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00:13 Yeah, just give me an eye.
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00:21 Just like a monitor program, so then they'll know where I'm at.
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00:31 Do you know what? He's about to come out, so...
00:33 2.234.6
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01:18 I've got it.
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03:45 1.234.56
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04:29 In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality.
04:35 What started as protests on our streets has descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence.
04:43 Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform, lest it reveal their identity.
04:49 Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.
04:55 Now our democracy itself is a target.
04:59 Council meetings and local events have been stormed.
05:03 MPs do not feel safe in their homes.
05:06 Long-standing parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns.
05:12 And it is beyond alarming that last night the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate
05:18 who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7th,
05:23 who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP.
05:31 I need to speak to you all this evening because this situation has gone on long enough
05:36 and demands a response not just from government, but from all of us.
05:42 Britain is a patriotic, liberal, democratic society with a proud past and a bright future.
05:50 We're a reasonable country and a decent people.
05:54 Our story is one of progress, of great achievements and enduring values.
05:59 Immigrants who have come here have integrated and contributed.
06:03 They have helped write the latest chapter in our island story.
06:07 They have done this without being required to give up their identity.
06:11 You can be a practicing Hindu in a proud Britain as I am,
06:15 or a devout Muslim and a patriotic citizen as so many are,
06:19 or a committed Jewish person at the heart of your local community,
06:23 and all underpinned by the tolerance of our established Christian church.
06:29 We are a country where we love our neighbours and we are building Britain together.
06:36 But I fear that our great achievement in building the world's most successful
06:42 multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy is being deliberately undermined.
06:48 There are forces here at home trying to tear us apart.
06:53 Since October 7th, there have been those trying to take advantage
06:58 of the very human angst that we all feel about the terrible suffering that war brings
07:03 to the innocent, to women and children, to advance a divisive, hateful ideological agenda.
07:11 On too many occasions recently, our streets have been hijacked by small groups
07:16 who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions.
07:23 Membership of our society is contingent on some simple things.
07:29 That you abide by the rule of law, and that change can only come through the peaceful democratic process.
07:36 Threats of violence and intimidation are alien to our way of doing things.
07:42 We must be resisted at all times.
07:46 Nearly everyone in Britain supports these basic values,
07:50 but there are small and vocal hostile groups who do not.
07:55 Islamist extremists and the far right feed off and embolden each other.
08:01 They are equally desperate to pretend that their violence is somehow justified
08:06 when actually these groups are two sides of the same extremist coin.
08:12 Neither group accept that change in our country can only come through the peaceful democratic process.
08:20 Both loathe the pluralist modern country we are.
08:24 Both want to set Britain against Britain to weaponise the evils of anti-Semitism
08:29 and anti-Muslim hatred for their own ends.
08:32 The faith of Islam, peacefully practised by millions of our fellow citizens,
08:37 is emphatically not the same thing as the extremist political ideology of Islamism,
08:43 which aims to separate Muslims from the rest of society.
08:47 Islamist extremists and far right groups are spreading a poison.
08:51 That poison is extremism.
08:54 It aims to drain us of our confidence in ourselves as a people and in our shared future.
09:00 They want us to doubt ourselves, to doubt each other, to doubt our country's history and achievements.
09:06 They want us to accept a moral equivalence between Britain and some of the most despicable regimes in the world.
09:13 They want us to believe that our country and the West more generally is solely responsible for the world's ills
09:20 and that we, along with our allies, are the problem.
09:24 In short, they want to destroy our confidence and hope.
09:29 We must not allow that to happen.
09:32 When these groups claim that Britain is and has been on the wrong side of history,
09:36 we should reject it and reject it again.
09:40 No country is perfect.
09:43 But I am enormously proud of the good that our country has done.
09:48 Our place in history is defined by the sacrifices our people have made
09:54 in the service of their own freedom and that of others.
09:58 And when these groups tell our children that they cannot and will not succeed because of who they are,
10:04 when they tell children that the system is rigged against them or that Britain is a racist country,
10:10 this is not only a lie but a cynical attempt to crush young dreams
10:15 and turn impressionistic minds against their own society.
10:20 I stand here as our country's first non-white Prime Minister,
10:25 leading the most diverse government in our country's history,
10:29 to tell people of all races, all faiths and all backgrounds,
10:34 it is not the colour of your skin, the God you believe in or where you were born
10:39 that will determine your success, but just your own hard work and endeavour.
10:45 We must be prepared to stand up for our shared values in all circumstances,
10:51 no matter how difficult.
10:53 And I respect that the police have a tough job in policing the protests we have seen
10:59 and that they are operationally independent.
11:02 But we must draw a line.
11:05 Yes, you can march and protest with passion, you can demand the protection of civilian life,
11:11 but no, you cannot call for violent jihad.
11:16 There is no context in which it can be acceptable to beam anti-Semitic tropes onto Big Ben
11:23 in the middle of a vote on Israel-Gaza.
11:26 And there can be no cause that you can use to justify the support
11:30 of a prescribed terrorist group like Hamas.
11:33 And yes, you can freely criticise the actions of this government or indeed any government,
11:40 that is a fundamental democratic right,
11:42 but no, you cannot use that as an excuse to call for the eradication of a state
11:48 or any kind of hatred or anti-Semitism.
11:52 This week I've met with senior police officers and made clear it is the public's expectation
11:59 that they will not merely manage these protests, but police them.
12:03 And I say this to the police, we will back you when you take action.
12:09 But if we are asking more of the police, we in government must also back up that call with action.
12:16 To that end, this month the government will implement a new, robust framework
12:22 for how it deals with this issue, to ensure that we are dealing with the root causes of this problem
12:28 and that no extremist organisations or individuals are being lent legitimacy
12:33 by their actions and interactions with central government.
12:37 You cannot be part of our civic life if your agenda is to tear it down.
12:43 We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism.
12:50 We will demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus.
12:54 We will also act to prevent people entering this country whose aim is to undermine its values.
13:01 The Home Secretary has instructed that if those here on visas choose to spew hate or protest
13:08 or seek to intimidate people, we will remove their right to be here.
13:13 And our Britain must not be a country in which we descend into polarised camps,
13:20 with some communities living parallel lives.
13:24 It is not enough to live side by side, we must live together, united by shared values
13:31 and a shared commitment to this country.
13:35 And I want to speak directly to those who choose to continue to protest.
13:40 Don't let the extremists hijack your marches.
13:44 You have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently, peacefully
13:49 and with empathy for your fellow citizens.
13:52 Let us prove these extremists wrong and show them that even when we disagree,
13:57 we will never be disunited from our common values of decency and respect.
14:04 I love this country, my family and I owe it so much.
14:09 The time has now come for us all to stand together to combat the forces of division and beat this poison.
14:17 We must face down the extremists who would tear us apart.
14:22 There must be leadership, not pandering or appeasement.
14:27 When they tell their lies, we will tell the truth.
14:31 When they try and sap our confidence, we will redouble our efforts.
14:36 And when they try and make us doubt each other, we will dig deeper
14:41 for that extra ounce of compassion and empathy that they want us to believe doesn't exist,
14:47 but that I know does.
14:51 If we do that, we can build on our great achievement in creating today's Britain,
14:58 a country of kind, decent, tolerant people.
15:03 We can make this a country in which we all feel a renewed sense of pride.
15:08 This is our home.
15:11 So let us go forward together, confident in our values and confident in our future.
15:19 [birds chirping]
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