Is spraying red paint on an aeroplane a terroist act?

[Sweep]

Reported in the Independent today that the Home Office has spent £700,000 of our money fighting this.

[DaveReading]

Reported in the Independent today that the Home Office has spent £700,000 of our money fighting this.

Gosh - only £700K?

Sir James Eadie KC, David Blundell KC, Andrew Deakin, Natasha Barnes, Stephen Kosmin and Karl Laird (instructed by Government Legal Department) must have cut their charges.

[tim-b]

Reported in the Independent today that the Home Office has spent £700,000 of our money fighting this.

Gosh - only £700K?

Sir James Eadie KC, David Blundell KC, Andrew Deakin, Natasha Barnes, Stephen Kosmin and Karl Laird (instructed by Government Legal Department) must have cut their charges.

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC (since 2002) MP could have had a bit of a guess at the probability of success over tea and a bikkie, then invited Yvette Cooper in for a chat, without either tea or biscuits

[Sweep]

Has yvette commented at all on this?
I do of course realise that she has moved on to bigger things since this daring initiative of hers.
I right old balls up IMHO and that of many others.
Many (ex no doubt) labour folk.

[Sweep]

Observer today.
Cost of banning palestine action then policing the ban and demos etc put at £10 million.

[Jdsk]

Possibly:
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/ar ... co-founder

Jonathan

[Sweep]

Thanks for posting jdsk
I read it on Readly and not all would be able to read their links

[Sweep]

Yvette on Trevor phillips sky news this morning.
Was there mainly to talk about Putin's poisoning activities but trev quite reasonably asked her about her PA activities and recent court case.
Appeared to be trying to distance herself from the decision.
Talked about accepting advice from
home office
And
Police
And that she was advised that there was a threat to public safety.
Came as news to me that PAs activities put jo/anne public in any danger
(Unlike a few other orgs whose initiatives as a londoner i have narrowly missed.
Also news to me that the police decide which orgs should be labelled terrorist.
Any more than they decide foreign policy.
I thought they just policed the law made by others.
Possible that dear yvette was referring to "advice" from the secret services? Influenced by other "services"?
Any precedent for this "advice" to be released to a nervous joe/anne public?

[deeferdonk]

Possible that dear yvette was referring to "advice" from the secret services? Influenced by other "services"?
Any precedent for this "advice" to be released to a nervous joe/anne public?

Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal.

The list of recipients includes prime minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves, foreign secretary David Lammy and home secretary Yvette Cooper.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-l ... s-cabinet/

[Sweep]

Possible that dear yvette was referring to "advice" from the secret services? Influenced by other "services"?
Any precedent for this "advice" to be released to a nervous joe/anne public?

Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal.

The list of recipients includes prime minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves, foreign secretary David Lammy and home secretary Yvette Cooper.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-l ... s-cabinet/

Thank you deeferdonk. Explains a lot I think. And quite possibly yvette's vagueness about the "advice" she acted on.
Must say I find the precision of those figures interesting/amusing. For instance what was Reeves' extra tenner for? Possibly explained by expenses claimed? Or currency exchanges?

[Jdsk]

"Hygate and Javaid then climbed through a door on the roof and got inside the factory, setting off an internal fire alarm which sparked an evacuation of the premises and confusion and panic among staff.
"While that evacuation was taking place the pair set off pyrotechnics including smoke bombs. Some were thrown into the area from where the staff were evacuating, causing smoke to pool dangerously close to staff members."
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/245 ... s-protest/

This is the most direct action against people of which I am aware.

This from last year. There's also restricted info that we won't hear about

A vehicle was used to ram the entrance of the Bristol HQ of defence technology firm Elbit Systems on Bolingbroke Way in Patchway, on the outskirts of Bristol, shortly before 04:00 BST.

Employees and police officers who intervened were assaulted, Avon and Somerset Constabulary said, and six people were arrested.

Sledgehammers, axes, whips and other homemade weapons were seized, police added.

During the incident, two officers were assaulted with a sledgehammer, police said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mnnje4wlro

That's without googling, there are probably other reports if you look hard enough

"Six Palestine Action activists have been cleared of committing aggravated burglary over a break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ems-filton

Guardian: "Aggravated burglary charges against 18 Palestine Action activists dropped":
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ts-dropped

Jonathan

[tim-b]

Guardian: "Aggravated burglary charges against 18 Palestine Action activists dropped"
Jonathan

I wonder why, if the original BBC reporting was accurate.

Sledgehammers, axes, whips and other homemade weapons were seized, police added. (link in a previous post).

From court reporting the sledgehammers can be discounted as "The first six defendants to be tried were carrying sledgehammers but their lawyers told the jury that they were intended to be used to destroy property at the Elbit site." (from the Grauniad link)

Possibly the axes too, but the rest...

[Jdsk]

I haven't found a better explainer than the one upthread:

Excellent explainer from the Secret Barrister: "Palestine Action: what just happened?"
https://thesecretbarrister.com/2026/02/ ... -happened/

But after the first round of taking it to juries it's easy to understand that the CPS reduced their estimate of the probability of future convictions, one of the key tests.

Jonathan

[tim-b]

I haven't found a better explainer than the one upthread:

Excellent explainer from the Secret Barrister: "Palestine Action: what just happened?"
https://thesecretbarrister.com/2026/02/ ... -happened/

But after the first round of taking it to juries it's easy to understand that the CPS reduced their estimate of the probability of future convictions, one of the key tests.

Jonathan

It'll be a different jury, which shouldn't change the original decision to proceed to Court.

It means that an objective, impartial and reasonable jury or bench of magistrates or judge hearing a case alone, properly directed and acting in accordance with the law, is more likely than not to convict the defendant of the charge alleged. This is a different test from the one that the criminal courts themselves must apply. https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/code ... s#section4

[DaveReading]

It'll be a different jury, which shouldn't change the original decision to proceed to Court.

The fact there there will (obviously) be a different jury is neither here nor there.

It would be perfectly understandable if the CPS were to reassess the likelihood of getting a conviction, given their failure to obtain one first time around.