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Police Raid On Westminster Quaker Meeting House

It is with the greatest concern for Freedom and for democracy that I relay the news about the  Police raid on Westminster Quaker Meeting House which too place on March 27th 2025. The Police arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza. In the following statement, the Quakers say: "We strongly condemn the violation of our place of worship which is a direct result of stricter protest laws removing virtually all routes to challenge the status quo."Just before 7.15pm more than 20 uniformed police, some carrying tasers, forced their way into Westminster Meeting House."They broke open the front door without warning or ringing the bell first, searching the whole building and arresting six women attending the meeting in a hired room."The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalised many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protestors' ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power."Quakers support the right to nonviolent public protest, acting themselves from a deep moral imperative to stand up against injustice and for our planet."Many have taken nonviolent direct action over the centuries from the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage and prison reform."Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: "No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory."This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalises protest."Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy."https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/52036

Miles Thompson ● 106d16 Comments

A first - Quakers make the front page of Private Eye!

Miles Thompson ● 100d

From this week's Private Eye ...

Michael Ixer ● 100d

In response to the recent police raid on Westminster Quaker Meeting House Hundreds of Quakers, politicians, and others stood in silence for forty minutes this morning (April 3rd) as traffic rattled past new Scotland Yard  on the busy Victoria Embankment, with 25 other silent meetings held nationwide and online.The Quaker Peace Testimony: "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever; and this is our testimony to the whole world." Declaration of Friends to Charles II, 1660

Miles Thompson ● 101d

Mr Ixer'Does it take thirty police people to raid a meeting of what was apparently six young women when there's so much crime on the street: phone thefts, muggings, bike thefts, illicit electric scooters on pavements and in parks, drink and drug drivers, apparently unsafe public transport, etc''Probably not but why don't you ask Mayor Khan ?!

John Hawkes ● 103d

Mr ThompsonI wonder who the Radical Drag Queens in the Gay Liberation Front circa 1970 would support today in the Israel Palestine confrontation ?Israel who won the Eurovision Song Contest with Dana International, a transgender singer in 1998 with her winning song Diva ? "The transgender singer cut a dazzling figure as she explicitly cemented Eurovision as a celebratory space for LGBT+ people".Or Palestine where 'Homosexuality in the Palestinian territories is considered a taboo subject; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people experience persecution and violence''.  Wiki

John Hawkes ● 103d

As the week opens out and this incident has been taken up by the media as a ridiculous intervention it is not difficult to understand why there has been an acceleration of young people wishing to join Youth Demand, directing their energies away from this type unnecessary state interference. A peaceful if anarchic approach may also seem attractive for those who are in years if not in outlook beyond joining Youth Demand. I quite fancy some peaceful anarchy ...What about it John? you might enjoy yourself...I mean think of the Radical Drag Queens in the Gay Liberation Front circa 1970. They had a fabulous time - rather than carrying out female impersonation they put on frocks as men excavating their femininity within a masculine perspective.  Now THAT was fabulously anarchic behaviour and civil disobedience of the first order that was often expressed on marches and demonstrations. I wonder if Youth Demand might take this route...I must contact them...

Miles Thompson ● 104d

Surely it's all about balance and sensible use of resources.  Does it take thirty police people to raid a meeting of what was apparently six young women when there's so much crime on the street: phone thefts, muggings, bike thefts, illicit electric scooters on pavements and in parks, drink and drug drivers, apparently unsafe public transport, etc - many of these crimes highlighted by members of this forum. And have you ever tried to report a cybercrime and get it taken seriously by the police? That's probably a lot more damaging to the UK s economy than anything that group might arrange. It would also be good to see a couple of police pounding the beat regularly rather than thirty raiding a meeting that was apparently announced on social media. Hardly secret? Perhaps they're wrong or misguided, but I don't think that in itself is a crime yet? 

Michael Ixer ● 104d

Mr Thompson'People wishing to protest at the action of the police should write to The Mayor Of London and their MP, who in the case of Putney residents is Fleur Anderson'.And those that appreciate the police keeping us safe and not inconvenienced by juvenile political poseurs should say thanks to the next copper they come across.

John Hawkes ● 104d

Mr IxerThe article contains - 'Youth Demand had been making noises on social media about an attempt to ‘shut down London’ in April. (Shutting down London sounds a bit ambitious, but who knows? They might well have succeeded in blocking a street or two and making some people late for work.) They have, apparently, been associated with the old red-paint-on-the-MOD dodge. The same organisation picketed Sir Keir Starmer’s home – which rightly saw some of its members had up on public order offences. Civil disobedience by very definition involves breaking laws and taking the consequences, that said, and opinions vary widely on where the line of acceptability should be drawn'.My view on 'drawing the line' is that I do not want my City and personal convenience impacted by a load of juveniles playing at revolutionaries and freedom fighters especially as they seem to take a scatter gun approach to what they protest about and their equivalence.Other than the fact they chose the current leftist issues de nos jours - climate change and of course attacking Israel at every opportunity.And I do wonder how they can be involved in such political activities and yet still hold down a job.  You might not be impacted by their actions and they may sound trivial at the moment.But their severity and consequences can grow.From the closing of roads and preventing people taking up hospital appointments on the one hand to the pro-Palestinian Islamist bombings and murders at the other extreme.In my view the police have a prime duty to my safety to keep them under control rather than worry too much over the curtailment of their right to protest.I wonder if any of them or yourself indeed have read about the genocide happening in Sudan carried out by numerous fundamentalist Muslim gangs ? Will they bring London to a halt over these crimes against humanity ?"The siege of Khartoum has lifted. Left behind are scenes of unimaginable horror" - Nesrine Malik in today's Guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/khartoum-sudan-war-capital-horrorMan made destruction and terror that puts any supposed Israeli actions totally in perspective.Yet still Israel takes the rap.

