On reading about the case in which armed police in Canterbury threatened a woman with arrest under the Terrorism Act for holding a Palestinian flag and holding signs saying “Free Gaza” and “Israel is committing genocide” – because her placard might be “reasonably interpreted” as expressing an “opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation” and that “mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that all comes under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government,” and that the phrase “Free Gaza” is “supportive of Palestine Action” – my daughter said “be careful what you write on your Blog Dad.”

Seeing that the Pope has just called for an end end to the barbarity in Gaza, I thought I’d draw something instead.

The question in all of this is whether this kind of insane over reach is an unintentional consequence of panic in the Home Office, faced with a mass movement that keeps on coming, keeps saying “we see you” and exposes a core ally as a genocidal state, and therefore puts into question the nature of our own state; or it is a deliberate attempt to freeze and intimidate that movement, while retaining plausible deniability. Was the armed Plod who threatened arrest just dimly applying his own limited understanding of the situation and relying on his tried and tested repressive instincts, or was he kite flying under instruction? Lets see how far we can get away with this?

Either way, it is backfiring. “Democracy” let us not forget, is supposed to be a “Fundamental British Value”. And, as the policeman put it so well, “the government has dictated that”.