They are two of the most famous structures on Earth, beacons of British identity. Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament are instantly recognisable around the World, glorious symbols of a stable, welcoming democracy.
Yet over the past few days, these historic landmarks have taken on a sinister new look as billboards for hardline political agitators preaching division and intimidation.
First, pro-Hamas demonstrators projected a hateful, genocidal, anti-Semitic slogan on to the walls of the Palace of Westminster. Then a mob waving Palestinian flags occupied Tower Bridge, closing it to traffic for hours.
We have become wearily accustomed to seeing the world’s wars fought out by proxy on the streets of our capital city. London has never been a sea of tranquility. In recent decades there have been armed sieges at the Iranian and Libyan embassies, marches against every conflict from Vietnam to Afghanistan. We’ve survived IRA and Islamist bombing campaigns.
On the domestic front, we’ve experienced poll tax and race riots, rowdy demonstrations against Brexit, nuclear weapons and the closure of coal mines.
A mob waving Palestinian flags occupied Tower Bridge, closing it to traffic for hours this week
As a nation, we have prided ourselves on our tolerance of protest. But ever since the mass slaughter of innocents in Israel on October 7 last year, that tolerance has been stretched to breaking point.
Islamist militants and Far Left headbangers have gone way beyond the limits of decency and legality in support of Palestine/Hamas. Most weekends, the streets of Central London now resemble something out of downtown Tehran.
British Jews are living in fear, justifiably. Security has been stepped up at schools and synagogues. Some imbecile even defaced the statue of the much-loved Jewish pop singer Amy Winehouse, who died at the age of just 27. What the hell has she got to do with the fighting in Gaza?
Members of Parliament have been forced to employ bodyguards. MPs’ homes and families are being targeted.
As we saw last week, Parliamentary procedure and propriety has become distorted by Israel’s war of self-defence in Gaza. Politicians and the police are cowering before the mob.
When news broke on Mail Online about the ‘occupation’ of Tower Bridge at the weekend, the story began: ‘Police have taken to Twitter . . .’ which just about sums up the pathetic, craven response of the forces of law and order to these protests.
That was the City of London constabulary, but time and again the much larger Met police have stood back and watched as demonstrators have spewed hatred against all Jews, not just the State of Israel.
Commissioner Mark Rowley, a major disappointment as London’s police chief, continues to fall back on the lame excuse that he doesn’t have the legal powers to intervene.
It’s the same reason he gives for letting XR and Just Stop Oil nutjobs bring chaos to the streets. Yet when the Government passed emergency legislation beefing up the law and giving him the power he requested, he still refused to use it.
The law governing ‘hate crime’ is explicit. A hate crime is anything which any reasonable person considers to be motivated by hatred of a particular individual or group. Yet according to Rowley, that doesn’t include calling for an entire race to be erased from the face of the Earth and projecting it on to Big Ben.
Still, that hasn’t prevented his officers threatening to arrest a Christian preacher singing hymns in Oxford Street. Or turning back a Jewish van driver displaying posters of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas.
Contrast the kid-gloves treatment of pro-Hamas hatemongers with the enthusiasm the Met displayed when cracking the heads of Countryside Alliance marchers a few years ago.
Yet even with the security of MPs and their families under threat, the political class still contrive, as I wrote last week, to make the human tragedy in Gaza and the anarchy unfolding on British streets all about them.
Pro-Hamas demonstrators projected an anti-Semitic slogan on to the walls of the Palace of Westminster that read: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’
Yesterday’s headlines featured Labour clamouring for the scalp of former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who made some injudicious remarks blaming London mayor Sadiq ‘Genghis’ Khan for handing over control of the city to Islamists.
For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with Anderson. Khan isn’t in thrall to Islamists especially, any more than any other section of his electoral rainbow alliance. He’s a cynical two-bob chancer and everything he does is for the greater benefit of himself.
Yes, there are many more Muslim than Jewish votes in London. But while Genghis might nominally be in charge of policing, the real dereliction of duty is on the part of Rowley, who runs the Met, and his senior commanders.
None of this is to deny the growing influence of Islamist extremists on British politics. Look no further than the forthcoming by-election in Rochdale, now twinned with the Gaza Strip.
You might have thought that one Labour MP who would be particularly concerned was former Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds, who had a Palestinian flag shoved in her face as she crossed the road before a meeting in Oxford. But when Dodds turned up on the BBC lunchtime news yesterday, she was more concerned about monstering Lee Anderson than condemning her own attacker.
Hamas-inspired aggression is spilling out beyond London daily. In Stoke, pro-Palestinian/Hamas demonstrators stormed a restaurant hosting a Tory fundraiser. In Bradford, a kebab shop owner was attacked — for selling Coca-Cola.
According to something calling itself The Friends Of Al-Aqsa: ‘Coca-Cola operates on stolen Palestinian land and is therefore directly profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid in Palestine.’
This is complete madness, yet it is rapidly becoming par for the course.
In The Mail on Sunday, Andrew Pierce detailed how fanatical Islamists are targeting MPs in Labour constituencies, such as Wes Streeting’s Ilford North.
I know from my own postbag how unpleasant and threatening their campaigning in Ilford has become. Ilford’s elderly Jewish community feels increasingly scared because of the tensions over the Israel/Hamas war.
A poster on a bus stop opposite a Jewish bakery proclaims: ‘Vote for genocide, vote Labour.’
In Ilford North, an independent Islamic candidate Leanne Mohamad is standing against Streeting, Labour’s health spokesman.
She is tapping in to genuine pro-Palestinian, not Hamas, sympathies but completely oversteps the mark by claiming: ‘The Muslim community is united. We are a powerful, united force of four million acting in unison.’
I don’t believe for a moment that Leanne Mohamad speaks for all Muslims any more than Lee Anderson represents the whole of Middle England.
What’s seriously worrying, though, is that the politicians and the police seem to think that she, and other loudmouths like her, do speak for British Muslims. The Met, in particular, since 9/11, has been inclined to listen to, and indulge, the most extreme, self-appointed ‘community leaders’.
Which is how we’ve ended up where we are today, with anarchy and anti-Semitic hatred on the streets and political discourse poisoned. Our tolerance of protest has been tested to destruction.
Until now, for all its chequered history, London has been the most successful, multi-cultural city in the world, integrating millions of immigrants from disparate backgrounds.
Our democracy, however messy, has prevailed. If Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament are to continue as shining beacons to the world, the police and our pusillanimous political class need to get a grip of the bad actors and terrorist sympathisers trying to tear us apart.
Enough already.
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