Peter Hain's Blog

Neither of us support the organisation, but what is happening fails to either protect protest or make it policeable. There is another way

Stella Creasy is Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow. Peter Hain was Labour MP for Neath and now sits in the House of Lords

Is terrorism really a vicar with a peaceful placard?

As parliamentarians who are passionate about democracy and civil liberties, we know that both are under threat. A growing number of organisations encourage violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims. MPs are besieged with threats, advised not to hold in-person surgeries and are grieving still for two colleagues killed in the past 10 years. Anti-migrant protests and threats are encouraged by the far right to take place across the country. Yet attempts to address all this are increasingly destabilising public confidence in politics, emboldening those who fan the flames of hatred by claiming a “two-tier” response. Without change, the danger that someone will get hurt – or killed again – will only grow.

Stella Creasy is the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow. Peter Hain was the Labour MP for Neath from 1991 to 2015 and now sits in the House of Lords

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Absolute free speech is a right enshrined in the law, which is fundamental to British democracy. We must defend it

Knight of the realm and business tycoon Philip Green spends a lot of money on expensive lawyers.

First, he took out an injunction in 2018 to block the media from mentioning him over complaints from his employees at Arcadia Group, overwhelmingly women, about bullying and abusive conduct, behaviour which he categorically denied.

Peter Hain was the Labour MP for Neath from 1991 to 2015 and secretary of state for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007

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Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I have been travelling a lot this month, back and forth between London and Devon and my mum’s house in Scotland. Train journeys feel like permission to read. The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams has been on my shelf for years, but I finally finished it while on the tube two weeks ago. What a writer! Her mind is like cold, alien moonlight. She goes to the heart of the things we don’t talk about.

A bill now in the Lords is intended to protect Israel from any criticism. It goes further than Thatcher ever did when she tried to stop us protesting to free Nelson Mandela

Historic change was brought about in my home country thanks in no small part to the anti-apartheid protests and campaigns around the world. By boycotting sports, and goods such as wine and oranges, the world put pressure on South Africa that led to the end of the brutal apartheid regime. Now, the UK government is trying to force through an authoritarian piece of legislation that would outlaw similar boycotts – actions that are a vital form of democratic protest. That is, unless my fellow peers stand with me in opposing this bill in the House of Lords.

The economic activity of public bodies (overseas matters) bill, better known as the “anti-boycott bill”, is attempting to pick up where Margaret Thatcher’s government left off: banning public bodies from boycotting goods and businesses they believe are conducting problematic activity overseas. The bill is explicit in its focus on Israel, but history shows us that it would also have far-reaching and dangerous consequences for free speech and for human rights too.

Lord Hain is a former UK Middle East minister and Northern Ireland secretary of state

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I’m a friend to both Israelis and Palestinians, and all my experience tells me this: tough negotiation will achieve what bombs cannot

After the Hamas terror of 7 October and Benjamin Netanyahu’s horrific retaliation in Gaza, some long overdue truths need stating. First, Israel is not going to “destroy Hamas”, as its leaders promise – not even by destroying Gaza.

Although Israel is damaging Hamas militarily, maybe significantly, with many of its tunnels eliminated and its fighters fleeing, Hamas is a movement and an ideology that, in many respects, Netanyahu’s extremism helped to promote.

Lord Hain is a former UK Middle East minister and Northern Ireland secretary of state

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Overlooked in the blanket coverage of Michael Parkinson’s death are the radical views he expressed well before became a national treasure for his much-loved BBC celebrity interviews. His formative socialist years were in the Yorkshire town of Barnsley, the son of a miner. That, combined with his love of sport, especially cricket, and even more especially Yorkshire cricket, was perhaps why he volunteered for the 1965 launch of Anti-Apartheid News, writing a sports column for the monthly newspaper, official organ of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Then came the D’Oliveira affair. Born in Cape Town and classified under apartheid as “Coloured” (ancestry inter-racial), Basil D’Oliveira was barred by law from playing for his own country and forced to further his career abroad, from 1966 becoming an automatic choice and star performer for England.

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Despite Rishi Sunak dropping the Northern Ireland protocol, more challenges to the peace process are on the horizon

When those bitter blood enemies, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, finally agreed to share power amicably together in 2007, it was one of those “it’ll never happen” moments. The 2007 agreement I helped negotiate under Tony Blair ended a five-year suspension of the Northern Ireland assembly.

So, too, was the 1998 Good Friday agreement, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, which sealed the end of the Troubles – those terrible decades of terror and horror, the most recent and tragic manifestation of generations of violent inter-communal division in Northern Ireland.

Peter Hain was secretary of state for Northern Ireland 2005-2007

It’s now official. Brexit has caused lasting damage to the UK economy and, with the Tories in denial, Labour needs to lead the way with a new policy agenda.

Yet it’s almost a taboo topic: the Tory government won’t admit it and Labour is understandably reluctant to rekindle old Brexit flames.

The 2007 settlement I worked on aimed to deepen the peace process – the vandals now in charge of Britain don’t care about it

There is something Putinesque about the government’s framing of its Northern Ireland protocol bill. It is almost the opposite of what Boris Johnson, his man in Belfast, Brandon Lewis, and the hardline backbenchers he’s appeasing claim it to be.

Leave to one side that it trashes Britain’s reputation. That it was conceived in London as a solution to the Northern Ireland Brexit conundrum. That it reneges on the withdrawal agreement Johnson and his lieutenant, David Frost, negotiated with the EU. Never mind that it breaks an international treaty the UK signed. Forget very old-fashioned notions of truth, sticking to your word, trust and obeying international law.

After the recent acquittal of climate activists by a crown court jury, it’s clear public sentiment is on their side

In the face of resistance by juries, surely there is a strong case to halt all the pending trials of Extinction Rebellion activists? With nearly a thousand trials still waiting to be heard in the courts, six members of the group were recently acquitted at Southwark crown court in XR’s second trial by a jury.

They had been charged with criminal damage against the oil giant Shell, yet the jury decided that all six were not guilty, despite the judge ruling that only one had any kind of defence in law.

Lord Hain is a former Labour cabinet minister and anti-apartheid campaigner