At one end of Whitehall, the Government was solemnly announcing plans to add the direct action group Palestine Action to the UK's current list of 81 proscribed (banned) terrorist organisations.
At the other end, its supporters were doing their best to muster a show of strength –while they still can. For once they are added to the list, alongside certified enemies of Western civilisation such as Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (that's Hamas to you and me), then this lot will qualify for mass arrests if they try a repeat of Monday's protest.
For you don't have to be an operative or even a card-carrying member of one of these banned groups to be arrested. As it is, they tend not to be quite as hot on cards and membership subs as your average golf club. Merely being heard to 'express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation' constitutes a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act 2000, a product of the early Blair years.
I am not a lawyer but can confidently predict that Monday's principal chant – 'We are Palestine Action' – would fall foul of the law once that organisation joins the club.
The Palestine Action leadership had originally planned a demonstration outside Parliament by way of reaction to the Home Secretary's response to last week's assault on Royal Air Force aircraft. Having broken into RAF Brize Norton, having made a mockery of the Ministry of Defence's pathetic security provision and having caused damage estimated in the tens of millions, this mob are now deemed to have crossed the line between direct action and sabotage.