John Hawkes ● 104d

In response to the police raid - a grade two listed building has been damaged and other innocent groups carrying out activities in the building were disrupted. The young people who were arrested have not been charged although their laptops have yet to be returned. Most interestingly, the number of young people  joining Youth Demand has accelerated since this incident. People wishing to protest at the action of the police should write to The Mayor Of London and their MP, who in the case of Putney residents is Fleur Anderson.

Miles Thompson ● 104d

I don't feel that when even the Spectator is being critical of the raid one has to think this is a bit of a police f-up https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-police-raid-on-a-quaker-meeting-house-is-unforgivable/It does have shades of the keystone cops 20-30 police arrested six tree hugging young women ... I  wonder if sme informant set of both protesters and police?My understanding is no changes were made; willowherb taxpayers be hit by wrongful arrest payouts?

Michael Ixer ● 104d

Mr ThompsonAs I have already made clear, the meeting being held was not one organised by the Quakers, noted for their passive and peaceful protests, but one organised on its premises by a juvenile group of activists called 'Youth Demand'.This outfit bills itself as a 'Youth-led nonviolent civil resistance campaign demanding the UK stops arming Israel and cancels all new oil and gas granted since 2021'.The police incident has been described as 'six members of a direct action group called Youth Demand have been arrested during a meeting to discuss plans to ‘shut down London’ next month, accusing the government of ‘facilitating genocide’ in Gaza.Officers raided the gathering at a Quaker Meeting House on Thursday, in what’s believed to be the first time their meeting spaces have been raided in living memory, though the group are not affiliated with the Quakers.The six were arrested on suspicion of ‘conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.’In a statement, the Met said they had a responsibility to prevent activity “that crosses the line from protest into serious disruption and other criminality”'.Not quite the passive and peaceful Quaker-like protest but direction action to 'shut down London'.We fund the police to stop our City 'being shut down' by anybody let alone a group that seems to have and has conflated two unrelated issues - stopping the UK supporting Israel in its war against Palestinian extremists and stopping the UK developing its need energy resources.What do these issues have in common ?It's funny isn't it that these dim witted youths never feel obliged to link our energy policy with a call for trade restrictions against China for its attempted genocide of the Uighurs.Nor to strengthen those against Iran for the appalling crimes it carries out against its own people especially women and gays and the antisemitic Islamic racism it sponsors across most of the Middle East.No, its always the Jews that need to get it in the neck.Just more examples of the ignorance of much of British youth and its festering and growing antisemitism fostered by the many Islamists now residing in this country.

John Hawkes ● 104d

Mr CarterIn your haste to attack the police and support every leftist cause as is usual for you, you missed the point that this was not a Quaker meeting but a meeting by some juvenile anti-Israel pro-Palestine/'Just Stop Oil' protest group called 'Youth Demand' using the Quakers' meeting room.If you read what this group stand for and plan to do (which is not 'peaceful protest') you see that the police had every right to show interest and intervene.

John Hawkes ● 105d

Mr Thompson' ’The only resistance I could put up was to make tea and drink it in front of them without offering them any.’'My reading about this incident was not that the police were trying to stop a meeting by Quakers but that a Quaker meeting room was being used by an activist protest group called 'Youth Demand'.'Youth Demand is a British environmental activist and political activist group which opposes new fossil fuel licensing and production agreements by the British government for drilling in the North Sea and British arms exports to Israel'. Wiki.https://youthdemand.org/ is the site for the West Putney Pro-Palestine Just Stop Oil activists to sign up to assist them.It also describes other direct action protests they have been involved in.The Met Police said the force understood the importance of the right to protest but added that Youth Demand had stated an intention to "shut down" London during April."JOIN A MONTH OF DAILY COORDINATED ACTIONS IN LONDON THIS APRIL!" is promoted on their website."We have a responsibility to intervene to prevent activity that crosses the line from protest into serious disruption and other criminality," a (police) spokesman said."On Thursday, officers raided a Youth Demand planning meeting where those in attendance were plotting their April action."Six people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance."A further five arrests for the same offence were made on Friday, 28 March. Four of the arrests were at addresses in London and one in Exeter."Here is what the group write on their website.Notice the usual conflation of anti-Israel pro-Palestine propaganda and the attack on the production and use of fossil fuels."The Government is engaging in absolute evil. They are enabling genocide in Palestine by sending money (?) and arms to Israel. They are contributing to the murder of billions (!) to keep fossil fuel profits flowing.Young people are stepping up to resist this right now.We are demanding that the Government must:1) Stop trade with Israel: impose a trade embargo on Israel2) Make the rich pay: raise £1trillion by 2030 from the super rich and fossil fuel elite to pay damages to communities and countries harmed by fossil fuel burning.Until these demands are met we will be in non-violent resistance against a rigged political system and the people with blood on their hands".This reads to me as sufficient for the police and government  to see this as a threat of insurrection not peaceful protest  and to take whatever steps that have legal backing to prevent it.However were they to have candidates stand in the next General Election and win seats in Parliament then of course this would be a different matter.

John Hawkes ● 105d

Speaking to The Telegraph about the recent police raid on Westminster Meeting House an Elder commented ’The only resistance I could put up was to make tea and drink it in front of them without offering them any.’

Miles Thompson ● 105d

It's shocking not just because of the level of force applied (20 police officers, the door being broken down) but that it happened at all. What on earth can the police have expected of a Quaker meeting? Armed revolution? A plot to assassinate the prime minister? The mind boggles at the utter lack of judgement here.

Richard Carter ● 106d