The UK has spent above average on defence for the last 20 years, but our military leaders like Carter have spaffed it up the wall with nothing to show for it. An audit showed that over 10 years they completely wasted £13 billion.

There are lots of people on here drinking the security services Kool Aid over the sentencing of the Filton Four. They believe the judge was right to overturn the jury's decision to convict four anti-genocide activists of criminal damage and make it a terrorism offence instead, overturning centuries of legal precedent. Why? Because, they claim, the four activists broke / smashed / shattered a police woman's spine. But that obviously can't be the explanation because three of the activists had nothing to do with that incident and yet they were convicted as terrorists by the judge anyway. Even Samuel Corner, the activist who was convicted over this incident (which left the police woman with a minor fracture, according to the medical authorities who testified), shouldn't have been sentenced as a terrorist for it because that is not what the jury, which heard the actual evidence, decided. The jury convicted Samuel Corner of grievous bodily harm *without intent*. The prosecution had charged him with GBH *with intent* because they needed that as his conviction to build a public mood in support of the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. If Corner could be presented as having entered Israel's Elbit weapons factory with intent to commit violence, then the implication would be that the other activists were in on that plan – a conspiracy – and the government would be off the hook of violating fundamental legal norms by proscribing Palestine Action. By stripping out intent, the jury pulled the rug from under the government's feet. Judge Johnson's task was put the rug firmly back in place by riding roughshod over the jury's decision and sentencing them as terrorists anyway. The timing couldn't be more convenient. On Monday, the Appeal Court will be deciding on the government's appeal against the High Court declaring its proscription of Palestine Action unlawful. If you're peddling the "But they smashed the back of a police woman" line you've been fed by the Daily Mail and BBC, it's because that is exactly what the government needs you spouting as it upends our age-old rights to jury trials, as it stamps out an honourable tradition of direct action dating back to the Suffragettes and before, and as it gives itself cover for continuing complicity in a genocide. Stop being a cuck. Don't fall for this psy-op.

This is spot on 👍

All this talk about two-tier policing conveniently ignores that the cops tried to drive the fascists through the opposing crowds with truncheons and pepper spray today, and still couldn’t manage it. Cracking day out, no pasarán etc

Absolutely hysterical timing.

A country so liberal they have national service, Christians get spat on in the street, nuns get assaulted, and they don't allow interfaith marriage.

No, they didn’t. One of them, Sam Corner, was found to have injured Sgt Evans without intent. There was no such accusation against any of the others. Kemi Badenoch committed contempt of court on live television during their trial.

My chin is suddenly itching

As I keep saying to people. If what they did was that bad, people wouldn't feel the need to lie and exaggerate it.

RT @GyllKing: No spines were shattered at Filton. The officer walked unaided from A&E. Later a small, hairline fracture to the transverse p…

A rare time when AI does not stand for "Actually Indians" because in this circumstance, it's South Africans. For real though we should ban the use of the word British for companies that do stuff like this.

What’s funny about this is that’s he’s clearly not been good for Keir Starmer but @Keir_Starmer is so politically naive and weak that he’s stuck.

They frame it as an unintended consequence but then reject and fight any amendments to fix it. They are hen claim they have to loosen the rules around revenue Vs profit as it would otherwise disadvantage start ups, but why would a company not making profit donate???

Feels like I'm too angry to be a Green member sometimes. Like I don't just want things fixed, I want retribution.

These are the same people who feel unsafe around Palestine badges.

Billy Allison on a break from Raise the Colours tells a police officer to ‘go and do your job and protect the people of this country’. Not long after this the police did just that and charged Allison with Murder and GBH with intent; he remains in custody. These people are not patriots.

Mostly because Lewis's dad didn't own an emerald mine

You would not be surprised to learn that Hannah Spencer’s “£2000 Gucci shirt” is actually a random find from a charity shop Don’t believe everything billionaires tell you.

kind of crazy how similar the sentences are between Corner, who arguably was the one person who did something actually egregious, and the others who did very little. Almost like it was a state show of force rather than a proportionate set of sentences

And because these are terrorist offences there's no early release like for every other prisoner. So it's the equivalent of double the sentence.