←Law experts demand inquiry into Met policing of pro-Palestine protest
Текст: More than 40 legal scholars have signed a letter calling for an independent inquiry into the Met’s policing of a pro-Palestine protest in London on Saturday, describing it as “a disproportionate, unwarranted and dangerous assault on the right to assembly and protest”.
The force said it had arrested 77 people at the demonstration,
having banned protesters from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters, citing its proximity to a synagogue and the fact it was taking place on the Sabbath. The ban led to the protest being changed to a static rally, but the Met claimed people had broken through police lines in a coordinated effort to breach the conditions.
This was disputed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) as well as the former Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn and the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who were voluntarily interviewed under caution in relation to the march before being “released pending further investigations”.
The letter – whose signatories include Prof Jeff King from University College London, who is the former legal adviser to the House of Lords select committee on the constitution, and academics at more than 15 other universities – says: “The conditions imposed by the
Metropolitan police on the PSC demonstration on 18 January 2025 were disproportionate and an abuse of police powers.
“Despite a demonstrable track record of overwhelmingly peaceful protests for over a year, the police prevented the demonstration to assemble near, or march towards, the BBC on Saturday without offering any compelling evidence. The police thus seemed to be motivated by political considerations that seek to limit the efficacy of the protesters and shield state institutions from criticism.”
It says that the arrest of the chief stewards of the national Palestine marches and others represents “a worrying escalation in the assault on the right to protest in general, and on anti-war and pro-Palestine protests in particular” and calls for “a repeal of the raft of anti-protest laws passed in recent years”.
The chief steward and the director of PSC were among 12 people charged. All but two were charged with public order offences.
The PSC said the Met had reneged on a previous agreement to allow a march from the BBC on Portland Place to Whitehall, a route taken several times before.
Dr Paul O’Connell, a reader in law at Soas University of
London, said the letter was signed by leading lawyers and academics
“who, in one capacity or another, have worked on issues related to human rights and the rule of law for decades”.
He said: “It shows, in no uncertain terms, that these experts have the gravest of concerns about the policing of the PSC demonstration … and more generally about the assault on the right to protest in Britain.
“Freedom to assemble and protest is the very lifeblood of a democratic society. If people protesting the commission of a genocide in Gaza are not safe to do so, then it bodes ill for individual freedom and democratic life in Britain in the 21st century.”
O’Connell said the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, to whom the letter was addressed, along with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the attorney general, Lord Hermer KC, must “make sure that the law and police tactics in Britain protect and facilitate the right to protest, as required by regional and international human rights treaties that Britain is a party to”.
Commander Adam Slonecki, the Met officer who led the policing operation, said:
“We saw a deliberate effort, including by protest organisers, to breach conditions and attempt to march out of Whitehall.
“This was a serious escalation in criminality and one which we are taking incredibly seriously. Officers have worked around the clock to pursue those involved.
“We will continue to work through CCTV footage, videos from social media and our body-worn cameras so we can make further arrests and bring forward charges where we identify criminality.”
Irma Grant obituary
Текст: My mother Irma Grant, who has died aged 94, was a milliner and tailor, teacher and administrator, homemaker and gardener. Throughout her long life she applied her ingenuity, creativity and talents to a wide range of activities.
In 1939, Irma was evacuated from London to Bedford as part of Operation Pied Piper. She lived with Dora and Harry Lynham. Years later the Lynhams attended Irma’s wedding, and Irma’s children spent school holidays with Auntie and Uncle Bedford.
Irma was born in
London to Isabel (nee Philips), a book-keeper, and Micheal Ginsburg, a tailor who changed his name to Geen in 1941,
and grew up in a non-Orthodox Jewish family over a shop in Baker Street; the family later moved to West Hampstead, where Irma went to Emmanuel primary school. After the second world war she went to Camden school for girls. She fondly remembered pre-war summer holidays at a beach hut in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent.
In 1941 Irma’s father was called up and worked as a unit tailor
in the Royal Army Service Corps
in Barry, south Wales. After the war he became a theatrical costumier, and Irma often helped out at his workshop/showroom behind Liberty’s in the West End. Irma enjoyed theatre, dance and art, and regularly went to the National Theatre and the Royal Academy. Through family connections she found work in the garment trade, with Albert Hart, “a posh furrier”, and with a series of independent clothing makers.
When she was 20, Irma met Richard Grant, a trainee architect, at a youth dance put on by the West London Synagogue. They married in 1953 and set up home among the bomb sites in Belsize Park, with two children, three elderly sitting tenants, and room enough for Richard to convert the ground floor for Irma’s parents. While her children were young, Irma worked at home, specialising in millinery. She made wedding hats, cricket caps, pillbox hats for female air crew and all the Russian fur hats for
David Lean’s Dr Zhivago (1965).
In 1973, she
began to study first fashion and then teacher training at Westminster College for her City & Guilds qualifications. She became a dressmaking tutor, then head of the department of fashion, and finally head of centre at the Stanhope base of Camden Adult Education Institute.
In retirement she joined the Chantraine School of Dance, attended the University of the Third Age (U3A), worked part-time for boutiques, volunteered as tutor for the European Computer Driving Licence course and as a tour guide for the National Trust at Ernő Goldfinger’s house in Hampstead.
In 2011, Richard and Irma moved to a retirement village in Hampshire, where she was a librarian for 10 years, ran a book group and did alterations for residents in return for donations to the
Rosemary Foundation.
Irma is survived by Richard, their children, Deborah and me, her grandchildren, Jesse and Ashley, a great-granddaughter, Merryn, and a sister, Lesley.
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