Disappointing debate about lobby influence


Debate about Israel’s extensive lobby activities in parliament unenlightening

June 2026

When we vote for someone to become our member of parliament, there is an understanding – not always spelled out in so many words – that MPs are there to represent us, their constituents, and once in parliament, to represent the interests of the country.  If they assume office of some kind, they will of course have many meetings with interested parties and discussions with other countries.  But all along is the theme that it is our nation which is being represented and the public at large being protected.

In recent years there has been a rising tide of concern about outside influence and role of think tanks and lobbyists. Basically the system is not working according to Transparency International and only 4% of lobbyists are registered making the legislation meaningless.  Collectively, they spend millions of parlaying their influence and often the question is who is funding them? Much of their funding is opaque but is often believed to be American commercial interests pushing against climate change, fighting hard not to see controls on their media platforms and for us to leave the European Convention.  The egregious payment of £5m to Nigel Farage (which is being investigated) has attracted much media attention but we should not lose sight of the drip, drip of smaller sums into the pockets of our representatives. 

Israeli lobbying

Another worry has been the influence of the largest and best funded lobby organisation funded by Israel to promote its interests. They have created a series of ‘Friends of Israel’ groups in all the main parties. There are believed to be 200 such MPs across parties with the predominant membership being Conservative. Over 60 are on the Labour benches.  

Many in the public are concerned at the extent of this influence and a petition attracted 118,000 signatures leading to a debate in Westminster hall on 22 June.  They called for ‘an inquiry into pro-Israel influence on politics and democracy’. The debate can be read here.

Their influence was immediately felt in the debate.  ‘Why is Israel singled out for this kind of enquiry?’ it was asked.  Why not the Gulf states for example? 

Another line of argument was that it echoed historical tropes of hidden Jewish control and allegations of poisoning wells during the time of the Black Death for example and the infamous ‘blood libel’.  Needless to say, the anti-Semitism allegation was made by Richard Tice among others. The frightening effect of these allegations on Jewish people was also mentioned. 

“This motion is antisemitic in its very motivation and at its core. As such, we should utterly reject it”

Richard Tice (Reform).

A consistent problem has been the confusion between anti-Semitism and legitimate criticism of Israel.  It has been argued that there is a degree of overreach as far the former is concerned.  Much use has been made of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.  As the Jewish academic Omer Bartov explains in his book Israel: What Went Wrong? (Fern Press, 2026) ‘The IHRA definition was the product of a European effort to promote Holocaust remembrance and education: it was never meant to serve as a basis for legislation and enforcement, but it has nonetheless morphed into an instrument for silencing criticism by law and duress’ (p58).

Anti Semitism definition criticised

The IHRA provides 11 examples of what might be termed ‘anti-Semitic’ but as Bartov points out, however objectionable some of such statements [in the IHRA list] may be ‘they are not, in and of themselves’ antisemitic (ibid).’  Herein lies the problem seemingly swallowed by several of the MPs making their speeches: legitimate criticism of Israel and their disproportionate destruction of Gaza and south Lebanon, and their policy of killing children, is by this definition, anti-Semitic. We argue it is not.

The Debate

The debate itself was disappointing for its lack of any kind of forensic analysis or the setting out of facts about the terrible events which took place on October 7th and subsequently.  Absent were any references to the bloodthirsty comments by leading Israeli politicians – not extremist firebrands – but members of the Knesset and Likud politicians.  The deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi for example, suggested ‘we need to separate the children of the women and kill the adults in Gaza’ (ibid p128).  There are many such repulsive statements from politicians like Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and others. 

‘Why only Israel’ was the cry from several MPs?  We can sympathise to an extent with this question which is probably due to our short attention spans and a media which finds it hard to fund overseas reporters.  Little is heard about the fearful abuse of Uyghurs in China, or the continuing persecution being carried out the Junta in Myanmar and Sudan has quietly slid out of the news.  Ukraine is in and out of the news. 

Circular argument

There is a degree of circularity in the argument however. Because Israel is seen as some kind of beacon of Western values in the Middle East, the only democracy it is claimed and an example of a brave little country surrounded by Moslem states some bent on its destruction: when it is seen to violate those norms of behaviour, there is a reaction. The demolition of entire apartment blocks because they claim there is a Hamas control centre within, or a member of Hezbollah in south Lebanon (a policy even President Trump is finding hard to accept) the seizing and confinement, torture and mistreatment of medical staff and hundreds of children, the destruction – the wanton destruction – of water treatment and other infrastructure like hospitals and schools and the deliberate policy of withholding food aid and medical supplies, the seizure of all cultivable land in Gaza, even with the enfeebled reporting by British media, some of this has seeped into the consciences of the British people.  Which has led over a hundred thousand to ask has our political class been corrupted by an Israel lobbying organisation?  In short, if you want to be regarded as a beacon of Western values then you must behave like one.   

One issue which emerged, albeit briefly, was the question of Elbit Systems a firm based in Britain with 16 facilities.  It has considerable support from the British government and the firm is engaged in joint ventures with UK firms to build drones. It is these drones which inflict such damage on people in the area and our continued support for the firm, the political cover given them and the draconian treatment of protestors which has caused resentment among many.  It was noted that the firm has easy access to ministers and civil servants, in and out like a cat flap like someone said. 

An issue not debated was the funding of trips to Israel.  As Declassified has revealed these are considerable in number. Conservative Friends of Israel has funded no less than 155 trips in a decade more than any other government. What are the MPs seeing and been shown?  It is not clear.  The prisons where boys are badly treated?  Unlikely.  The ruins of hospitals, schools and the like in Gaza?  Probably not.  The villages attacked and burned by settlers on the West Bank?  Improbable.

Was the debate enlightening?  Yes and no.  About the issue in question and the undue influence on policy and support for Israel which seems unconditional and not influenced in any meaningful way by the atrocities carried on there, the answer is ‘no’.  A debate built around the never-ending anti-Semitism claims about any or all criticism of Israel the state and the IDF was never going to enlighten us or them. 

About the lack of transparency and the role played by powerful and well-funded lobby organisations of which Israel is thought to be the largest and best funded, the answer is ‘yes’.  It has enabled the government to continue its support for Israel unimpeded by much in the way of questioning or obstruction from its back benchers or the opposition significant numbers of whom are members of one of other of the Friends groups. It was David Cameron, the ex-prime minister who, after the Greensill scandal that ruined his reputation, said Lobbying was the ‘next big scandal waiting to happen’. It is in fact a perma scandal. The debate is but another example of how our parliamentary system has been corrupted by outside influence.  The very lack of insightful debate and lack of facts was revealing in itself.  Only one MP in the debate declared his interest as a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

The ending

The end was interesting: Richard Tice MP again ‘Now that we have debated this appalling motion, is there a minimum timeframe before we have to debate it again?‘ To which the reply was in part ‘When reflecting on how this debate has gone, and more widely on how the Jewish community in particular has reacted to the petition, I would certainly argue that it should not come back for another debate, even if it reached that threshold. We have had an opportunity to air our views, and we have collectively called it out for what it is’ (John Lamont MP). Mr Lamont is a member of the CFI which he did not declare and does not appear on the They Work For You website under ‘Register of Interests’ [accessed 27 June 2026].

The tragedy of all this is that these ‘friends’ are not in the final analysis, doing Israel any favours. Peace and stability will only come to the region and to Israel if it can live and work with its neighbours. Simply arming and supporting a thuggish regime bent on war, destruction and killing is not in its best interests. Unless it completely destroys the entire population of Gaza – total genocide that is – there will be a residue of bitter resentment of a people treated so harshly and so cruelly that revenge inevitably will be a prime motive. Those parliamentarians are thus twice guilty: allowing themselves to beguiled into an uncritical support of a brutal regime and secondly, not in fact acting as they should as honest critics to the Israeli government to counsel a non lethal approach to every problem.

