that Starmer’s new friends in the Daily Mail would accuse me of only sawing it off in order to gain benefits – and then they would deny them to me anyway.