The issue that has to be forced onto the agenda is that of the arms trade with Israel. I’ve always been sceptical about the idea of an academic boycott or calls for sanctions, which lack the practical narrative of “let’s not fuel the conflict by supplying weapons”.

It should also be a springboard to a wider move – to force the trades unions to weigh in on our side.

“To the Israeli and the British governments, popular demonstrations are just something to be factored into the cost of doing business.”

It occurs to me that had the Greek government ‘factored in’ the costs that the weeks of riots would have (a movement which has subsided but certainly not dissipated), they would probably have tried very hard to avoid it. I’m wondering – if the similar level of anger here were to take a similarly destructive form (which certainly isn’t proposed as a rival or alternative to targetted actions over things like arms sales), would the government sit up, take notice, and find, after ‘factoring in’ the costs, decide to actually make the Israelis stop/not start?