From Bury to Gaza: protest needs a better response

Thirty years ago, I took a call at Butlin’s where I was on family holiday, from the Manchester Evening News. They told me my house walls had been daubed with paint by protestors against the Child Support Agency, of which I was the responsible Minister. Some days later, when we had returned, my garden was occupied, and crosses were planted to symbolise those men believed to have taken their own lives because of new legislation. At the same time, the village where we lived had picture posters of me put up on lampposts informing the public, and my seven- and eight-year-old children, that I was a murderer.

So, I have watched the protests over Gaza since October 7 last year with more than a passing interest.

That people feel aggrieved and angry over events for which they believe MPs have responsibility is not new, nor illegitimate. Nor are their efforts to put their case to them. But the rule of law, and the unspoken conventions which govern political relationships in this country, are there to mitigate the hostility behind protest which could give rise to something more serious, as we experienced with the devastating losses of Jo Cox and David Amess for simply doing their jobs as our representatives. We lose this common thread at our peril.

The local police in Bury were kind to the family and considerate of me, but I never truly felt much threat. I made myself properly available, at my surgeries, and at public meetings — and made clear there was no need to target my home or family. But, whilst angry, the tone was never personally intimidating in the manner I have observed recently on social media directed at MPs.

We have seen violent protest before. I remember the poll tax riots, but I do not recall MPs being stalked and abused as at present for not voting in a certain way in the Commons. We have had huge interest in foreign affairs — the Iraq and Brexit marches were attended by hundreds of thousands of people — but I do not recall town halls being stormed by abusive and intimidating protesters, nor restaurants and shops being picketed.

The elephants in the room are the issue itself, who some of the protesters are, and what may be driving them. All of these add to the incendiary risk, and the need for language and comment on any issue of protest to be within a spectrum of reasonableness. Nothing compares to Israel and its activity as the subject of foreign affairs interest in the UK. No other British community is wrongly singled out for assumed complicity in the decisions of a government abroad like Jewish citizens in the UK. Neither Syria nor Sudan, for example, with their even more horrific Muslim death tolls, have brought angry sympathisers out onto the streets as Gaza does.

And whilst solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian cause has over the years brought together peacefully many political elements in the UK from every background, the present Gaza crisis falls into a UK with a much larger and more politically engaged Muslim population than in 1967, 1973 or even 2006. And that elements in that population are being targeted for radicalisation, by intolerant agitators abroad and in the UK into which events in Gaza play a part, cannot be denied.

But equally, to miss the context of a breakdown in civility of debate, and of extremist protest elsewhere, would be to miss the real picture. It is not about the false allegations concerning the Mayor of London and Islamists. That’s a diversion, which plays into the growing and equally worrying hard-Right backlash.

It is an analogy with Bill Bratton’s warning on crime: stop the bad stuff early. To accept as permissible that public representatives should be followed and loudly abused on the streets is wrong. To shout abuse in someone’s face is wrong, no matter how important the perpetrator thinks their cause might be. If the law allows it as “free speech”, then the law needs changing. Same for storming public places, and descending on people’s homes, whatever wrong you personally believe needs to be righted. And forcing disruption of Parliament is wrong.

Countering Extremism Commissioner Richard Simcox said recently that the common themes of our society were under threat. One such theme, that protected all, was that it was taken for granted how we protested, and what happened when, in extremis, the law was broken by anyone, as it was from Orgreave to Trafalgar Square. This is where we should now focus. The PM’s home should not be targeted by anti-oil activists. Those supporting Gaza protests should recognise that a minority of the protesters are anti-Semitic and intimidating and dissociate from them. Those choosing only to focus on Gaza and Islamist influence for political reasons should widen the net of concern.

One of our citizens fearing for their safety at the hands of political protest is one too many, whatever their background, race, or ethnicity. Politicians should stand up and act for all. They should never divide.

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