We are shortly to have a new prime minister and one hopes that he or she will address the issue of corruption and undue influence head on.  Trust in our politicians will only be reclaimed if the issue of lobbying and its pernicious effects are forcefully tackled.  Meanwhile, Israel if free to continue its violent actions safe in the knowledge that the UK parliament has been successfully tamed. John Glen, the Conservative member of parliament for Salisbury, is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI).

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Targeted policy to kill children


UN enquiry finds Israel conducts a policy of deliberately killing children

June 2026

A UN report published this month, has concluded that Israel has a policy of deliberately targeting children for attack in Gaza and now the West Bank. The scale of their actions is deeply shocking. The report, The Independent International Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory is extremely detailed and meticulous with copious notes and is the result of considerable research. It can be accessed here. The numbers quoted refer to paragraphs in the report. Many attempts were made to the Israeli government for information and/or access which were never responded to (3). A BBC report can be read here.

WARNING: much of the report is deeply shocking and upsetting.

Between the October 7th massacre and October last year, a total of 20,175 children have been killed and a further 44,143 injured. At least 5,000 of those were under 5 years old and a further 1,000 were under 1, that is babies (26). It is thought that 5,160 lie buried in the rubble. It may be recalled 36 children were killed by Hamas on October 7th following which there was a considerable outcry. Stories were fabricated about ‘babies being beheaded’ which are now realised to be fake. There has been no outcry about these Palestinian deaths.

The use of wide area munitions has had a disproportionate effect on children who are 7 times more likely to die following a bombing due to their young age (31).

Children shot

There are many casualties around the yellow line. It should be explained that this consists of yellow blocks dotted along the ‘line’ which are regularly moved as Israeli forces encroach on Gaza. They now control around 70% of the land. Children wandering into this area are shot and killed, over 100 this way. Some have been collecting firewood. Claims that the children are a threat in some way are unsupported and in any event are shot from a distance (38).

“Children brought into the emergency department were seeing around them the chaos of mass casualty, with people screaming, limbs blown off, blood… these children were sitting in a corner, staring blankly, not talking and observing all that, without any adults helping them to process or offer any sense of security. Mental health of children has been completely jeopardized.” – A doctor who visited Gaza on [a] medical mission.

WARNING

The report notes that as of April 2025, a total of 846 children had amputations without anaesthetic sometimes with makeshift equipment (44). Many do not survive subsequent infestations by maggots because of the dreadful conditions.

“I was not able to finish any operation because, every time child patients were taken back to the operating room, their injuries would be covered in maggots and sepsis under the dressings – these child patients had no immune system due to malnutrition. Children just did not recover.” – A doctor who visited Gaza on multiple medical missions.

Quadcopters

It should be explained that these machines are extremely efficient and are better at identifying victims that human snipers. They are made by Elbit Systems in England a firm the UK government are desperately keen to support. Those protesting about the firm are arrested and tried for terrorist offences. We cannot claim that drones made in England are used in the following episode.

A drone was able to identify a mother suckling a 10 day old baby and was able to kill the baby with a bullet through the head using a quadcopter (59). They are operated by a ‘Multi-Dimensional Unit – Unit 888 (71). An Israeli TV documentary had the following exchange:

‘Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War’, one Israeli soldier described, “the drones, in my opinion, are what most dehumanises the other side. You see everything on a screen. You drop the bomb. It feels like a game. You can sit in some basement of a house, safe, with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half-dressed, and kill Palestinians.”

An article in Haaretz describes the killing as a kind of competition among IDF soldiers to include children.

Children as fair game – “every child born there is already a terrorist”

The report makes clear that its research shows children are not killed or wounded as a result of incidental or accidental actions but as a deliberate policy. The Inquiry noted political speeches such as:

“The Commission found that Palestinian children in Gaza have been explicitly depicted as “terrorists” by Israeli officials in their speeches, statements and rhetoric in the Israeli Knesset, media and social media. On 9 October 2023, a member of Knesset and deputy speaker of the Knesset, Nissim Vaturi, posted on social media: “Erase Gaza. Nothing else will satisfy us. It is not acceptable that we maintain a terrorist authority next to Israel. Do not leave a child there expel all the remaining ones at the end, so that they will not have a resurrection.” (76). On 30 January 2025, he again said: “Gaza is full of terrorists and every child born there is already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth.”

Child prisoners

Since the October massacre, 1,655 children have been detained and held in ‘Administrative Detention’ although some held in military detention or interrogation centres. The treatment of these children is appalling. They are stripped and blindfolded, often forced to kneel on gravel, they are subjected to beatings, use of rifle butts, restricted food and water, prevented from access to a toilet and told to drink their own urine. Dogs are used to intimidate and they are kept in cells with 24 hour lighting. Some have been raped or subject to other sexual assaults. There is at least one report of death by sarcopenia (a muscle wasting condition usually associated with ageing). In plain terms a boy starved to death (107f).

Conclusions

The Commission found that much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group. Since children embody the biological and social continuity of the group, the Commission has reasonable grounds to conclude that these acts form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children (352).

This is just one of the conclusions in the report which lists the many forms of violence against Palestinian children including wilful killing, torture and other inhuman acts, sexual and gender based violence against children, attacks on educational facilities and facilities caring for children.

UK support

The Israeli mission in Geneva said Israel rejected the commission’s “libellous sham”. Israel has fought hard against allegations of genocide, while receiving critical diplomatic support from its allies, including the US and the UK. Much was made of Sir Keir Starmer’s background as a human rights lawyer but his government has never deviated from its support for Israel with arms, intelligence and diplomatic cover. He stepped down as prime minister on 22nd June. Many may be shocked at the deliberate policy of killing children described in immense detail in this report.

The Salisbury MP Mr John Glen is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel. The MP for East Wiltshire, Danny Kruger, who switched to Reform last year, stated in an interview that all deaths in Gaza are the responsibility of Hamas. We ask how can any MP carry on supporting Israel while it is engaged in a programme of killing children as a matter of policy? Both are provided with columns in the local paper, the Salisbury Journal in which these views are never mentioned. We could find no reference to the report in the Israel supporting Daily Telegraph [accessed 25 June].

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Need for vigil continues


The Salisbury vigil is needed more than ever as UK continues its support for Israel

June 2026

Imagine. If during the ‘Troubles,’ that is the campaign by the IRA in Northern Ireland and on the UK mainland, UK forces had issued a 24 hour warning to the towns and villages in the Irish Republic within 10 miles of the border, ordering them to evacuate their homes, and had then bombed them flattening a large number of buildings killing those living inside, followed by bulldozers and other equipment crossing the border to demolish entire villages. Had uprooted orchards and destroyed other agricultural assets included acres of glasshouses, and had used white phosphorous bombs to contaminate the land for a generation. Imagine the government claimed it had the right to do this because it knew or suspected that the villages were shielding IRA operatives and that the IRA were using women and children as ‘human shields’. Imagine it also bombed and destroyed medical facilities, water treatment plants and other infrastructure. Army units then seized medical and other staff, subjecting them to months of serious ill-treatment and torture denying them access to lawyers or even saying where they were held, many of whom would die in custody. Imagine if the UK had behaved that way.

The world would have erupted. The international outcry would have been enormous. The US would have made life extremely difficult for the UK and imposed financial sanctions sufficient for the country to face collapse as it did with the Suez escapade. UN resolutions would pile in. The UK would have become an international pariah. UK news media – even the BBC – would have fulminated against the atrocity being committed. Parliament would have been in uproar. It is indeed unimaginable.

