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NEW: Home secretary Shabana Mahmood urges pro-Palestine protesters to consider not taking part in marches this weekend.

"Imagine if you lost a loved one to a terror attack in this country ... sometimes a little unity, a little solidarity, some love to other people is required"

https://bsky.app/profile/kevinschofied.bsky.social/post/3m2biudwwps22

As someone was nailed to a tree for saying, the only way things like this stop escalating is someone stepping back from the anger one feels entitled to.

I don't think that's smart actually. She's by implication equating protesting Gaza with intimidating the Jewish community. That might be what it feels like for British Jews but it certainly isn't what (most) protestors consider themselves to be doing.

This is the same Labour government locking people up for wearing t-shirts, and continues to support Netanyahu's government with arms sales. They have no credibility whatsoever in that part of our society and I suspect the protests will continue over the weekend - perhaps with more vigour.

I think it pretty dumb of her. Protesting the genocide and starvation in Gaza has nothing to do with events in Manchester.

Not that I will be protesting this weekend for anyone.

I see that Hamas are the only “genocide” victims in history who have decided to keep the “genocide” ongoing.

Conflating Hamas and all Gazans is no different to conflating the IDF with all Jews.

Some bonkers comments on here last night, of which @Big_G_NorthWales was not one of them.

"Antifa" is bonkers. Its an idea, not a terrorist organisation. I am antifa. But Big G is quoting someone important mentioning it - which makes it relevant to post on here.

What else did we have. "every sane Patriotic Brit" have to vote for Farage - Mr Russia who went to American demanding economic sanctions on us.

A "civil war" if Reform win the election or "eventual islamic takeover" if they don't. Riiiiiiiiight.

This forum is a microcosm of the real world. We have representatives from most elements of real world politics. And we need to try switching off and back on again as everyone has lost it.

Good morning and thank you

It was one of several comments made by an important public figure in the fight against anti semiitism live in Sky

And that's why its right to post it here. Its part of the discussion even if what they said is rampant bullshit. Sadly we will hear a lot about "antifa" as we continue down the Farage Trump Putin political axis. When they look for antifa, send them in my direction. I am antifa.

Some bonkers comments on here last night, of which @Big_G_NorthWales was not one of them.

"Antifa" is bonkers. Its an idea, not a terrorist organisation. I am antifa. But Big G is quoting someone important mentioning it - which makes it relevant to post on here.

What else did we have. "every sane Patriotic Brit" have to vote for Farage - Mr Russia who went to American demanding economic sanctions on us.

A "civil war" if Reform win the election or "eventual islamic takeover" if they don't. Riiiiiiiiight.

This forum is a microcosm of the real world. We have representatives from most elements of real world politics. And we need to try switching off and back on again as everyone has lost it.

It really is not a microcosm of the real world. It is predominantly white, male, middle aged and middle class and its politics are mostly centrist and its dismissive of the Reform right and YpuParty left.

Every sane patriotic Brit - and that is surely most of us - has to vote Reform, now. It’s the only choice. It’s that or the abyss

It strikes me that a Reform govt could bring about some kind of civil war… his opponents hate Farage so much, and those to the right of him are clucking for aggro… he must have a good chance of being assassinated if he becomes PM. But the alternative is the continued slow destruction of what we thought of as England, and eventual Islamic takeover.

Right now millions of us are peacefully putting up with Starmer's government even though we don't like it, so if Farage wins an election fair and square it's only right that the left does the same even if they don't agree with his policies.

Farage is much more divisive than Starmer though, and look how Remainers refused to accept they lost the referendum.

Whereas Starmer winning a huge majority has been accepted with equanimity and grace.

I don’t see anyone demanding another election or refusing to accept he has a mandate

Leon calls for him to stand down every day with a “y” in it.

That’s different to refusing to accept he is PM, which is equivalent to what Remainers did when Leave won the referendum

Remainers did nothing of the sort.
Absolute shit-wittery.

Whereas, Boris did attempt to shut down parliament to prevent MPs voting to avoid a hard Brexit, an act later ruled illegal.

You have to be kidding me, where were you during the 2017-19 Westminster Parliament?! For two years Westminster was stuck in an obsessive bubble of cross party MPs and parties fighting to push through Brexit or fighting to stop it happening or make it a far softer exit keeping ties to the EU. The UK TV news`media literally had outdoor studios parked on the Westminster lawn while Remain protesters tried to drown them out on a daily basis as there was a constant stream of MPs on all sides being interviewed. Theresa May lost the Conservative's small majority in that 2017 GE and chaos ensued as Parliament was dominanted with votes on various forms of Brexit.

