Post #4390652

2026-08-04 20:49 UTC

The Scottish Green are demanding the Burnham administration halt the prosecution of peacefully protesting Palestine Action supporters: Burnham's 'government should end the prosecutions of peaceful protesters & undertake an urgent review of how counter-terrorism and public-order laws are being used against political dissent'! The proscription of PA has been a clear continuity with Starmer's Govt. & Shabana Mahmood is unlikely to be an agent of change. #politics #protest https://greens.scot/news/burnham-must-end-starmer-s-criminalisation-of-peaceful-protest

Replies (3)

@macronencer@mastodon.scot 2026-08-05 05:56

@ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk I'm still struggling to get my head around what's happened. If I were to travel back to the 1980s in a time machine and tell my past self that forty years from now peaceful protest would be criminalised, my past self would probably assume it was a Tory government, or even a full-on Fascist one.

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@beemoh@mastodonapp.uk 2026-08-04 20:51

@ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk Today Burnham (re?) announced a programme of prison-building, so I wouldn't hold out much hope.

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@2legged@mastodon.ie 2026-08-05 15:18

@ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk This, I think, was part of the price of #Burnham's crown. He made deals to pull off his coup. One deal was to give Louise Haigh control of his relationship with the PLP. Another deal seems to be to give Mahmood & #BlueLabour a free run to continue to smash liberty, or at least to make no major retreat. Maybe in 6mo or a year, Andy will be strong enough to dump Mahmood. Maybe he will want to. But I think keeping Mahmood in place is clear signal of no early retreat from repression.

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