In recent weeks there has been a number of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Some of those protests have been organised by far-right groups. All of them are anti-immigrant and against the Labour government.

But in a curious twist, the prime minister announced on Monday that he is "at one" with people who want the asylum seekers out.

Keir Starmer enthusiastically threw his rhetorical support behind the views of the protesters. "I completely get it," he insisted passionately. "Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I.

"I'm completely at one with them on that," he said, and vowed to close "every single asylum hotel".

Former British MP and media commentator Douglas Carswell has sparked outrage by saying "let's make England Abdul free". Carswell, who regularly writes for the Telegraph, was a Conservative MP from 2005 to 2014, and then an MP for anti-immigration party UKIP until 2017.

On Sunday, Carswell took to social media platform X to share his views on a Daily Mail story about locals in Epping vowing to stop paying council tax after the High Court ruled asylum seekers can stay in a hotel.

"From Epping to the sea, let’s make England Abdul free," Carswell declared in an apparent spin on the pro-Palestinian slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".

The original slogan is often accused of implicitly advocating for violence against Jews, which pro-Palestine protesters strenuously deny. In contrast, Carswell's version appears to explicitly call for the removal from Britain of everyone called Abdul.

Pro-Palestine activists disrupted a BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, accusing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) of silencing artists critical of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Members of Jewish Artists for Palestine interrupted the performance for more than 10 minutes on Friday night. Some shouted from the upper stalls that the orchestra had “silenced artists” and “silenced protest.”

Videos on social media showed banners reading “Jewish Artists for Palestine” and “complicit in genocide.” One protester shouted: “The MSO has blood on its hands. You silenced Jayson Gillham.”

Gillham, a leading pianist, is suing the MSO after it cancelled a Melbourne concert he was scheduled to perform in August 2024. He says the cancellation was aimed at suppressing his outspoken criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The group said in a statement: “We reject Zionist funding, censorship and complicity in our cultural institutions.”

The father-in-law of the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has personal ties to Israel. Jonathan Hall is responsible for assessing whether groups like Palestine Action qualify as terrorist organisations. On Saturday, Hall wrote for the Observer, which defended the decision to proscribe Palestine Action.

This is despite leaked evidence which showed government intelligence revealing it had no grounds to proscribe Palestine Action.

But Craig Murray, independent journalist and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall’s father-in-law is Lord Dyson. He is a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel.

https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2025%2Faug%2F29%2Fasylum-hotel-fascist-asylum-protests-politicians

A group named online as Palestinian Martyrs appear to have broken into the Moog Aircraft Group factory in Pendeford, Wolverhampton at 3:50am on Tuesday.

Dramatic footage shows a black four-wheel drive car smashing through two white barriers, before the activists set off red flares and climb a ladder onto the roof of a building.

The manufacturer was targeted because it builds parts for the F-35 fighter jets which the UK sells to Israel via a global pool, the group claimed. F-35 fighter jets have been used in Israel’s destructive bombing campaign in Gaza for nearly two years.

Archive

4chan and Kiwi Farms sued the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) over its age verification law in U.S. federal court Wednesday, fulfilling a promise it announced on August 23. In the lawsuit, 4chan and Kiwi Farms claim that threats and fines they have received from Ofcom “constitute foreign judgments that would restrict speech under U.S. law.”

Both entities say in the lawsuit that they are wholly based in the U.S. and that they do not have any operations in the United Kingdom and are therefore not subject to local laws. Ofcom’s attempts to fine and block 4chan and Kiwi Farms, and the lawsuit against Ofcom, highlight the messiness involved with trying to restrict access to specific websites or to force companies to comply with age verification laws.