Slide show

“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah”. President Trump at the G7 meeting

Despite the bombings both here and in Northern Ireland and the thousands killed, peace was eventually achieved in the Good Friday Agreement and although not perfect, a degree of normality has been achieved in the Principality. We cannot of course make exact comparisons so different are the circumstances – although both conflicts have their roots in British imperialism and colonial conquest – but looking at the scale of destruction with nearly 76.000 dead in Gaza and over 4,000 dead in Lebanon, who can see an end to this? Unlike what would have happened in Ireland, the US continues to arm and finance Israel. UN resolutions are ignored. The UK happily supplies arms, support and intelligence to Israel including two warships off the coast. Many of our news media have turned a blind eye or given highly sanitised versions of the atrocities. The only problem for Israel is that it has lost the moral high ground and the sympathy it received after the October 7th massacre has evaporated.

Government’s responses are feeble and a ‘gimmick’

The government has failed to take resolute action. It claims to have stopped arms sales while continuing to issue licences to arms firms. A recent example of their limp responses is Yvette Cooper’s recent statement in the House of Commons that the government had referred the ‘Great Israeli Real Estate Event‘ to the Advertising Standards Agency, Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s Crisis Response Manager, said:

“Referring an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity to the Advertising Standards Agency is a ridiculous gimmick that fails to understand the devastation Israeli settlements cause for Palestinians.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UK government has said so itself. The International Court of Justice has called on all states, including the UK, not to provide support or assistance that would help sustain Israel’s continued illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The UK’s failure to prevent this event from going ahead directly undermines its own position, the rights of Palestinians, and international law.

“Yvette Cooper was warned this event was coming and did nothing to stop it. That is not leadership – that is burying your head in the sand and hoping the problem goes away whilst illegal occupation, annexation, and apartheid continue at pace.

“If the government is serious about its opposition to settlements, it can start with a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements, ensure UK authorities properly investigate the organisers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, and ensure an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity is never allowed to take part on British soil again.”

The Jewish News denies that West Bank land is being marketed. They say the allegations are “motivated by anti-Israeli and terrorist supporters”.

NO sign of the Salisbury MP Mr John Glen at this or any of the previous 131 vigils. He is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel group which is thought to be the best funded of all the parliamentary lobby organisations and which has been able to subdue criticism of their country’s activities in parlaiment.

Our vigils will continue the next is on Saturday 27th at 5pm in the Cheese Market (by the Library).

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Refugee Week event


Group conduct quiz in the Market Square

June 2026

If there is one thing which is guaranteed to excite tensions and rouse passions at the moment is the whole question of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers. Election campaigns seem to revolve around this topic and only recently, mobs attacked homes in Belfast and Southampton to burn out such people with fire bombs. Parties vie with one another to demonstrate their toughness against them and Andy Burnham – decisively voted into parliament again two days ago – is quoted as being supportive of the home secretary Shabana Mahmood in her desire to introduce yet more controls.

Alongside these passions is a degree of mis and disinformation. For example, there is a degree of fixation over the Channel crossings which loom large in the tabloid and right wing media universe. They loom much larger in the imagination than the actual numbers justify. They are seen as remorselessly increasing when the opposite is the case. Which is why the group decided to mount a short quiz in Salisbury market.

The results were modest. Around 23 people stopped to engage. The majority walked by. We can never know of course but it may be because the whole topic of refugees is so distasteful they do not wish to spend their precious time on it. They may feel that their knowledge of the subject is pretty sound. We cannot know.

Those that did stop did pretty well (as you can see from the photo on the left) with most getting the answers right. They knew that numbers were falling; they knew that the numbers coming by boat were a small proportion of the whole and they were aware that they could not work without a visa.

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Serious issues raised by Palestine Action decision


Decision by Court of Appeal raises serious issues about our rights

June 2026

The dreadful decision by the Appeal Court last week raises issues way beyond the matter of Palestine Action and whether or not they are terrorists. On 15 June they upheld the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. As Liberty has argued “This judgement risks paving the way for current and future governments to use counterterror powers against non-terrorist groups as we have seen in other countries, to silence activists, minorities and opponents.”

Amnesty say that prosecutors want to make an example of them and set a precedent for how direct action protestors could be treated in future. The decision will have a chilling effect on protest and will undoubtedly leave many people nervous of making their views known or attending vigils or marches.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the judgement was the statement made by the judges:

“It is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open. It is a covert organisation that operates using secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy the property of third parties. Palestine Action’s activities have caused injury as well as property damage.“

It is hard to countenance that a group of supposedly learned judges should make a statement which is factually incorrect, historically naïve and verging on the bizarre. The suffragettes committed a large number of violent acts including damage to property, bombings and arson. They carried out these activities – about 300 all told – over many years. The number and extent of their actions far exceed those of Palestine Action. That judges of a senior court should be so misinformed is a worry.

Belfast and Southampton

Last week saw violence in Belfast and Southampton. Part of this was a series of organised attacks on houses containing refugees or immigrants. They were burnt out of their homes in acts of deliberate violence. The police came under sustained and violent attack. Despite the scale and nastiness of the attacks, there has been no question of using the terrorism word. The actions clearly fell into the definition of terrorism. Those who incited the violence are interviewed on media programmes.

In a previous post we commented on the attitude of successive governments towards the Gulf states and the double think involved. On the one hand talking in grand terms about a new world order, democracy and human rights, and on the other supplying arms and succour to a collection of brutal states which do the precise opposite. Where there is no democracy, women are second class citizens and certainly there are no human rights. Where our Royal family and others happily mingle with tyrants.

It is a looking glass world. Thousands have been arrested, many elderly, for protesting about the violence, destruction and genocide in Gaza and now in Lebanon. At least 73,000 have died in Gaza and thousands more wounded. Israel will not allow in heavy lifting equipment to help clear the rubble and retrieve bodies buried in it.

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Podcast Episode: Humanism And Middle East Debate


Pip: If you’ve ever wondered how a government squares “we stand for democracy and the rule of law” with “also, here are some more weapons” — welland2 has been to a festival that asked exactly that question.

Mara: This episode covers talks from the Festival of Humanism: UK foreign policy in the Gulf, and a debate between an Israeli and a Palestinian that was so in demand it had to be repeated in a bigger hall. Let’s start with what those festival talks said about conflict, hypocrisy, and who gets a seat at the table.

Festival Talks On Conflict

Pip: The through-line across both festival sessions is a single uncomfortable question: when Western governments talk about human rights and the rule of law, are they describing a principle or a brand?

Mara: Dr David Wearing’s talk at the Festival of Humanism set that up directly. The post captures his framing of Britain’s governing class this way: he made “the distinction between ‘we’ meaning them and ‘we’ meaning the population at large.”

Pip: That distinction does a lot of work. It means the arms sales, the training of security forces, the quiet financial entanglement with Gulf monarchies — none of that was put to a public vote. It happened in the gap between those two “we”s.

Mara: Wearing traced the history back to oil — Britain establishing protectorates around the Arabian peninsula primarily to secure supply — and argued the logic never really changed. The post notes he pointed out that “we would find it difficult to support our arms industry without the sales to the Gulf states.” The economic interdependence runs deeper than arms: legal services, accountancy, sovereign wealth funding the UK deficit.

Pip: The self-deception angle is what lands hardest. He describes RAF personnel actively involved in supporting Saudi forces during Yemen, while a senior army figure talked about the “rules based international order maintaining peace and prosperity.” That’s not a gap between rhetoric and reality — that’s a chasm.

Mara: The post calls it “an almost baffling lack of awareness.” And Wearing connects it explicitly to a colonial mindset — one that made it easy to view the region as backward, which in turn made it easier to look past the death penalty, the imprisonment of journalists and activists, the denial of women’s rights.

Pip: His book AngloArabia is flagged for anyone who wants the full argument in print.

Mara: The second session — the Israeli-Palestinian debate — and drew such a crowd it had to be repeated the following day in a larger hall. A British-Israeli software engineer and a British-Palestinian paediatrician spoke together, and the post deliberately doesn’t attribute individual points to individual speakers. The point being that some of the positions would surprise you about who held them.

