I have tried throughout all of this to be fair, patient and realistic about how difficult these situations can be. I know there are things happening behind the scenes that we will never see and I know there are limits to what can be done. But there also comes a point where you have to say that what is happening simply isn’t good enough.
We still haven’t had the meeting with Ed Miliband that we have been trying to get. More importantly, the calls with Mum and Craig have not become regular. After finally speaking to Mum properly again, we hoped that would be the start of weekly contact and at least give us some consistency. That hasn’t happened.
What makes that even harder to accept is that throughout the hunger strike, Mum and Craig were repeatedly told that once they came off it, calls would be reinstated. They did come off the hunger strike. They made that decision, they began the difficult process of recovering and rebuilding their strength, and yet the regular contact we were told would follow still has not materialised.
That matters. It matters because when people are asked to trust a process, there has to be some confidence that what they are told will actually happen. Mum and Craig kept their side of that. We should not now be left still fighting for the very thing they were told would be restored.
We are not asking for anything unreasonable here. We want to be able to speak to them, we want to know that somebody is checking on their welfare properly and we want some basic consistency around that. They have been through an enormous amount already and, as their family, we should not still be left wondering when we might hear their voices again or when somebody will next be able to see them.
There should be more anger about that. Two British citizens are being held and their family cannot even rely on a weekly phone call with them. That isn’t fair and it certainly isn’t right.
At some point somebody needs to stand up and take more decisive action. We have spent months being told about process, diplomacy and the difficulties surrounding the case, and I understand all of that. But if the same approach is not changing anything, then somebody has to be prepared to challenge it. Somebody has to be willing to look again at what can be done, push harder where necessary and take some responsibility for moving things forward.
I don’t expect miracles and I don’t expect anyone to pretend there is an easy solution. I do expect urgency. I expect Mum and Craig’s welfare to matter. And I expect us to be able to ask for something as basic as regular contact without feeling like we are constantly fighting for it.
Through all of this, the support people have given us has continued to mean a huge amount. Every person who has signed and shared the petition, donated to the GoFundMe, sent us a message or simply kept Mum and Craig’s names in the conversation has helped us keep going. There have been plenty of moments where it has felt like we are pushing against a brick wall, and knowing there are so many people standing behind them makes a real difference.
That support will be there in a very visible way again on Wednesday 9 September, when the Ride Out for 600 Days takes place. To see people coming together and giving their time to mark 600 days and stand behind Mum and Craig means more than I can really put into words. It is a huge show of support for them and for our family, and I will also be using the day to deliver a letter making clear why we believe more needs to be done.
Days like Wednesday matter because they show that people have not forgotten them. They show that this is not just a private struggle happening behind closed doors, and that there are people who still expect action, accountability and basic humanity in the way Mum and Craig are treated.
We are incredibly grateful for every signature, every donation, every share and every person who turns up and stands with us. But we still need that support. We need people to keep talking about them, keep sharing their story and keep making sure this case cannot quietly drift into the background.
Mum and Craig deserve better than what is happening to them now. Their family deserves better than being left without reliable access to them. We will keep pushing for both, because accepting this as normal simply isn’t an option.