Starmer’s nightmare Audrey White among first PA ‘terror’ cases

Merseyside Pensioners’ activist Audrey White went viral in 2022 when she was filmed giving a ‘paralysed’ Keir Starmer several hefty pieces of her mind in a city restaurant. Now, she will be among the first of thousands of peaceful protesters, mostly pensioners and disabled people, to face trial in Keir Starmer’s 36-minute kangaroo courts. This comes after being arrested under the Terrorism Act for opposing Starmer’s proscription of non-violent anti-genocide group Palestine Action (PA) and receiving summonses a week ago.

Like all those arrested, many in cities far from London, White and other Scousers are being made to attend court in London, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, hundreds of miles from their homes – and the scene of the arrests – and to pay for travel and accommodation that would not be required if the trials took place in their home areas, as well as costs for any witnesses they wish to bring to the hearing to give evidence.

Audrey White on trial in London

The appearances for White and her Merseyside comrades is scheduled for 9.30am on 11 November – Armistice Day, which has inflated the costs of tickets and accommodation – despite the courts knowing that a judicial review of the PA ban is taking place a couple of weeks later that might result in the proscription the protesters were demonstrating against being declared unlawful and void. White has written to her MP Kim Johnson to ask her to intervene, particularly as some of those involved are disabled:

Dear Kim Johnson MP

Thank you for the support you have provided to date.

I need to advise you on recent developments. I along with 2 co-defendants are now due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 11/11/25. The date and venue of the hearing raises serious concerns for all of us charged with these offences, as you are aware, many of them are pensioners.

A judicial review of the legality of extension of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to include Palestine Action does not take place until 26 November 2025 so a hearing on 11 November 2025 places defendants and their legal representatives at a disadvantage.

The venue is 200 miles from where the incident that led to our arrest took place. This severely curtails the practicalities of being able to bring defence witnesses to any trial. A potential witness for defence has restricted mobility and complex medical needs. They would find travel a difficulty. For them the alternative of a video link is not an option as they do not have access to the appropriate equipment and due to disability would struggle with the technology. This raises concerns regarding disability discrimination and digital exclusion.

A recent article by Craig Murray notes that defendants will not have the right to trial by jury and hearings will be limited to 36 minutes per defendant. This restriction has serious implications as it could set a dangerous precedent that could be applied to industrial action.

It would appear the Government is doing all it can to secure our convictions. The consequence could well be that prisons will acquire a duty of care for a large number of prisoners that have mobility problems and complex medical needs. The prison system is already overcrowded and is ill equipped to discharge such duties.

Our situation raises issues relating to human rights and disability discrimination. As my MP I would be grateful if you raise our situation in Parliament.

Yours sincerely,

Audrey White

United Nations human rights experts and other human rights groups have strongly condemned Starmer’s PA terrorist ban — which his Home Secretary lied outright to push through — and his subsequent war on entirely peaceful protesters — mostly older people or infirm and many of them Jewish — against the ban. Despite this and the approaching judicial review, the state is herding the victims through in batches of five at a ridiculous speed — and denying them trial by jury.

At the same time, Starmer has ‘deproscribed’ actual terror group HTS, the ISIS subsidiary in Syria. Twenty-four, mostly young, people have been imprisoned for fourteen months before trial for taking part in a PA action before the group was proscribed, as the Starmer regime tries to ‘make the process the punishment’ in case they are acquitted for acting appropriately against genocide.

Ms White told Skwawkbox that she is “proud” to be facing persecution as part of the struggle against Israel’s genocide, apartheid and occupation:

The leading edge of the battle to end occupation and genocide is the fight to unproscribe Palestine Action. The leading edge for the fight for our own freedom of speech, our own freedom to protest or to take peaceful action against injustice is exactly the same battle . I’m proud to be a small part of this struggle, one of the thousands prepared to sacrifice their freedoms to halt the march of authoritarianism and the whiff of fascism that is in the air.

Featured image by Skwawkbox