Pip: One of those positions: “the conflict was about land — religion was very much a secondary factor.” Another: “armed resistance has made life more difficult for those it seeks to support.” Neither of those is a fringe view from outside — they came from inside the room, from people with direct stakes.

Mara: The post closes on a note that connects back to Wearing’s argument: outside interference — the Gulf dynamics, the arms flows — is “a factor in the perpetuation of violence.” The two sessions sat together, and they did.

Pip: And if the governing class won’t have the conversation, apparently a humanist festival in Bournemouth will.

Mara: The same logic — who gets heard, who gets excluded — runs straight into the questions the group is raising closer to home.

Pip: Two festival sessions, one through-line: the distance between what governments say they stand for and what the money actually does.

Mara: And the argument that ordinary voters are largely excluded from that gap. Worth watching what the group surfaces next.

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An Israeli and a Palestinian debate


Debate between the two at the Festival of Humanism over the weekend

June 2026

So popular was this debate that many couldn’t get in so it was repeated the following day in a bigger hall. The two speakers were Yaniv Aknin who is a British-Israeli software engineer currently working in London. He was born and raised in Israel but left in 2013. Jasr Kawkby is a British-Palestinian paediatrician currently working in East London. He was raised as a Muslim in Palestine.

It would be usual in a write-up of this kind to discuss what A said then to discuss B, making clear thereby who said what. We will not do this in this instance and just discuss what was said by both. These are some of the points made:

  • It was pure chance where you were born and whether you were Moslem, Christian or Jew.
  • Language was important. To call what happened a ‘war of independence’ was quite wrong. It was a colonial war. To live in a land where the ‘natives’ were expelled and prevented from returning was morally wrong.
  • Armed resistance has made life more difficult for those it seeks to support. It has alienated foreign support.
  • Suffering has been inflicted on those with no responsibility for the plight of Jews [in history].
  • Israel must stop its barbaric actions [for example] denying food aid in Gaza and must respect the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Jewish gaols.
  • [In answer to a question] the conflict was about land: religion was very much a secondary factor. It was however a complicating factor.
  • Zionism was a wrong ideology.
  • Most destruction of human life was by Israeli forces [meaning the IDF from other comments he made].
  • Pressure should be applied to Israel until it complies with human rights. We must recognise the oppression of Palestinians.
  • The lack of unconditional support from the West seen as a betrayal or anti-Semitism.
  • Religion was a catalyst for violence: how can we spread non-religious ideas? [This was a Humanist conference].
  • We should not be selling arms to Israel.

You might believe some of the answers are obviously from one ‘side’ or the other. You may well be wrong. There were in fact some surprises. This is to illustrate that there are those from the region – whether Jew or Moslem – who see both sides and recognise some of the wrongs that are committed. Because so much air time is given to extremists, we can be led to believe that they are representative of the population as a whole. It demonstrates that perhaps there is some chance in the future for some kind of reconciliation. The interference by outside forces – discussed in our last post in relation to the Gulf – is a factor in the perpetuation of violence.

Images: Yaniv (top); Jasr (lower)

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Understanding the Hypocrisy in UK’s Gulf Policies


Brilliant speaker at the Festival of Humanism

June 2026

Dr David Wearing gave a brilliant speech to the Festival in Bournemouth on the role of the UK in the Gulf. He set his observations in an historical context and provided a cogent analysis of the way we, and other countries in the West, have supported the despotic regimes in Gulf. The recent trade deal was celebrated by the government with no apparent concern for the welfare and rights of its people.

He anchored his talk in the attitudes of Britain’s governing class making the distinction between ‘we’ meaning them and ‘we’ meaning the population at large. Some of the latter are not comfortable with how our governments have joyfully provided arms and succour to these regimes despite their appalling human rights record.

He pointed out the arrant hypocrisy of government ministers and others in the governing class, talking about ‘British power standing for free trade, the rule of law and democracy’, polar opposites of what is happening in the Gulf. We have consistently supported illiberal regimes and quoted a speech made by Tony Blair at the time of the Iraq war.

The 2011 Arab Spring saw uprisings in many North African and Arab states. They were gradually extinguished often by brutal means. He pointed out that the security forces were often trained by the West including the UK.

Oil

The history is basically about oil and its discovery in what was then Persia. Britain set up a series of protectorates around the Arabian peninsular with the primary objective of securing the safe supply of this valuable resource. As the rest of the world gradually moved towards more liberal regimes, the Gulf monarchies were supported first by the British and gradually by America as it became the power in the region.

One of his main points was how closely tied we are to these states. People are aware for example, of investment in football clubs like Newcastle and Manchester City. They are less aware of how much we need their money to fund our deficit. We are aware of the arms sales but less aware of the ‘soft’ exports of accountancy, legal and other services. The economies are closely tied with a high degree of inter-dependence.

He noted that we would find it difficult to support our arms industry without the sales to the Gulf states. Our low investment in defence (defense) is subject to political attention at the moment with the resignation of the Defence Secretary last week.

Self-deception

His main theme is the degree to which we tell ourselves stories. Britain was deeply implicated in the Yemen war with our people and the RAF closely involved in supporting Saudi forces in their bombing campaign. He spoke disparagingly about the head of the Army who talked about the ‘rules based international order maintaining peace and prosperity’. An almost baffling lack of awareness.

It was closely linked to a nineteenth century colonial mindset where we viewed the Middle East as populated by backward peoples in contrast with the civilised and advanced West. Rather forgets the contributions to optics, astronomy, medicine and mathematics from that region (the invention of algebra for example, and the words for the angles of a triangle are Arabic in origin). This thinking by the governing elite makes it easy to carry on supporting Israel with arms sales and ignoring the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

He touched briefly on the actual links between their monarchs are ours with visits by members of the Royal Family to the region and their visits here.

A fascinating talk which made explicit the ‘double think’ in our dealings with the region and where the ordinary voter is excluded from the debate. Money and arms sales dominate the thinking helped by a colonial mindset. Concern for the lives of political opponents, human rights activists and journalists, who are frequently arrested and held for years; the huge use of the death penalty, and the lack of rights of women does not seem to trouble our political leaders. Much play is made of Sir Keir Starmer’s (prime minster at the time of writing) background as a human rights lawyer, yet there is no sign of this, no sign at all, in his speeches on Gulf related matters.

His book AngloArabia – Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain (Polity Press) is available.

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Group minutes: June


Minutes and Newsletter for the June meeting

June 2026

The latest minutes are available thanks to group member Lesley for the work in preparing them. More than just minutes, they contain a lot of interesting material on the death penalty, the increasingly worrying state of rights in the UK, immigration matters and statistics concerning our website and other social media activity.

We shall be in the Cheese market this Saturday 20th June from 9 am with our refugee quiz. This is Refugee Week and the whole topic of refugees, immigration and asylum seekers raises more heat than light with considerable mis and disinformation. So if you are in the Salisbury area, pop along and see how you get on.

June minutes (Word)Download

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Immigration a hot potato again


Immigration has shot to the top of the political agenda again with a vengence

June 2026

Riots in Belfast with houses lived in by immigrant families burned out, a massive police presence with water canons being used and civil disturbances in Southampton, have filled out screens in the past few days. A fierce debate in parliament and what some might term inflammatory statements by politicians have added to a sense that there is a crisis at the centre of which is immigration.

The violent knife attack by a Sudanese man who had entered Northern Ireland via the Republic, and before that France, has inflamed tensions with mobs directing their ire at all immigrants even those who have lived here for years and are a key part of the NHS for example. Posters in Southampton said things like ‘Enough is Enough’ and ‘Illegal migration is destroying our civilisation’. They claimed solidarity with those in Belfast. There were also counter protests (see image).

As with so many things to do with immigration, there is a great deal of misinformation fuelled by social media in particular although print media is not too far behind. Elon Musk has been widely criticised for his remarks on X and the promotion of comments by Tommy Robinson and Rupert Lowe (Restore Party).

