Letter: Malcolm Dean obituary
Over subsequent years we had frequent conversations, many of which surfaced, I'm sure, as 'academics are saying …' inserts into his social policy leaders.
His own book, Democracy Under Attack (2011), was an informed insider discussion of the ways social policy matters reached public awareness through the media. His experience, knowledge and insight are much missed, and his generous contribution to my own understanding will always be deeply valued.
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Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
Alex Salmond and the truth behind our fallout, by Nicola Sturgeon
In the dining room of my house in Glasgow on April 4, 2018, with just him and me across a table, Alex showed me a copy of the letter he had received from the Scottish government's permanent secretary, Leslie Evans, informing him of the complaints against him. The substance of the complaints, one in particular, shocked me. I felt sick. After appearing to be upset and mortified by the allegations, Alex became cold. He effectively admitted the substance of one of the complaints, but claimed that it had been a 'misunderstanding', for which he had apologised at the time. He made it obvious that he considered the whole process to be illegitimate. He would later claim differently, of course, but it was evident that he wanted me to intervene and to stop the investigation in its tracks or divert it into some kind of siding. I knew that I shouldn't do that. I didn't realise it then, but this decision made the break-up of one of the most successful partnerships in modern British politics all but inevitable. On the day before the Scottish government was due to publish the facts and outcome of the investigation, the story was leaked to the Daily Record. I do not know who leaked it, but it was not me or anyone acting with my authority or knowledge. It crossed my mind many times that it might have been Alex himself or someone acting on his behalf. To those with no experience of the dark arts of media manipulation, I know this will sound preposterous. However, in many ways it would have been classic Alex. I had known him to make these kinds of calculations in the past. If there is damaging information certain to emerge about you and there is nothing you can do to stop it, get it out in a way that gives you the best chance of controlling the narrative. At a stroke, he was able to cast himself as the victim of underhand dealing. As soon as the fact of the complaints had become public, Alex launched a judicial review of the process. As the government's defence was being prepared, it came to light that the investigating officer had engaged in conversations with the complainants prior to her appointment. There was no evidence that the investigating officer had been biased, but the Scottish government had no option but to abandon the case. • Nicola Sturgeon: 'I came perilously close to a breakdown' In Alex's narrative, he wasn't just a victim any more, he was now a vindicated victim. It was also at this point that his animus towards me was cemented. He was reportedly furious that I hadn't demanded the resignation of Leslie Evans. Leslie was the head of the civil service that had 'botched' the process. It was not unreasonable to say that the buck stopped with her. But I knew that, for him, Leslie's resignation was not about accountability. It was about vengeance. He wanted her punished for allowing him to be investigated in the first place. He would then have used her quitting as further 'proof' that he had been a victim all along. When evidence was disclosed in both the aborted judicial review action and his criminal trial in March 2020, a number of text and WhatsApp messages were revealed to him, some between women complainers and others involving SNP staff members. He spun these as evidence of people conspiring to bring him down, rather than simply what they were — messages between individuals who had loyally supported him over many years expressing deep upset at the nature of the allegations against him. In addition, women who considered themselves victims of his behaviour were seeking support and comfort from each other. That he tried to distort and weaponise genuine expressions of shock, in some cases trauma, was truly disgraceful, and it strikes at the heart of why I find it so hard to forgive him. A conspiracy against Alex would have needed a number of women deciding to concoct false allegations, without any obvious motive for doing so. It would then have required criminal collusion between them, senior ministers and civil servants, the police and the Crown. That is what he was alleging. The 'conspiracy' was a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn't prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct. This is what I found hardest to come to terms with. He was acquitted of criminal behaviour, but in the course of his defence a picture emerged of behaviour towards women that, on occasion, had been inappropriate. He seemed content during his trial to concede this, to persuade a jury that while he could have been a 'better man', he wasn't guilty of actual offences. What he never did was show any contrition. There was also never the merest hint of concern about the damage he did to the party he previously led. Indeed, it felt to me that he would have rather destroyed the SNP than see it succeed without him. He impugned the integrity of the institutions at the heart of Scottish democracy — government, police, Crown Office. He was prepared to traumatise, time and again, the women at the centre of it all. After the reports of the two inquiries into mine and the Scottish government's handling of the matter had been published, I spoke personally to the two original complainants. I was the first minister during a Scottish government process that had let these women down. It was important to me to say sorry to them directly. It also let me hear first-hand the impact on them of the claims of conspiracy, and the scars they bear as a consequence. For a while I told myself that the bonds between Alex and me would be stronger than his thirst for revenge. Eventually, though, I had to face the fact that he was determined to destroy me. I was now engaged in mortal political combat with someone I knew to be both ruthless and highly effective. It was a difficult reality to reconcile myself to. So too was losing him as a friend. I went through what I can only describe as a grieving process. For a time after we stopped speaking I would have conversations with him in my head about politics and the issues of the day. I had occasional, vivid dreams in which we were still on good terms. I would wake up from these feeling utterly bereft. And now? Before he died, I thought I had reached the point of feeling nothing and that I had come to terms with it, wholly and completely. The emotions I felt on hearing of his death suggested otherwise. Yes, I have made peace with how things are, but it is an uneasy peace. I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death. © Nicola Sturgeon 2025. Extracted from Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon (Macmillan £28), published on Thursday. To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members. Nicola Sturgeon discusses her memoir with Cathy Newman at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1, on August 29;
