Oh dear. It seems that the wokest police force in all the West has done it again. In the past fortnight, pro-Palestine marches in London have attracted some unseemly elements to their cause. One such example was offered today at an event for Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in central London. After one speaker asked the crowd ‘What is the solution to liberate people in the concentration camp of Palestine?’ a chant of ‘Jihad, jihad, jihad’ echoed out around the speaker. An incitement for holy war? Surely grounds for a police intervention…

Unfortunately not, it seems. For the Metropolitan Police have now used their overactive Twitter/X account to confirm they will not be taking any action:

The word jihad has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism. We have specialist counter terrorism officers here in the operations room who have particular knowledge in this area. They have assessed this video, filmed at the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in central London today, and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip. However, recognising the way language like this will be interpreted by the public and the divisive impact it will have, officers have identified the man involved and will be speaking to him shorty to discourage any repeat of similar chanting.

Steerpike is old enough to remember, er, March of this year when West Yorkshire Police recorded a ‘hate incident’ after pupils caused ‘slight damage’ to a copy of the Quran when it fell on the floor. Expect today’s incident to come up next time Sir Mark Rowley gets wheeled out in parliament to sincerely explain how the Met has changed…