Immigration: some of the facts

To get a global perspective on the trends in migration, a recent article in the Journal of Refugee Studies has found that most “forced migration”(its preferred term) in recent years has taken place in the Global South (76%), most of that being into neighbouring countries (in Africa and Asia primarily).  Turkey and Iran have been the biggest recipients.  At the same time, the UNHCR say that 10% of global refugees (some 11 million) have lost funding from the Commission in the last year.

In Europe, the Chisinau conference on dealing with the immigration issue ended without a decisive result.  Last year 7 Council of Europe countries declared that the ECHR had “gone too far” and “protects the wrong people.” The Secretary-General convened this meeting of European justice ministers, which issued a joint statement (not including France, Germany, Spain or Turkey, who take 60% of refugees to the continent), reaffirming their commitment to the ECHR, but allowing some movement in removing claimants and using offshore hubs.  The declaration is not legally binding, so local laws override it.  It is worth pointing out that only 0.7% of foreign offenders have won appeals against the UK at the Court (and a recent case at the UK Court of Appeal has shown how hard it is to use the infamous Article 3 argument).

Are the figures up or down?

Latest (2025) figures on irregular immigration to Europe showed Spain as the main host, followed by Italy and France (UK was 5th, but only 9th on a per head basis).  It is worth noting, though, that the number of arrivals on the European borders is down this year (by 40%), as it is in Britain.

In Britain, the latest British Future survey of public opinion noted that 49% of respondents believed that immigration is rising, when it is falling rapidly.  They also believed that asylum seekers make up 33% of immigrants (the actual figure is 9%). The latest figures on small boats (to late May) indicate that, at 8,565, they are down by 37% on 2025.  Pending asylum applications in Q1 were at 93,000, 12,000 down on last year.

Down, but you would not know it from the media or from politicians.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a very critical report on the workings of the asylum system, which it says lacks direction and is given to short-term fixes.  Particular criticism was directed at the failings of the system of monitoring failed asylum seekers and the lack of a clear strategy for the move away from hotel accommodation for new claimants. One aspect of the failing system is that research has shown that, of persons held in immigration detention, only 27% had a lawyer and half were having to do their own legal representation.

The ongoing debate about indefinite leave to remain rumbles on.  Plans have been mooted to make the 5-year time requirement retrospective, which would affect 2 million people, including 300,000 children.  The Institute of Government has declared against such a scheme.  There is also an ongoing issue about classifying children as adults (with the Home Office attempting to use AI to help decide.)  The Helen Bamber Foundation claim that 755 children were classified as adults in the last year.  They have also a report out, interviewing some children on the stress of the proposed new restrictions.

The Migration Observatory report that the share of asylum seekers in hotel accommodation has halved since 2023 to 21%.  The North West has the highest incidence.  They also report the 3 in 10asylum seekers with active claims were not receiving any government support at the end of 2025.

The Rwanda deportation plan, now abandoned, cost the UK £270 million, to remove 4 people.  The Rwandan government’s claim for compensation was turned down this month by the International Court at The Hague.

Refugee Week

The Salisbury Group will have a presence in the Cheese Market in the City centre on Saturday 20th June from 09:00 till noon. Details in a later post.

AH

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Latest death penalty report


Report for mid-May to mid-June

June 2026

We are pleased to attach our latest report on the death penalty around the world thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Although there is mention of a case in China, that country does not appear despite executing more or its citizens than the rest of the world combined.

Report May – June (Word)Download
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UK Human Rights Report: key issues in June 2026


Our monthly report on human rights in the UK

June 2026

UK Political Prisoners

Research by Queen Mary University of London and the protest group Defend our Juries says that custodial sentences for acts of direct action or civil disobedience were once rare. They are now being imposed with increasing length and frequency in the UK, creating ‘a new breed of political prisoners’ through the systemic incarceration of people acting to prevent climate breakdown and the annihilation of Gaza.

Rules on Transgender

The ECHR has offered clarification on  the application of the law on transgender status, confirming that since the legal definition of sex is based on sex at birth, single sex toilets must exclude transgender people for whom the provision of separate facilities is recommended.

Palantir Challenge

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has blocked the use of Palantir platforms for the Metropolitan Police Force.  Despite its record for assisting anti-immigration police in the US and aiding Israeli surveillance in Gaza, it is alleged that the police failed seriously to consider any other company for the contract.  The lack of process is seriously concerning, since Palantir has been allowed to gain a foothold in public services to the extent that it has now amassed more than 30 contracts with the UK state.  Critics also dispute its superior performance.

A cross party group of MPs have now challenged the Government on this.  Amnesty and other concerned organisations such as the Good Law Project are coordinating local protests against the use of Palantir in NHS Trusts. see our previous post on this firm and the danger it poses.

Equality Act: Public Sector Equality Duty

Discussion around the murder of Henry Nowak has centred around whether the Public Sector Equality Duty section of the Equality Act 2010 led the police in question to mistakenly prioritise a false allegation of racism over an actual stabbing attack, as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch argued.  However, critics say the case was a failure of police procedure rather than a pointer to review the section on institutional guidance on racism. The murder has generated a great deal of political heat.

The Public Sector Equality Duty states that public authorities should ‘advance equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic’.  Protected characteristics include age, disability, pregnancy, sex and sexual orientation.  Government guidance says the duty should ‘always be applied in a proportionate way’ depending on the circumstances of the case.

The duty was introduced in 2010 as part of the Equality Act which merged previous anti-discrimination laws such as the Equal Pay Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.

Since its introduction, organisations and individuals have been able to take public bodies to court for failing to abide by the duty, for example when councils withdrew library funding, set unequal fees for council funding to private care homes, or when the Home Office had not complied with the duty in relation to how its ‘hostile environment ‘ policies would impact members of the Windrush generation.

While Reform would abolish the entire act, the Conservatives criticise only the public sector section.  The Labour Government, however, is promising further anti-discriminatory legislation, a new equality and diversity strategy, with a primary focus on getting working class people joining and progressing in the Civil Service.

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Podcasts


New feature on this site

June 2026

A new feature on the site which will appear from time to time, is podcasts. The first is below. Note they are produced by AI but from texts written and researched by us not using any AI. It is an amalgamation of more than one text post. Feedback is welcome. We hope you enjoy listening! If you are not used to these, click on the heading and you will see a sound bar with the text displayed below it.

Podcast Episode: Prisons, Punishment, And Survival

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Richard Glossip interview


Glossip is interviewed after his release from prison

June 2026

After fac­ing nine exe­cu­tion dates, and being giv­en three last meals, Richard Glossip was released on bail on May 14, 2026 and set foot out­side of prison walls for the first time in near­ly three decades. In an inter­view with The Intercept, Mr. Glossip dis­cuss­es adjust­ing phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly to his new life as he awaits a pos­si­ble retri­al for the 1997 crime that sent him to death row, despite his long­stand­ing claims of inno­cence. Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai ordered his release on a $500,000 bond, stat­ing ​“The Court hopes that a new tri­al, free of error, will pro­vide all inter­est­ed par­ties, and the cit­i­zens of Oklahoma, the clo­sure they deserve.”

“I tried nev­er to let myself become insti­tu­tion­al­ized… But I mean it’s hard. You go through all these hor­ri­ble things and all these dif­fer­ent dates … and last meals and every­thing. And then it doesn’t look like this day will ever get here. But you always hope that it will“.

Mr. Glossip said of the wide­spread atten­tion on his case, ​“It’s over­whelm­ing but it’s amaz­ing at the same time.” Since his release, he has been able to reunite with his wife Lea, with whom he first cor­re­spond­ed and lat­er mar­ried while in prison. In a con­ver­sa­tion with The Intercept, Mr. Glossip described ini­tial­ly hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing with­out the con­stant noise of prison, eat­ing at a neigh­bor­hood Italian restau­rant with his wife, and going food shop­ping. He also dis­cussed feel­ing sup­port­ed by his com­mu­ni­ty in Oklahoma. He recount­ed sev­er­al sto­ries of being rec­og­nized, includ­ing by a bar­ber who refused pay­ment for his hair­cut, telling Mr. Glossip it was ​“an hon­or” to cut his hair.

