…Roundabout?

A campaign flyer has been catching the eye around Holland Park and Shepherds Bush in recent days. Invoking the Palestinian flag, symbol of resistance and unity in the face of colonialism and ethnic cleansing, at first glance you’d presume it relates to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. On closer inspection, it’s more parochial – encouraging people to oppose Transport for London’s proposed cycle lane on Holland Park Roundabout.

The campaigners, Save Our Streets or SOS10, believe the cycle lane is a “Trojan horse” and that, if approved, TFL will expand the lane all the way up Holland Park Avenue to Notting Hill Gate. The campaigners keep their identities secret on their flyers and website. We requested details via their mailing list sign-up form but have heard nothing back.

Asking around, we heard that the brains behind the Palestine semiotics is a businessman on Holland Park Avenue, worried about the impact of a cycle lane on his income. We also heard that it might be Conservative Party members who oppose any inconvenience to drivers in the area.

We were told that some organisations listed as supporters of the campaign aren’t as invested in the campaign as their names appearing on the flyer might suggest.

Another suggestion was that Felicity Buchan, MP for Kensington, is behind SOS10, that it is an astroturf campaign group creating the impression of genuine grassroots demands that Buchan can then be responsive to.

The MP has an online petition against the cycle lane, which the SOS-Palestine flyer urges people to back. We contacted the MP’s office and asked if there is a connection between the local Tory party and SOS10, but they did not respond.

If Buchan and her team are directly involved in appropriating the Palestinian flag to oppose a cycle lane it will not be the first time the MP has insensitively utilised flags and national colours in pursuit of political gain. 

An enthusiastic supporter of the catastrophic war in Ukraine, a year ago Buchan dressed in the colours of the Ukrainian flag during an event on Holland Park Avenue at which she told a group of Ukrainian refugee children that their sacrifice was for “western values, good values.” 

The Ukrainian army is so decimated that severely ill men are being forced to fight, or more accurately, die, because the West, with Britain at the forefront, says so. The destruction of Ukraine as a functioning state has been cheer-led by politicians like Buchan who have nothing substantive to say on the conflict yet miss no opportunity to signal their warmongering credentials using the yellow and blue flag.

And Buchan, Under Secretary of State for Housing and Homelessness in the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, fully backs the Zionist Project’s destruction of Palestinian life, again offering zero insight into events. The use of the victims’ flag to seek votes via a local issue would be consistent with the MP’s ambivalence over Palestinian life during the epic crime in the Holy Land.

The design of the flyer suggests the SOS10 campaign wanted to achieve two things: something eye-catching plucked from the zeitgeist to get people to read about their campaign while also scorning those who sincerely campaign in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The TFL cycle lane consultation ends today, 3rd March.

We’ll have more on West London’s flagging politicians soon.

by Tom Charles @tomhcharles