Times
42 minutes ago
- Times
At least 200 arrests at Palestine Action protest outside parliament
Police have arrested at least 200 protesters gathered in central London to support Palestine Action, the activist group banned as a terrorist organisation. More than 500 people flooded Parliament Square in Westminster as Big Ben struck 1pm to hold up handwritten placards stating: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' Rows of officers filed into the square to handcuff protesters within a minute of the silent vigil commencing. The first arrests were near the statues of Millicent Fawcett, the feminist campaigner, and Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian independence leader. Officers were met with chants of 'Shame on you' and 'genocide police' as they moved in. Many elderly activists quietly sat in the centre of the square to await their fate while a group of bystanders started singing the hymn 'We shall overcome'. Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday's protest, claimed that as many as 700 people had turned out to risk arrest. However, this figure could not be corroborated by police. Among the protesters was La Pethick, 89, a retired psychotherapist from near Hastings, Sussex. She said she was 'apprehensive' about being detained but had the 'full support' of her five grandchildren. 'We are having our right to peaceful protest being taken away,' Pethick said. 'We have a common fear that there is a genocide going on [in Gaza] against international law.' Claudia Cotton, 89, a retired social worker who lives in London, is a Jewish refugee from Stuttgart who left Germany with her parents in 1939. Around her shoulders was a red keffiyeh scarf and she held a handwritten sign that read: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' She said: 'I am prepared to be arrested. In fact, I think it's a good thing because it shows how ordinary people are willing to go to prison to oppose when governments are doing evil things.' Cotton said it was her first time being arrested. 'Words fail me how the British government can do nothing when thousands of civilians are being killed.' The arrest of one protester required 12 officers as he was led away to a police van. Other demonstrators had to be lifted by four officers as they turned 'floppy' when they were confronted. Moazzam Begg, 57, the former Guantanamo Bay inmate, was arrested just before 2.30pm, holding a pro-Palestine Action placard in one hand and a yellow rose in another. He was surrounded by supporters of Cage, the controversial advocacy group that previously described Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis executioner known as Jihadi John, as 'a beautiful young man'. Just before he was detained, Begg said: 'This isn't about Palestine Action. This isn't about being arrested. It's about the children of Gaza, it's about the men of Gaza, it's about the women of Gaza and it's about a genocidal state.' He described being held as 'an honour'. Unlike previous protests since the ban of Palestine Action, which were dominated by middle-class white activists, Saturday's demonstration featured a small contingent of Muslim participants. One group of Muslim women who were not holding incriminating placards walked around the square thanking those who were risking arrest. By 2.30pm officers had formed a cordon around 200-300 activists sitting in the centre of Parliament Square as a police helicopter circled overhead. The restriction, under Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act, allows everyone inside to be detained. The police entered the cordon to arrest activists one by one. Journalists were blocked from entering. The Metropolitan Police has just over 500 cells at its disposal, many of which will already be occupied. However, officers can take the details of a suspect at the scene of a crime and order them to attend a police station in a practice known as 'street bail'. Bianca Jagger, the human rights campaigner and former wife of Sir Mick Jagger, attended the event but held a different placard which is unlikely to lead to her being detained. 'Matter of conscience' Some of those taking part in the demonstration have been held at previous protests against the Home Office ban, which came into effect on July 5. They include Dr Alice Clack, 49, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, who remains on bail after being arrested at a smaller protest in Parliament Square on July 19. Clack, the granddaughter of a Jewish refugee who came to Britain on the Kindertransport, said she was attending Saturday's protest as a 'matter of conscience'. She added: 'In Gaza, we are witnessing not just the indiscriminate use of force against civilians, but also the targeting of hospitals and clinics, and the killing and intimidation of medical staff.' It was, she said, a 'gross abuse of state power' for the government to label Palestine Action a terrorist organisation. The direct action group has waged a campaign of attacks for many months on defence companies in Britain that it accuses of being complicit in Israel's military operations in Gaza. It was proscribed by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and caused £7 million damage by spraying red paint into the engines of two Voyager aircraft. • A history of Palestine Action: from birth to ban The Home Office insisted on Saturday morning that it was not seeking to criminalise dissent over Gaza. A spokeswoman said: 'The home secretary has been clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about Palestine, nor does it affect the freedom to protest on Palestinian rights. It only applies to the specific and narrow organisation whose activities do not reflect or represent the thousands of people across the country who continue to exercise their fundamental rights to protest on different issues. 