“Once you’re out here and you see all the things that was tak­en away from you — and all the times they almost took every­thing away from me, my life and every­thing — you see all of it now… And it kind of still makes me angry at times because none of this should have ever hap­pened. And this should have nev­er been tak­en from me in the first place”.

Mr. Glossip is now await­ing a pos­si­ble retri­al for his alleged involve­ment in the 1997 ​“mur­der-for-hire” of Barry Van Trees, his boss at an Oklahoma City Motel. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who pre­vi­ous­ly con­fessed error in the pros­e­cu­tions that end­ed in Mr. Glossip’s death sen­tence, announced that his office will not seek the death penal­ty in his new tri­al. The Supreme Court vacat­ed Mr. Glossip’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in February 2025, find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors allowed a key wit­ness to lie in court and with­held cru­cial infor­ma­tion from the defense about the same wit­ness. AG Drummond, who sup­port­ed Mr. Glossip’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court, now says “…my office will make sure Mr. Glossip receives a fair tri­al based on hard facts, sol­id evi­dence and truthful testimony.” 

They’ll make the right deci­sions. I know they will. I wouldn’t be out here today if they wasn’t… So I’m just going to let them han­dle it. … I’m just gonna enjoy life.

This text is from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

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A most terrible prison


Channel 5 is allowed into CECOT – a prison from hell

June 2026

Richard Madeley was allowed to film inside the most awful prison called CECOT – Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo – in San Salvador and the results were transmitted last week. Despite the restrictions placed on the programme makers, it showed a prison that might have come straight out of some dystopian horror film (movie). The prison is vast and to get about it, he had to travel on a shuttle bus. It has a capacity for 40,000.

Words cannot fully describe the state in which the men are held. Think battery farm for chickens and you get close. Men are effectively warehoused in cells of 100 which contain steel racks three tiers high on which they spend their days. They are not allowed any reading materials and there is no TV. The lights stay on 24 hours a day every day. They have no contact with relatives or lawyers. Trials such as they are, take place on screen with up to 100 defendants at a time. The men will never leave the prison. Further insight is by Human Rights Watch who reported on American nationals held there. They eat the same food each day.

Madeley makes it clear that the men are members of various gangs and have committed a vast number of murders. Some inmates are alleged to have murdered 30 people. San Salvador had a high murder rate with around 16 a day. The drastic measures taken by the president Nayib Bukele has seen this rate drop dramatically. This poses a profound question: that in a state where gangs operate and murder is at a very high level, can the drastic measures and the methods used in CECOT be justified?

Madeley admitted feeling ‘shaken’ by the experience and film of some of the terrible murders could not be shown on British TV. He continued: “It’s obvious that CECOT breaches human rights as we currently understand. It’s a shocking, extreme corner of humanity, but El Salvadorians were writhing under the thumb of psychotic, psychopathic sadists. I wonder if sacrificing civil liberties for the common good is something others would ever be prepared to embrace”. The approach by the President is popular among many in El Salvador who are free of the threat posed by the murderous gang members.

The prison has proved to be controversial in the US and a CBS film was pulled before transmission because allegedly, political pressure was applied. President Trump is reported to be keen on the prison and USA Today revealed a financial deal in which prisoners were sent there.

It is a dilemma. Human rights groups condemn the regime but it has delivered a measure of normality for Salvadorians. Richard Madeley poses this question at the end of his programme. Can such inhumane methods ever be justified?

Sources: The Sun, Cornwall Live, Guardian, Independent, USA Today, CBS

Pic: AFP

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The tragedy only gets worse


The steady destruction of Lebanon continues while the world looks on

May 2026

The systematic destruction of large parts of southern Lebanon continues apace and on Wednesday, Israel ordered the evacuation of the city of Tyre a city of 200,000 inhabitants. Beirut has be hit by multiple missile and drone strikes which the IDF claim are targeted. It is interesting to note that news media are putting the word ‘targeted’ in inverted commas: progress of sorts.

It is a tragedy that shows no sign of an end. Death and destruction in Gaza with Netanyahu now saying they want to annex 70% of the territory from the 50% they control now. Nearly 73,000 have died there and many thousands more injured. The tragedy of the West Bank where settlers are attacking Arab and Palestinian homes, attacking people and destroying trees and crops. It is a tragedy in south Lebanon where more killing is taking place, white phosphorous is being used and entire villages erased from the map. The attack on Iran is a tragedy with much destruction and many deaths.

The West’s response has been feeble, the UK’s particularly so. Weapons are still being provided to Israel and RAF flights continue. The appalling treatment of the flotilla and those on board drew only a muted response from our government. Israel continues to act with impunity and seems if anything to be ratcheting up the violence. They have successfully put the US in an extremely difficult position. Trump is desperate to secure a deal with Iran which many believe Israel does not want. The lack of a concerted response by the UK and a willingness to follow in the wake of the US and President Trump is a tragedy all of itself.

Part of the UK’s pusillanimous response is because so many of the government’s MPs and many other MPs from other parties are members of the Friends of Israel groups, the best funded of lobby organisations in parliament. If you read the link to the Canary you will see the comment: ‘Finally, this raises serious questions about whose interests these officials actually work for. In turn, a serious long-felt concern is brought to the forefront: is the UK government occupied by Israel? This is precisely the question we asked of the Salisbury MP, Mr John Glen, who is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel. Who are you representing, many people in Salisbury who find the violence to be abhorrent and counter productive, or, the Israeli government? He said he would not dignify the question with an answer.

Another tragedy is that it will not, in the long run, improve Israel’s security. By simply bombing, destroying villages and parts of towns, incarcerating thousands of Palestinians in appalling conditions – it is merely creating resentments and hatreds for the future. This has to be the ultimate tragedy for the country. Of particular concern is that violence has become embedded into the psyche of the country – a kind of first response to problems is to send for the military and bomb somewhere. Perhaps John Steinbeck’s quote is apposite: ‘All war is a symptom of man failure as a thinking animal‘.

Vigil 130

Which is why the vigils in Salisbury continue but with no sight of the local MP. The public responses are now uniformly positive with thumbs up and a few stopping by. The rights of almost all those living in the region have been compromised.

Sources: Palestine News, Al Jazeera, (various)

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Execution spree continues in Florida


Man on death row for 34 years due to be executed

May 2026

The pace of executions in Florida continues and the latest is Dusty Ray Spencer who has been on death row since 1992. Gov. De Santis has signed the warrant and the due date is noon on June 25th. Florida accounts for 40% of all US executions last year according to Amnesty International. It is the tenth such warrant signed by the governor this year. The state set a record in 2025 with 19 executions.

Spencer was convicted of murdering his wife in a violent assault. This was witnessed by his son who tried unsuccessfully to intervene. The Jury voted 7-5 in favour of execution. There have been a number of appeals. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty state that if the case was heard today, he would be unlikely to receive the death penalty. In the light of all the executions FADP say that ‘We reject the idea that executions are inevitable. Nothing requires the state of Florida to respond to violence with more violence. Our leaders still have a choice’.

In preparing this piece we have explored a number of articles in the US and Florida media and there is little to explain how a marine who apparently had a good service record, became this violent individual. There are brief mentions of his mental state but little else.

If you visit the FADP site there is a petition. Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. We publish a report each month on the use of the penalty around the world.

Sources: CBS News, FADP, Tampa Bay Times, Justia Law, ‘They Will Kill You’

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Podcast Episode: Rights Trade And Sustainability


Pip: Amnesty Salisbury keeps showing up — in the rain, at the park, in the footnotes of trade agreements nobody else is reading.

