Outside King’s Cross train station, a man is arrested and carried off, literally, into the night by five London Police.
In the video of the arrest, circulating widely on social media, a man is heard shouting after the police: “What’s he done? What’s he done?”
What he had done was to hold up a copy of The New World magazine with its cover photograph of a protestor holding a placard with words the government has deemed too dangerous to British society:
I oppose Genocide. I support Palestine Action.
The circular absurdity would thrill Kafka: a protestor arrested by police for holding up a magazine cover story about police arresting protestors.
BREAKING: A man was arrested in London for holding up The New World magazine, featuring the “sign of the times” with the seven outlawed words:
— Huda Ammori (@HudaAmmori) October 7, 2025
“I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” pic.twitter.com/ibmGdZVc0v
We may assume he knew what he was doing. We certainly did when we published the cover.
It was a deliberate effort to expose and test this ridiculous overreach by a Home Office that has knee-jerked its way into the most absurd attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression in living memory.
We didn’t publish the magazine lightly; we understood it begged a question of where our right — as journalists — to visibly challenge authoritarianism like this might cross a line of perceived criminality.
Outside King’s Cross, that question appears to have been answered.
The idea that a magazine can be on open sale in more than 10,000 newsagents up and down the country, but its purchase and open display can get you arrested, makes a mockery of this daft law.
If they arrest someone for holding up the magazine, then why do they not arrest the editor-in-chief who published it? Or indeed any broadcaster or newspaper photographer who publishes pictures of the protests which risk making the UK a laughing stock at a time the world needs serious countries with serious politicians more than ever. My toothbrush is at the side of the front door.
Suggested Reading
Palestine Action: We are not the terrorists
We live in a time of creeping authoritarianism; when a government arrests thousands of its citizens for expressing sincere protest against an action overseas that is, in the view of the majority, genocidal, it has lost the plot.
Whether you believe Palestine Action to be a genuine terror threat to this country or not, you should be deeply concerned that this is a Labour government’s response to peaceful protest. Just imagine how this precedent could be used by future governments in the face of inconvenient demonstrations.
Shabana Mahmood should row back on this law, which is such a gross waste of police and court time. She should focus their energies on isolating and dealing with the true dangers to our society — those who actually threaten to harm the citizens she is charged with protecting.
But she won’t. In fact, what she will do is already clear. She will double down on its absurdity with another ill-thought-through nonsense law about “the compound effects” of repeat protest.
And when Keir Starmer next decides to articulate his views on what is un-British, perhaps he can reflect on pensioners being arrested for waving a placard, or a young man being carted off into the night by five policemen for holding up a magazine.
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