{"id":1549102,"date":"2024-03-12T12:10:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1675607"},"modified":"2024-03-12T12:10:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:10:39","slug":"lord-woodcock-walney-prompts-a-furious-response-from-liberty-as-the-backlash-to-his-nonsense-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/12\/lord-woodcock-walney-prompts-a-furious-response-from-liberty-as-the-backlash-to-his-nonsense-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord \u2018Woodcock\u2019 Walney prompts a furious response from Liberty as the backlash to his nonsense continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three of Britain’s leading civil society organisations – including Liberty – have issued a statement calling for a rejection of Lord ‘Woodcock’ Walney\u2019s advice to political party leaders to ban their MPs from engaging with Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). It comes after the former Labour Party<\/a> MP mounted a clear attack on some protests and campaign groups – or rather, ones he doesn’t agree with.<\/p>\n

Stop calling Woodcock ‘Lord Walney’<\/h2>\n

‘Lord’ Walney is actually former Labour MP John Woodcock<\/a>. He was a critic of the then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn<\/a>, and actively worked to undermine the party at the time. Woodcock even went so far as to imply Corbyn was a threat to national security; said Labour “tolerated” antisemitism, and noted the party had been ‘taken over by the far-left’.<\/p>\n

As the Morning Star<\/em> noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As a Labour MP, he was best known for his strong support for British nuclear weapons and the Saudi assault on Yemen. He did a shift as chair of Labour Friends of Israel \u2014 \u201ca great nation rooted in progressive liberal values,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2019 he backed the Tories in the general election and was subsequently ennobled by Boris Johnson in a move few would regard as coincidental and which made him a legislator for life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Woodcock PSC: ‘political violence’ – or rather, people he doesn’t like<\/h2>\n

Now, Woodcock is working as the Tories’ extremism advisor. As the Morning Star<\/em> reported, he is now:<\/p>\n

the government\u2019s official adviser on political violence and disruption. It is in that role that he has emerged in the van of the mounting threat to democratic and civil rights.<\/p>\n

He has gone into overdrive with the Israeli attack on Gaza, which he fully supports, and the development of a huge mass movement against that genocide and British political complicity in it.<\/p>\n

Almost every week… [Woodcock] proposes a new way of stopping the pro-Palestinian protests.<\/p>\n

He has recommended making organisations responsible for the demonstrations pay for their policing, without any suggestion of giving them a say in how they are policed.<\/p>\n

He is unbothered by protest thus becoming the preserve of the rich, who have little to protest about.<\/p>\n

He has urged a ban on protests outside \u201cdemocratic\u201d locations, including the House of Commons, MPs\u2019 surgeries and Town Halls…<\/p>\n

Most recently, he has said that ministers and MPs should be prohibited by their parties from engaging with a range of groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Over on X, and people were pointing out ‘who the hell does Woodcock think he is’?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Who is this absurd, unelected, 'Lord Walney' to tell MPs who they may talk with? Suggest that he is completely ignored & promptly sent to Coventry. There is no place for this kind of nonsense in a democracy. https:\/\/t.co\/VWIFY8L3vM<\/a><\/p>\n

— Mark Seddon (@MarkSeddon1962) March 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n