Mara: That's the thread running through welland2's recent posts: rights under pressure, from ECHR reforms to death row to a sustainability fair in a local park. Let's start with where the pressure is heaviest — the slow dismantling of civil liberties.

Rights eroding in plain sight

Pip: The headline concern here is a pattern, not a single event — each new policy framed as a border measure or a public-order fix, but adding up to something larger when you step back.

Mara: The post "Steady Erosion of Rights Continues" puts it directly: "It is not even true to say 'by stealth' as it is done in plain sight."

Pip: That's the part that should unsettle people. The argument isn't that rights are being quietly stolen — it's that they're being removed openly, and we've stopped noticing.

Mara: The context is the ECHR declaration giving European governments more power to deport migrants, even where there's a risk of mistreatment on return. Yvette Cooper called it permission for countries to "take action on illegal immigration." Amnesty International's response was that it risks creating a "hierarchy of people" — those protected under Article 3 against torture, and those who are not.

Pip: And the post notes that the UK sells arms to countries that practice torture while turning away people fleeing it. That tension doesn't get much airtime.

Mara: The post also flags the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 as part of the same drift — limits on protest, expanding police powers, and now pressure on jury trials. Local MPs John Glen and Danny Kruger are recorded by They Work for You as voting against equality and human rights legislation.

Mara: Then there's the vigil — post number 128, held in the rain, documented in "A Damp Vigil." Around twenty people attended. Omer Bartov's book is quoted there, asking how Israel, founded the same year as the genocide convention, now conducts what he calls a genocidal undertaking with near-total impunity.

Pip: And the minutes and newsletter post pulls these threads together — immigration, the death penalty, the state of rights in the UK — for anyone who wants the fuller picture.

Mara: The Oklahoma piece is the counterweight. Richard Glossip, after twenty-seven years on death row and three last meals, walked out of jail after a judge ordered his release ahead of retrial. The prosecution had withheld evidence about its key witness's mental health. As the post puts it: had he been executed on any of those three occasions, it could not be undone.

Pip: The good news from Oklahoma is real. It's just that it took nearly three decades to arrive. On to the trade deal that skipped the values entirely.

A trade deal without the values

Pip: The Gulf States agreement is being sold as a win for British business — but the post "Government Signs Trade Deal" asks what got left out of the small print.

Mara: Sir Keir told his biographer "There is no version of my life that does not largely revolve around me being a human rights lawyer." The post's response is pointed: being a lawyer is not the same as having principles and acting on them.

Pip: The TUC called it a "values free agreement." The UAE's record — the kafala system tying workers to single employers, mass trials, solitary confinement, allegations of arming Sudan's RSF — none of it made it into the text.

Mara: Which sets up exactly what the Salisbury group was raising at the park.

Sustainability is also about the clothes you wear

Pip: "People in the Park" is the annual Salisbury Transition City event — seventy-five exhibitors, sustainability focus — and the local Amnesty group brought a different angle to it.

Mara: The post describes the group highlighting Amnesty International's report "Stitched Up," which details abuses in the global jeans industry: "health hazards, physical and sexual abuse of the mainly female workforce, wage theft and the denial of union and collective bargaining rights."

Pip: The response was muted. The post's honest read is that people associate sustainability with the environment, not with the supply chain behind a pair of jeans.

Mara: Around a quarter of the cotton comes from Xinjiang, where forced labour is documented and the region is closed to outside observers. The post's conclusion: retailers can claim humanitarian credentials on their websites while the exploitation continues.

Pip: Rights in the courtroom, rights at the border, rights in the fabric of your jeans — it's the same argument in different registers.

Mara: And the vigil keeps going. Next episode, we'll see what else is accumulating.

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Review of 2025


… and things do not look much better for 2026

December 2025

We have published 192 posts so far this year on a wide variety of subjects concerned with human rights. A key feature of the year has been the continuation of our vigils. We have held over 109 since the current conflict started and although there is some kind of cessation of hostilities, peaceful reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians seems a far away dream. Some food aid is getting in but Israel has seized almost all the cultivable land leaving those in Gaza hemmed into an even smaller part of their territory. We have commented on the poor reporting of events there and the unsatisfactory nature of so many interviews.

Arms sales

A feature of this conflict and other conflicts around the world is the role of the arms trade. It appears that this trade seems to determine British policy: truly the tail wagging the dog. The government frequently trots out that it has a ‘robust policy’ whilst granting licences – and in particular open licenses – to almost all who come. The effects on people at the receiving end of these weapons sales does not seem to worry the Foreign Office or government ministers. Recent government’s policies have focused on growth and if growth means selling arms to Israel and to the UAE so be it. There is considerable evidence that the latter are supplying the RSF in Sudan who are alleged to commit many atrocities.

At the height of the Yemen war we highlighted the role of British arms firms and their weapons sales to the Saudis. RAF personnel were involved just short of being labelled ‘mercenaries’.

Sport

Sport has featured in several of our posts and the ever increasing use by states with abysmal human rights records to use sport to burnish their images. Virtually all sports are involved, but especially football, boxing, motor sport, golf, tennis and cycling. The driver is money. China and the Gulf states are among those with almost unlimited resources to pour into sporting events with seemingly no difficulty in attracting sportsmen and women to compete in their countries with no moral qualms. They also invest in our football clubs again with no concerns about how tainted the money is.

It has become so part of the furniture now that it engenders little comment. Whereas some years ago a nation which executes significant numbers of its citizens – often after confessions extracted under torture – which imprisons or ‘disappears’ human rights defenders and journalists and treats its women as second class citizens denying them many rights, would raise eyebrows when seeking to sponsor or host a sporting event. Not today.

Refugees

And it is not just sport where issues of human rights have seemed to take a back seat. People entering this country by various means have generated a massive amount of political controversy here in the UK. It is probably true to say that immigration in one form or another is one of the dominant political forces at work. It is deciding elections. A number of politicians are using the ‘crisis’ to their political advantage (they hope). Egged on by sections of our media, they have created the impression that there is a crisis particularly around the numbers arriving in small boats across the Channel. Any concern for those in the boats and why they are risking their lives to get here does not seem to feature. The impression is sometimes created that if we could deport the migrants (however defined) our problems would be over. The connection between our arms sales and the instability of the countries they have fled from does not seem to enter their thinking.

The contribution by immigrants (again however defined) is scarcely recognised. That large sections of our economy (horticulture and the food industry for example), the health service, hospitality and transport, would cease to function without them seldom seems to enter the consciousness of our senior politicians. We have commented on the strange fact that many of our senior politicians, including Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Shabana Mahmood, Kwasi Kwarteng and Danny Kruger are all descended from recent immigrants but are among the most aggressive about deporting those coming after them. We can offer no explanation.

Rights at home

Which brings us to another theme concerning the government and its own attachment to UK human rights. It was once hoped that the arrival of Sir Keir Starmer – an ex human rights lawyer and past Director of Public Prosecutions – would see an improvement in the human rights climate. Sadly, it has not come to pass. Laws against protests introduced by the Conservatives to clamp down on protestors, have not been modified or repealed and have even been added to. A more humane policy towards immigrants and refugees has not happened. Arrests have continued and as this is being written, those arrested on pro-Palestine marches are close to death on hunger strike. His continuing support for Israel has been shaming. He has issued critical comments but they have not been backed up by action, cutting arms supplies for example. No believable explanation for the hundreds of RAF flights over Gaza has been forthcoming. His most disgraceful comment that ‘Israel was right to withhold power and water from Gaza’ was widely condemned.

This year we have introduced a new regular feature reviewing the human right situation in the UK itself. This is probably something we would never have contemplated doing say, twenty years ago but a combination of poor leadership, aggressive home secretaries and many MPs with little interest in protecting human rights, has led to this move. Both Danny Kruger (MP for East Wiltshire) and John Glen (MP for Salisbury) are listed on They Work For You as generally voting against human rights is another factor. Mr Glen, who is listed as a member of the well-funded lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel has never once visited the Saturday peace vigil nor mentioned it in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal.