It totally sucked the oxygen out of every other domestic or foreign affairs issue for two years. It was then no surprise that the British electorate got fed up having watched this obsessive chaos for two years and rewarded Boris Johnson with a comfortable majority in the 2019 GE. I voted Remain, and I posted that I was gutted at the result after it was called the night of the EU Referendum on here but I accepted the voters had spoken and I respected that. But I got more and more angry and frustrated at the behaviour of all our politicians from all parties over that chaotic two years. If those politicians who had not accepted the result had been successful in getting another EU referendum, I would have voted to leave to respect the original result.

The SNP have spent the last eleven years refusing to accept the result of the 2014 Indy Referendum and they have been fighting to hold another one in the hope that they will eventually get the result they want which they will hypocritically then assume is utterly binding as a result. So I understood the importance of respecting another referendum result I did not vote for in 2016. While the EU referendum result was closer than the Indy result in 2014, what is the point of holding a referendum and then fighting to undo or change the result within the first few years and what message does it send to the electorate? No wonder Farage and Reform our dining out on the fag end of the last Conservative government and the disaster that has been Kier Starmer's premiership and government. Despite the polls, Reform are not in anyway a credible party of future government right now, they are a protest party who have yet to produce a decent workable policy to fix any of the problems they keep highlighting.

FPT.
Big_G_NorthWales said:

STATEMENT

I have been on this forum since 2014 and it is without doubt the outstanding place for political discourse, robust arguments, and hopefully influence to the powers that be
Throughout this time I have tried to contribute honestly and wherever possible provide links
I use a wide range of sources including Sky which is on most of the time, but also the BBC and articles from the telegraph, guardian, independent and some times guido and other media
I have consistently expressed my opposition to Farage and Reform, Trump and the far right, and my worries about the state of our politics.

I openly support the conservative party, but am a one nation conservative who actually voted remain though am pleased we have exited the EU
However, overnight and whilst I was not on this forum @Gardenwalker made an ignorant and unsubstantiated accusation against me that has made me question why I contribute when my words can be taken so much out of context. He said:
'Why is @Big_G_NorthWales ranting about Antifa now? He needs to get off Guido or whatever alt-right nut-shop he’s frequenting'

If @Gardenwalker had even bothered to find my post he would have seen the context and I believe he owes me an apology
It also seems that he (and others) have this obssession over my comments (and very many others) at the time of the beer and curry incident which were seeking the truth about Starmer's involvement and for which he was cleared and I accepted the due process was followed
I am thick skinned but @Gardenwalker crossed a line, and I have even considered whether I wish to continue but I am not going to let him win on this and hope he will have the decency to apologise for his unjust comments
----
Big_G_NorthWales, so sorry you felt you had to even make this statement on the site, you are one of my favourite posters from the centre right and no surprise because we are both one nation conservatives who have never been afraid to criticise our own party past and present. You really didn't deserve that unfair and bad tempered response, and the cross party PB community should be rushing to agree because you genuinely provide a really positive contribution to this site.

I first starting posting on this site in early years around 2004/5, in fact I believe I was not only the first openly Scottish female Conservative poster, but possible the first openly female poster after the amount of Chris's got too much for the site and I added my full name only to discover most posters assumed I was a gay man rather than a middle aged happily married woman and mother of three!

Every sane patriotic Brit - and that is surely most of us - has to vote Reform, now. It’s the only choice. It’s that or the abyss

It strikes me that a Reform govt could bring about some kind of civil war… his opponents hate Farage so much, and those to the right of him are clucking for aggro… he must have a good chance of being assassinated if he becomes PM. But the alternative is the continued slow destruction of what we thought of as England, and eventual Islamic takeover.

Right now millions of us are peacefully putting up with Starmer's government even though we don't like it, so if Farage wins an election fair and square it's only right that the left does the same even if they don't agree with his policies.

Farage is much more divisive than Starmer though, and look how Remainers refused to accept they lost the referendum.

Whereas Starmer winning a huge majority has been accepted with equanimity and grace.

I don’t see anyone demanding another election or refusing to accept he has a mandate

Have you ever been Online?