“President” Isaac Herzog last night entered his hotel – the Intercontinental Park Lane – through a service door and kitchens.

He did not transit any of the public areas of the hotel, where I was stationed disguised as an elderly Scottish drunk at the bar. I carried out this role with great dedication.

It also allowed me to wander around the basement areas as a well-spoken elderly Scottish gentleman, slightly befuddled and looking for the toilet. Finding no end of lurking policemen – who were all very helpful – I was able to confirm this was indeed where Herzog was staying and a demonstration was whistled up.

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Watch| Activists protested in front of the hotel where Israeli President Isaac Herzog is staying in London, demanding his arrest for his role in crimes against the Palestinian people.#Israel pic.twitter.com/p3dznsgcvm

— Al-Jarmaq News (@Aljarmaqnetnews) September 10, 2025

The demonstration was very loud and effective inside the hotel and definitely well worth doing again. The police attempted to move the demonstration away under the Public Order Act.

Greta Thunberg was acquitted last year in exactly these circumstances when charged for protesting outside this exact same hotel. The magistrate ruled that police instructions to move on were “unlawful”. That is worth remembering for the next couple of nights.

I had dashed down from Edinburgh, literally just dropping everything and heading to the station, on hearing that Herzog’s visit was starting a couple of days earlier than expected. I attended the PSC demonstration outside Downing St. Frankly it was disappointingly small – not much more than one person for every mile I had covered to get there.

The change of date, short notice and a tube strike all contributed, but I do hope protest will grow during Herzog’s three day visit. Be inspired by this precedent:

In 1848-9, Hapsburg General Julius von Haynau crushed uprisings in Hungary and in Brescia with extreme force. In Brescia about 1,000 were killed, both revolutionaries and civilians, including women and children, with widespread rape, floggings and executions.

In Hungary about 2,000 revolutionaries were killed across four “battles” and a slightly larger number of civilians were massacred, again with widespread rape, flogging and looting.

In 1850 Haynau was on a private visit to London and touring the Barclay and Perkins brewery in Southwark. He was recognised by some draymen who pelted him with refuse and chased him from the brewery, where a larger crowd joined in.

Eventually Haynau took refuge in the George Inn on Borough High Street, where he hid either in a waste bin or under a bed (accounts differ). Eventually he was rescued by the police but nobody was arrested.

Generations of schoolchildren – myself included – were taught that the Haynau incident was something to be proud of and an example of how foreign “tyrants” should be treated in London. The government of Prime Minister Lord John Russell – grandfather of Bertrand Russell – refused to prosecute the draymen, to the fury of the Austrian government.

Herzog is of course actively participating in a Genocide far worse than anything Haynau did, and was directly quoted by the ICJ as indicating intent of genocide.

Starmer is meeting Herzog today for the second time since the ICJ cited Herzog as showing intent of Genocide, and since Herzog signed bombs to drop on Gaza.

There is no diplomacy being pursued on this visit. Nor was it initiated by Starmer. It is the Israelis emphasising their control of the British Establishment, and demonstrating that they can do what they wish – commit genocide, bomb Qatar, bomb Tunisia, and much more. It is simply a visit to underline who is the boss, and that we can do nothing about it.

Let us summon the symbol of the draymen of the Barclay and Perkins brewery. It is the people, not Starmer and his corrupt, grasping clowns, who embody moral conscience.

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