A dispiriting row at a dangerous moment

A great many people will agree with Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary. There is indeed a widespread perception that the police treat protests by particular groups differently to others. It is true that the scenes witnessed at the pro-Palestinian marches in recent weeks have been disgraceful. 

As Mrs Braverman wrote in the newspaper article that has proven so controversial, at these demonstrations “terrorists have been valorised, Israel has been demonised as Nazis and Jews have been threatened with further massacres”. Is the Home Secretary so wrong to say that these constitute “hate marches”? 

But Mrs Braverman holds one of the great offices of state and occupies a complex position in the constitutional settlement. Hers is obviously a political role, given that she is an MP and a member of the Cabinet, but it includes certain statutory responsibilities and functions. 

Her newspaper article effectively criticising Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, for not requesting a ban on Saturday’s pro-Palestine march, cut across operational decisions which have always been off-limits to politicians for good reason. 

We do not want to live in a country in which ministers can direct officers to arrest particular individuals, or involve themselves directly in police decisions. If Mrs Braverman had wanted Saturday’s march proscribed, she could have brought forward an emergency Bill to do so.

She did not, and now the Armistice Day protest is going ahead. The country has been told by Sir Mark that there needed to be a realistic “threat of serious disorder” in order for the police to apply for a banning order, and intelligence on the demonstration does not currently meet the threshold. That may be a hopeful assessment. 

Sir Mark must urgently set out what he is planning to do to ensure that the threat of violence is minimised, that Armistice Day commemorations are not disrupted, and that anti-Semitism is dealt with harshly.

Indeed, one of the dispiriting aspects of this whole row is that it has taken attention away from a concern surely more pressing to the public. What is going to be done about the hateful extremism and anti-Jewish racism that has been on full display on the streets of major cities in recent weeks? The country wants politicians to do more than complain from the sidelines.