Fellow Bedmates

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157/365: The White Swan, Bewdley
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It is twenty years to the day since more than 50 people were killed and nearly 800 hurt in the London bombings, caused by extreme Islamist suicide bombers. This was the first Islamist suicide attack in Britain, as well as being the deadliest terrorist attack since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. It was a terrible shock at the time, all the more so because the targets were public transport vehicles: three London Underground trains and one double-decker bus. At first the news was simply of a "power surge" on the Tube, and it took a couple of hours before it was fully clear that it was something more sinister than a simple fault.

On a happier note, someone on my list here asked me recently whether the White Swan pub in Bewdley was still around. I said yes to them at the time, but here's some visual evidence! The White Swan was for a long time a slightly down-at-heel pub -- not dangerous or anything, just rather shabby and tired -- but it's had a substantial makeover in the last year and has gone significantly upmarket. It's recently started to sell itself more on food than beer, and the patio area at the back has been given a good polishing up as well. It's at the top of Load Street, Bewdley's main street.

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I have such mixed feelings about the proscription of Palestine Action in the UK. I absolutely cannot stand the organisation itself -- and I'd said that even before the ban -- which has often come over as one of those self-indulgent middle-class "look at meeeee!" groups (see also Just Stop Oil). I'd go so far as to say PA has probably harmed the case by putting off so many moderate people, just as happened when fringes on Palestine marches started actively supporting the Iranian regime recently. It's also ludicrous to say, as I've already seen happen, that the ban on PA makes it "illegal to protest the genocide". That's ridiculous and no more true than saying the Provisional IRA's proscription made it illegal to protest against British forces' brutality in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

What gives me pause is that, unlike for example the Provisional IRA, Palestine Action have not actually been violent in their actions. The best known thing was when they broke into an air base and trashed the engines of some planes. As far as I can see, all the other groups who have been proscribed -- PIRA, various neo-Nazi thugs, and indeed Hamas -- are actively violent or repressive. I tend to feel that in a democracy the bar for making it illegal even to express support for an organisation (and doing that with PA is now a criminal offence) should be extremely high. As it happens I don't want a US-style near-free-for-all when it comes to free speech. I wouldn't, for example, want to allow the level of commentary on ongoing trials that exists there.

But yeah. I deeply dislike PA and think they've done far more harm than good to their avowed cause. I also deeply dislike the arrogance of some on that slice of Palestinian protest who insist on pushing their way into so many other protests and marches (even some unrelated ones such as LGBT or disability-rights events) "because genocide". I'm deeply suspicious about these "grannies being arrested" stories, because I suspect that was what PA wanted to happen. As I've said before, it's also curious that so many of these people just happened to be against providing support for Ukraine. There's at least a suspicion that they just shout for anyone who's against Israel/the US/"the West" in the same way ultra-lefties lionised Stalin in the 1950s.

But even all that said, actually making it a criminal offence not just to join PA but to express support for them? However much I dislike them myself, that's where I get uneasy.