Tomorrow (or, erm, today, since it’s past midnight as I post) is remembrance day, Nov 11th. I wrote here some years ago about why I can no longer support it.

But this year the day is mired in potentially-serious controversy: there’s to be a peace march in London, and some including members of our government are furious about it. At the heart of it is pure hatred coming from the Home Secretary, who tried to demand the police ban the march, only to be rebuffed by the police pointing out they have no power to do so. Indeed it seems the march organisers are working closely with police, as they did with a similar march a week ago that didn’t get the publicity generated by the calls for a ban. But the Home Secretary and Prime Minister have publicly said they will hold the police accountable for any trouble that may happen: the pressure they’re putting on looks a lot like trying to bully the police.

What we have now with all this heavily-loaded publicity is a clear incitement to criminality and perhaps violence, aimed at extreme supporters of both sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Those who want the march banned will feel vindicated if there are serious incidents, and may very well seek to attack and/or infiltrate it. And the publicity may draw non-peaceful elements into the march. A very plausible outcome is that the former incite the latter.

If there is serious trouble, the march organisers and the police will get a lot of blame they may or may not deserve, and the Home Secretary will be happy. If there is no trouble, the organisers and the police will deserve a lot of credit, which of course they won’t get.