Another Palestine slogan has 'suddenly' now become an arrestable offence, but since the law hasn't changed, what are the Met Police up to? Right, so here’s the thing. In Britain, words don’t normally become crimes because a police force decides it doesn’t like the sound of them this week. Parliament passes laws, courts interpret them, and everyone else is supposed to stay in their lane. But that’s not what’s happening here. The Metropolitan Police have announced that a Palestine-related slogan may now earn you an arrest, despite no change in the law, no ban, no court ruling, just a sudden confidence that they’ve cracked the definitive meaning of a political word. Ministers, of course, are hovering nearby, nodding vigorously while insisting this is all a matter of “operational independence”, which is Whitehall shorthand for we like the outcome, do ...