'Freedom to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and we protect it fiercely.' The mass protest in Parliament Square against the ban coincides with a march to Downing Street by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. That event, which several thousand people were expected to attend, departed from Russell Square at noon and ended with a rally in Whitehall. The simultaneous demonstrations will stretch the Met. As well as deploying hundreds of its officers, it has called in at least 110 police from other forces under 'mutual aid' rules. They include officers from constabularies in South Wales, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Cheshire and Durham. Welsh police at the demonstration TOBY SHEPHEARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES Groups behind the protest Defend Our Juries, a civil liberties campaign group, has previously backed climate change activists at court trials. One of its key figures is Tim Crosland, an Oxford-educated barrister who was disbarred in 2023 for disclosing an embargoed Supreme Court ruling on a third runway at Heathrow before it was officially meant to be published. Crosland, 55, previously worked as a lawyer at the National Crime Agency, described as Britain's equivalent of the FBI. The protest has also been promoted by the advocacy group Cage. Begg, one of its senior directors, has said the ban on Palestine Action 'must be opposed', adding: 'The government is criminalising the people of Britain for standing up against the biggest genocide of the 21st century as it is livestreamed from Gaza.' More than 200 people, including an 83-year-old retired priest from Bristol, have been arrested at smaller demonstrations. Most of them have been detained under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This relates to 'wearing clothing or carrying or displaying articles in public in such a way as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation'. On Thursday, the first of these suspects, including two pensioners, both 71, were formally charged. The Met said case files on 26 other individuals arrested at the same protest in Westminster on July 5 would be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service soon. Ade Adelekan, a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said: 'What sets this protest apart from others is participants are coming out not just to express a view, but with the aim of being arrested in very large numbers to place a strain on the police and the wider criminal justice system.' The highest number of arrests previously made by the Met at the same protest is thought to be 339 at the poll tax riots in 1990. The force detained 306 people in one day during Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London in October 2019. Saturday's mass protest had the blessing of Huda Ammori, 31, a co-founder of Palestine Action. On July 30, a High Court judge granted her leave to bring a full judicial review of the Home Office ban. The case will be heard in November. The Home Office said: 'The decision to proscribe was based on strong security advice and the unanimous recommendation by the expert cross-government proscription review group. This followed serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage. It also followed an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre that Palestine Action prepares for terrorism, as well as worrying information referencing plans and ideas for further attacks, the details of which cannot yet be publicly reported due to ongoing legal proceedings.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Hundreds arrested in police crackdown at London rally against Palestine Action terror ban
Hundreds of people have been arrested in London for protesting against the terror ban on the group Palestine Action. Demonstrators gathered in Parliament Square in Westminster on Saturday to silently hold up signs, which read: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' Within minutes of the protest starting at 1pm, rows of police officers filed into the square and started handcuffing protesters. With limited space in police cells, many of the activists were not taken into custody but released after their arrest and allowed to go home, with bail conditions not to attend any further protests in support of Palestine Action. By 3.40pm, police had made 200 arrests 'with more to follow'. The Metropolitan Police brought in scores of officers from other forces to help with a busy weekend of protests. Around 15,000 people were estimated to have taken part in a separate Palestine solidarity march through London, to highlight the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Organisers of the action in Parliament Square claimed that between 600 and 700 people took part in the demonstration against the terror ban. However the police disputed this saying that around 500 to 600 people were in the square at 1pm, but many were 'onlookers, media people or people not holding placards in support of Palestine Action'. A spokesperson for the force said they were confident everyone holding a placard support Palestine Action 'was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested'. Home secretary Yvette Cooper decided to proscribe the group Palestine Action after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint. Huda Ammori, the co-founder of the group, has been allowed to challenge the government's decision to ban the organisation under anti-terrorism laws, with a court case due to be heard in November. Campaigners from Defend Our Juries, who co-ordinated Saturday's action, have pledged monthly protests against the ban until the High Court case is heard. As a result of Palestine Action's proscription, it is an offence to hold up a sign or wear a t-shirt in support of the group under section 13 of the Terrorism Act. The first arrests were near the statues of feminist campaigner Millicent Fawcett and the Indian non-violent activist Mahatma Gandhi. Onlookers applauded the protesters and shouted 'shame on you' at the police making the arrests. A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has been clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about Palestine, nor does it affect the freedom to protest on Palestinian rights. "It only applies to the specific and narrow organisation whose activities do not reflect or represent the thousands of people across the country who continue to exercise their fundamental rights to protest on different issues.' Separately, thousands of people joined a pro-Palestine solidarity March in London to highlight the worsening crisis in Gaza. Marchers chanted 'Gaza must have food and water, no more killing, no more slaughter' and 'free Palestine' as they made their way from Russel Square to Westminster.
