Protestors seeking to draw attention to the desperate plight of our planet have been sent to prison for four to five years. And they were only planning a protest. They did not even cause disruption.
Conspiracy to does carry a stiff sentence, just like the crime itself. If some were to conspire to murder the Sage of Ely we’d righteously expect significant sentences even if the act never took place.
‘Draw attention’? Like every single MSM outlet isn’t drawing as much attention as they possibly can…
If some were to conspire to murder the Sage of Ely we’d righteously expect significant sentences
Want to hold a vote on that?
Weren’t they the cunts that forced the M25 to close, disrupting 100s of 1000s of people?
So, they mistakenly think production of CO2 and burning hydrocarbons is killing the planet.
They protest in a manner that ensures more CO2 and burnt hydrocarbons are produced.
If they’re wrong, they’re delusional narcissistic morons and should be locked up because they are a danger to the public.
If they’re right, they need to be locked up for killing the planet.
You want to stop people going about their legal business, you’re no different to Baader-Meinhof. I’d happily see the IDF deal with them, Entebbe style, but I’ll settle for jail.
Is this the end of freedom of speech?
Says the man whose commitment to it is so total he has blocked 25,000 on ‘X’
Is it just fascism in action?
That’s verging on libel towards the judge
Is it a sign of the madness of the end times of neoliberalism?
Bugger all to do with neoliberalism but the primacy of lunatic Climate change activists could well be a sign of the End Times
Or is it the state, captured by neoliberal interests, putting the right to make profit above human and democratic rights?
Driving on a motorway without a bunch of self appointed terrorists preventing you is apparently ‘working for neoliberal interests’
Maybe it is all those things.
And will Labour do anything about this? I very much doubt it. These judgements fit very nearly with their authoritarian views.
This from a man who called for permanent lockdown and regularly asks for people to be imprisoned on spurious grounds. A man who wants to arbitrarily seize all assets for his own pet schemes. And he calls others ‘authoritarian’ – I’d say ‘ physician heal thyself’ but he’d probably consider that made him An authority on medicine
Judge Christopher Hehir said Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”.
Lucia and Cressida are about to discover that they don’t have organic hummus in jail.
“And they were only planning a protest. They did not even cause disruption”
Maybe not on this occasion, but they caused massive disruption during many previous stunts. Unfortunately, thanks to our new “Caring” government, they’ll probably be released within weeks…
Five years. So he’ll be out in two.
well funded terrorists though, so might win a reduction of sentence on appeal.
Cue smug martyrdom and plenty of gushing publicity when they are released.
Putting the right to protest above human and democratic rights, would be more like it. Or doesn’t he think people have a right to go about their lawful everyday affairs without being severely impeded by people conducting minority political protests? Effectively holding people hostage? Because that was what they were doing. Anyone being trapped in a traffic jam is being intentionally restrained against their will
I do agree with you there BiS.
I don’t really have any sympathy with those who feel that they can amuse themselves buggering you around just because of some whim of theirs.
The WHOLE. POINT. of public protest is the demonstration that you are willing to trade your freedom to propagate a message. If you demand no consequence to your protest you are destroying the ENTIRE POINT of your protest.
jgh,
But honestly, what is the flipping point in 2024? Who has changed public opinion because of a march or a protest, since the fall of the Berlin Wall?
You’re living in Ceaucescu-era Romania, or you’re a black guy in a state that has disenfranchised you in the USA, marching is about all you’ve got. Fine. But if you live in a free country, you propagate the message via leaflets, campaigns, debates, standing for office.
I mean, it’s not like no-one is aware of Gorbal Warming. The press and our politicians can’t shut up about it. The Uniparty are pro-windmill, solar, choo-choos and anti-petrol cars.
@ jgh
The point of public protest is that you are willing to *risk* your freedom to propagate a message. The concept is that if there are thousands of you the police cannot arrest everyone so it’s long odds that most of you will get away with it. When there is only a handful because the cause is unimportant or simply wrong, the odds of getting arrested are much worse.
Murphy thinks that anyone who agrees with him should be exempted from the risk that they claim to accept.
If a postman blocked the potato’s drive for more than a minute he’d call the chairman of Royal Mail and have him sacked
The concept is that if there are thousands of you the police cannot arrest everyone
Sound argument for machine gunning.
By Spud’s reasoning, you could “only be planning” to blow up Parliament with , say, gunpowder. Even make preparations for it.
But as long as you don’t touch fire to the fuse you’re an Innocent Fluffy Puppy who is Done Wrong By the System if you get nicked and sentenced for it.
Now… If we’d plan an unscheduled levelling of a certain terraced property in Ely, say, with a large JCB, and, for the sake of argument, rent one of those beasties and park it in front of his driveway….
Guess what his reaction would be….
‘Sound argument for machine gunning.’
I incline to just driving over them, BiS.
we’d righteously expect significant sentences even if the act never took place.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Yeah Boganboy, but thousands of them? You’d need a road roller. One of those big ones does about 2 – 3 lanes at one pass. But they’re not very fast. They’d be getting out the way. So it’s back to machine gunning. Unless you could chase them onto quick setting concrete…
(Lightbulb in thought bubble goes on) Hand out tubes of superglue. Let ’em do it themselves. ( I was a bit slow there)
“The point of public protest is that you are willing to *risk* your freedom to propagate a message”
The message that protesters intend to send is not necessarily the one that they actually transmit. Every detail of how a protest is carried out, how the protesters behave, how they talk, dress, etc., has some bearing on how other people will perceive it. Sometimes, the chosen tactics will completely obscure the intended message.
In the case of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, they talk and behave like hysterical doomsday cultists with a poke (posh woke) sense of entitlement. Whatever their intentions, the message they actually transmit is that people who believe in catastrophic global warming are crazy jerks.
Therefore, anybody who believes that global warming is a dire threat to humanity should want people like that to be locked up for as long as possible, to stop them doing any more harm to their cause. It should be the greens calling for machine guns and steamrollers, and the anti-greens wanting JSO and XR to carry on alienating the public even more.