Ukraine, Sudan, China, Palestine …

The world situation does not seem to get any better. The situation in Ukraine is critical and not just for the Ukrainians. We have one member of the Security Council, Russia gratuitously attacking an independent nation while another member, the US seems indifferent to their plight. The warm greeting by President Trump of President Putin on the tarmac in Alaska must be one of the more grizzly images of the past year. European nations have become almost powerless, in part because of their collective failure to invest in defence (defense) but also because they have become kind of vassal states to the US.

We must not forget that human rights in Russia are poor. There is no opposition and a leader who was a threat to Putin, Navalny, was probably murdered in Siberia. Others have been arrested or murdered along with many journalists. Children have been abducted from Ukraine. Ukrainian prisoners have been tortured.

We could devote a whole page to China. A million Uyghurs are persecuted and are forced to work while their culture is systematically destroyed by the Communist Party. Some call it genocide. Tibet has had a similar treatment and its culture largely eliminated. They are believed to execute more of its citizens than all the rest of the world combined. Freedom has been snuffed out in Hong Kong. Chinese nationals are intimidated overseas.

The future

The future is unpromising. The ‘New World Order’ created after the war is well and truly dead. Powerful interests act at will. Despotic leaders act in their own interests not in the interests of ordinary people. Europe is too feeble to act. It looks as though things will continue as they are. There is no hint that the current conflicts will end equitably but based on the whims of a handful of profoundly flawed men.

A large number of MPs of all parties are members of the Friends of Israel group and many also receive money from them. How can they be expected to act honestly, with integrity and in the best interests of the country (to be clear, the UK whose residents voted them in not a foreign state) if they are members of a powerful and well funded lobby group? Arms companies continue to sell their wares with few controls so desperate is the government for growth. The BBC has been cowed into silence on important topics.

In June of last year, the Institute for Government, recognising the serious loss of trust in the government, published its 7 steps to restore trust. One was the publication of an independent ministerial code. Another was to ensure lobbying was built on a clear coherent and transparent system. It has not happened. There is no rigorous or proper system of controlling the ‘revolving door’ which is a passport for corruption by ministers, ex-civil servants and military people retiring into lucrative appointments with arms companies.

Hope

The weekly vigils and the many hundreds of protests around the country for an end to the killing and genocide in Gaza is a heartening sign. It shows a significant number of people who care about what is happening, care that is not reflected by the government nor by chunks of the media. Despite their numbers, reporting is thin with a media all too keen gleefully to report flag waving disturbances outside hotels or army camps. If hope is to be found it lies with ordinary people who simply say ‘this isn’t right, this is not what I believe in’. Rutger Bregman in his Reith Lectures (2025) argues just this: that small committed groups can make a difference. However, whether they can achieve this at the international level is debatable. We can cite climate which will be having harmful effects on more and more of the world’s population and where progress if anything is going backwards.

We shall continue to campaign and we always welcome new members to the team.

Best wishes for the New Year to our small band of readers!

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25th Anniversary of HRA


Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the Human Rights Act

October 2025

Twenty five years ago this act was signed and ended the need to go to Strasbourg to get justice. It fundamentally changed the law by giving fundamental rights to citizens. It is currently under threat and it, and the European Convention which predates it, are disliked by many of the political and media class. In the next post we shall discuss this in more detail.

But today (2nd) we celebrate.

Recent posts:

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We are 50!


The Salisbury group is 50 this year

September 2024

NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY

And we want to celebrate it with a photo. We were formed not too long after Amnesty International itself was created and we are, sadly, the last group left in Wiltshire.

We shall be assembling at 2:30 near the Guildhall in the market square tomorrow, October 3rd for a group photo. It should only take 30 minutes or so and we are inviting all members and supporters who can make it, to come and join in.

In some ways it is sad that we still need to exist. The hope after the Second World War and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was high. People believed human rights would become the norm in societies around the world. It hasn’t turned out that way. Atrocities still continue in Africa, the Uyghurs are still persecuted in China, war rages in Ukraine, bombing continues in Gaza and human rights violations continue around the world in Syria, Iran, Burma and Saudi Arabia.

One of our continuing campaigns is the ending of the death penalty around the world (see our reports on this site). You will also see from our site and elsewhere that the UK is a major supplier of arms to states which are engaged in abusing their citizens. This has been a vexed issue at present concerning arms to Israel. It is an irony of the post war world that the UN Security Council is comprised of the world’s major arms suppliers. So there is still a need for human rights work.

Come and join us on 3rd!

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Salisbury Group at 50!


Group is 50 this year!

February 2024

The Salisbury group was established in 1974 and has been going strong for 50 years. It took us a bit by surprise today when we realised this so we haven’t thought of any celebrations yet. But as the last active group in Wiltshire we can allow ourselves a bit of pride that we are still here and still trying to promote the human rights cause in the county.

It probably seems a little different today from 50 years ago. Human rights then were regarded as a good thing and support was largely unquestioning. The war was a living memory for many and a desire never to see a repeat of the death and destruction of the war and the horrors of the Holocaust was deeply felt. 

A long time has passed however and today, we see successive Conservative governments seeking to end or curtail the Human Rights Act. Laws have been passed making protest more difficult and the police have been given more powers to arrest those protesting. 

Much of the media keeps up a steady campaign denigrating human rights and suggesting they are a means for terrorists and serious criminals to escape justice because their ‘rights’ have been infringed. We are made less safe they claim because of the act rather than the precise opposite. The benefits the act has brought are seldom mentioned. The success of the Hillsborough families in overturning the various coroner and court decisions and the false narrative put out by the police was a major example. 

Some sections of the media do not like the act since it provides some protection from press intrusion and this has led them to carry on a relentless campaign often supported by exaggerated stories.

In the past few years the issue of immigration has come to the fore and immigrants crossing the Channel by boat has become a political hot potato. The government is seeking to send some immigrants to Rwanda in an attempt to discourage smugglers from sending them over from France. There has always been hostility to immigrants as each wave has come over, the Jews from Russia for example at the beginning of the last century. 

But the notion that we would become more sympathetic and welcoming has not worked out. The question therefore is how embedded are human rights norms and beliefs in our society? The occasional desire for a return of the death penalty, hostility to refugees as just mentioned and evidence of the UK government’s involvement in torture, clampdowns on protest suggest that human rights and human dignity is only shakily rooted in our society.

So although the group is 50 this year, our work is not done!

If you live in the South Wilshire area, we would welcome you joining us. Follow this site for details of what we are doing.

Grammar amendment April 2026

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Refugee event this Saturday


The group will be in the Market Square on Saturday as part of Refugee Week

June 2026

Immigration, refugees and asylum seekers are top of the political agenda and generate huge anger in many communities. Some is understandable with a firm called Serco buying up properties and converting them into HMOs* filling them with among others, immigrants.

The debate around this topic has fuelled more heat than light. As we have noted in our reports, the general impression is of an ever rising trend of immigration, mostly by boat, and all of them being housed in ‘luxury’ hotels. They are taking our jobs and are responsible for a great deal of crime it is claimed. Some politicians and their parties have responded to these ideas, with great success. A key element of the forthcoming Makerfield by-election will be the immigration issue.

QUIZ

So how true is all this stuff? How sure are you of your knowledge around this issue? You can find out on Saturday 20th starting at 9 am and finishing at noon in the Cheesemarket (outside HSBC). There we will be hosting a quiz.

This is important in the sense that massive amounts of misinformation and false beliefs are determining policy. The value that immigrants bring to the economy is largely overlooked. The reaction to the Channel crossings verges on the hysterical. There is not denying there are problems to do with immigration but the scale of them is much exaggerated. So come and find out!

*house in multiple occupation

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