Latest news with #radicalised
Telegraph
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Grey-haired granny activists are ruining Britain
Who radicalised Nan? If the arrests at the Palestine Action demonstrations on the weekend are anything to go by, the world of crank-Left protest is a hell of a lot older than its youthy reputation would have you believe. According to the Metropolitan Police, half of the 532 activists who were arrested in London on Saturday – mostly for expressing support for Palestine Action, now a proscribed organisation – were aged 60 or over. Ninety-seven of those nicked were in their 70s. Fifteen of them were in their 80s. If Britain's middle-class oldsters keep getting banged up at this rate, Saga Cruises's revenues will never recover. Scenes of retired aromatherapists from Totnes being carted off by London's finest underline what an authoritarian, unsustainable mess the proscription of Palestine Action has created. If found guilty, those alleged to have caused £7m of damage at RAF Brize Norton last month are thoroughly deserving of a long stretch inside. As are the scumbags alleged to have attacked a Jewish-owned business in Stamford Hill, over a bogus connection to an Israeli arms manufacturer. Because nothing says 'right side of history' like smashing in Jews' windows. But proscribing the organisation, and thus making it a crime under the Terrorism Act even to express solidarity with it, is an outrageous affront to freedom of speech that has only handed these Israelophobic old codgers an opportunity to pose as the heirs to Nelson Mandela. Nevertheless, there is something striking about the advanced age of many of today's perma-protesters, and this isn't unique to Palestine Action. When road-blocking irritants Extinction Rebellion staged two mass civil-disobedience campaigns in London in April and October 2019, activists aged 56 and over made up almost a third of those charged with an offence, according to an academic study. (Less surprising was that the participants were 'predominantly middle class', with 85 per cent of them holding a degree.) Just Stop Oil also made good use of the elderly, enlisting two octogenarians, who looked like they were straight out of a Werther's Original advert, to attack the glass case of Magna Carta at the British Library last year. When I was covering those pathetic People's Vote marches raging against Brexit a few years ago, I was often confronted by well-off older people, fresh from their second home in the south of France, telling me I'd stolen my own future. What to make of all this? Leftish protest has long been colonised by the middle-class and time-rich, and it doesn't get more time-rich than being a middle-class retiree. A lot of this is surely seasoned placard-wavers keen to relive the glory days of the Sixties and Seventies, with whatever bats--- cause they have attached themselves to becoming almost secondary. Decades of anti-Israel propaganda seem to have convinced our more credulous pensioners – as it has much of the low-information middle classes – that Israel is committing a long-dreamed-for 'genocide' in Gaza, rather than waging war on jihadists who murdered, raped and kidnapped its people on October 7. Where environmental activism is concerned, there's also a large dose of generational guilt, fuelled by a simplistic, eco-alarmist discourse that the boomers lived it large, racked up all the carbon emissions, and are now leaving their grand-kids to fight it out in the post-apocalyptic Mad Max -style dystopia that is supposedly just around the corner. Older people can often get a bad rap in political debate these days, and often for things that actually reflect well on them – like their support for Brexit or preference for parties who know what a woman is. Those grey-topped Palestine Action or Extinction Rebellion activists are hardly reflective of where most retirees are at politically. Still, they are a useful reminder that age and wisdom do not always go hand-in-hand.
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Some Afghans brought to the UK could be 'radicalised' here, ministers are warned - as the numbers expected to present as homeless are feared to be worse than previously thought
Ministers have been warned that some Afghans airlifted to Britain could become 'radicalised' by terror groups. The fears were set out in the Government's internal review of the scheme to rescue thousands from the clutches of the Taliban. The review also revealed that, amid the UK's housing crisis, more Afghans could end up homeless than previously thought. Local authorities struggling to find homes for the new arrivals may also face a funding shortfall, ministers were warned. Whitehall officials have been outlining the potential consequences of the Government's secret Afghan airlift – Operation Rubific - for many months. Last October, when Labour ministers agreed to spend £7billion, they were told that 10 per cent of the incoming migrants were anticipated to 'enter the homeslessness system' and that there could be threats to 'community cohesion'. Pressures on local education and health services were also cited. In his internal review of Operation Rubific, Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant who interviewed more than a dozen experts including from the Home Office 's homeland security group, stated: 'Several…expressed concern around the risk that resettled Afghans could be radicalised in the UK.' Mr Rimmer, who interviewed officials from across Whitehall, said: 'There is a risk of a growing gap between resettled Afghans' expectations, and the reality of what ever-more stretched domestic services can deliver. Some also highlighted concerns around the extent to which Afghanistan is becoming a base for a wide range of terrorist groups.' Mr Rimmer noted that the 'UK domestic housing system is under acute pressure' and said there were 'record levels of homelessness', with pressures adding to 'risks to community cohesion'. He said these were 'all key areas for public debate', but the Government's super-injunction had 'stopped this scrutiny being possible'. The news blackout was imposed in August 2023 after the Daily Mail discovered the British military had put 100,000 people 'at risk of death' by losing a database of Afghans who had applied for UK sanctuary. Since then, the Government has been running a secret immigration scheme to rescue thousands of them. After ministers were warned one in 10 of the new arrivals was expected to 'enter the homelessness system', a new Whitehall briefing paper, seen by the Mail, now says it might be even worse. The paper states: 'There are concerns this is overly optimistic.' Officials said uncertainties over the scheme, which relies on many Afghans being able to find their own private accommodation, meant the true numbers 'presenting as homeless' after their nine months of free accommodation could be higher than 10 per cent. The review noted that while the average Afghan family was five people, about 10 per cent of Afghan families consisted of eight or more people, making it especially difficult to find them suitable accommodation. In Bracknell, Berkshire, where 300 Afghans are being accommodated in a hotel, locals have said they welcome the Afghans who fought alongside British forces and deserve British help, but also said many local veterans have struggled to find homes themselves. The Government's decision to embark on the scheme without MPs or the public having any say has so far triggered four parliamentary inquiries. A Government spokesman said: 'As with all those arriving to the UK, all those found eligible for the ARR have to undergo robust security checks, including for national security. If they don't pass these checks, they are not granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. 'We are working with local authorities to ensure housing solutions meet the needs of the UK population, as well as Afghans who are resettling here. This includes through the Local Authority Housing Fund, which supports English councils to obtain temporary accommodation for those owed a homelessness duty.'
