GPLB: "Rishi Sunak is speaking outside No 10. He says there’s a growing threat to British democracy ... saying this is under threat from people looking to capitalise on Hamas’ attacks on Israel, and the resulting assault on Gaza, to undermine British values."
Next week's protest in London is going to be interesting.
"At the heart of this vicious persecution is the nationwide guiltwashing – or the cover-up of authoritarian state policies through the pretense of addressing Germany’s historical guilt for the Holocaust.
The message of the guiltwashers is clear: Germany alone is exceptional in its stance against anti-Semitism. Germany alone is fit to judge anti-Semitism."
BREAKING: UN report says UK's persecution of environmental defenders is unlawful, breaching the legally binding obligation under Article 3(8) of the Aarhus Convention.
Can I suggest the police "use their full powers" against this mob of extremists?
You shouldn't have much trouble tracking down the brown guy in the middle there, guys - he's the Prime Minister.
Some road-blocking protests are more legal than others.
The President of Israel had a word with Keir Starmer.
Starmer leant on Lindsay Hoyle.
Together they subverted democracy.
They're covering themselves with a lie.
They're using it to incite Islamophobia.
They're using it to de-legitimise social movements.
They're using it to remove the right to protest.
They're using it to restrict your access to democracy.
The media and the Tories are actively helping them.
Never forget. #UKPolitics#FreePalestine#RightToProtest#ProtectDemocracy#RiseUp
This is what constitutes his office being "stormed" for Paul Sweeney, Labour MSP. A lady and a gentleman with placards.
Police Scotland later dismissed his fictitious claims.
On such slim threads are our police resources being wasted and our democracy being undermined, by our own politicians.
"The Speaker, however, did not explain exactly who it was that threatened the safety of Labour MPs - but nobody at Westminster was in any doubt who he was referring to: Muslims.
...
No evidence has been provided. No evidence from the Speaker, who set the media storm in motion. Nothing from Starmer, who briefed him"
"Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders have opposed #pipeline construction through their traditional territory since before the #CoastalGasLink pipeline project was first proposed. In December 2018, the B.C. Supreme Court issued an interim injunction to the company, which prohibited anyone from blocking pipeline access roads or work sites. A year later, on Dec. 31, 2019, the court granted a permanent injunction for the duration of the project.
[...]
"Last month, Tammen determined there was sufficient evidence to convict three #Indigenous#LandDefenders — Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jocko. They were arrested the day after Dennis and later charged with criminal #contempt. Hearings have begun into an application by the defence to stay the charges based on police conduct during the arrests.
"#ChiefDstahyl’s arrest took place in October 2021, after a series of interactions with Coastal GasLink workers and security contractors on the Shea Forest Service Road on Likhts’amisyu Clan territory.
"During those interactions, Dsta’hyl and others blocked access to a work camp and 'seized and rendered inoperable' multiple pieces of machinery belonging to Coastal GasLink contractors by cutting electrical wires and removing batteries, according to evidence presented during the trial.
"When Dsta’hyl was arrested, he had four batteries from heavy machinery in the back of his pickup truck, the judge said.
"'There is little dispute concerning the basic facts,' Tammen said, noting that video evidence documenting the incidents was presented during the trial.
"'Chief Dsta’hyl, acting as an enforcement officer for the Likhts’amisyu Clan, participated in the decommissioning of a piece of heavy equipment owned by a CGL subcontractor on Oct. 17, 2021. That action consisted of removing the battery from the equipment, an excavator, thus rendering it inoperable.'
"Witnesses for the defence included other #Likhtsamisyu Chiefs, who described the Wet’suwet’en traditional clan system and its role in governing the traditional territory. Among the Chiefs’ duties is preservation and protection of the traditional territory, or #yintah, Tammen said.
"Tammen also summarized the Wet’suwet’en law of trespass, something described in detail by defence witnesses, saying permission is required to access territory belonging to a house group 'beyond just passing through it.'
[...]
"Criminal contempt penalties can include fines or imprisonment. Sentencing has been set for 9 a.m. on March 6."
#JustStopOil supporter and gantry climber, Cressie Gethin, has been found guilty. Cressie took action in July 2022, demanding the UK government immediately halts all licensing and consents for new fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
The trial began on the 5th February at Isleworth Crown Court, with Judge Duncan presiding. The jury has found Cressie guilty by a majority of ten to two. Cressie, 22, a music student from Hereford, will be sentenced on the 3rd of May with two others. They face a possible ten year custodial sentence. [2]
During the trial Cressie was prevented from talking about her reasons for taking action and was denied any legal defence by the judge. The court heard a witness testimony from acclaimed naturalist and television presenter, Chris Packham, who commented that those taking action like Cressie “should be commended for sounding a vital alarm”. He added: “I am attending court to support Cressie Gethin because I don’t think she is getting a fair trial. I think, along with the UN, that the UK’s protest laws and sentencing of protesters are unjust, draconian, and in conflict with our basic human rights.”
Cressie climbed a motorway gantry above the M25 on the 20th July 2022, two days after the governments’ net zero strategy was declared unlawful, and one day after the UK recorded its highest ever temperature of 40.3 degrees celsius, a milestone that scientists previously thought was impossible. 61,000 excess deaths were recorded across Europe as a result of the extreme heat that summer, whilst the UK government continued to licence new oil and gas. [5]
Speaking before the action in 2022, Cressie said:
“I am terrified by the extreme heat in the UK this week, knowing that this will only get worse as we continue to extract and burn more and more fossil fuels. This country has the technology and money to begin a just and rapid transition to renewable energy immediately, but our government refuses to do so. I feel it is my duty as a human being to demand change in a way that cannot be ignored.
Thousands of people will die this week as a result of the extreme temperatures we are experiencing in the UK. We are in this situation because of increasing global temperatures caused by the emissions from burning fossil fuels. Against this backdrop, the UK government plans to open new oil and gas fields. I am dumbfounded by their negligence.
I am thinking of the countless people across the country and abroad who are now experiencing illness and death as a result of the climate crisis. People are angry that our government is continuing down the path of destruction, and we will not simply stand by and let this happen.”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson commented:
“It would be extremely convenient for everyone if the climate crisis could be removed from our lives by the ruling of a Judge. If we could imprison the wildfires, if we could arrest famines, or if we could legislate against the rising sea waters that will leave parts of Britain submerged, that would be a fantastic outcome – but the reality is that we can’t and rapid decarbonisation is the only way of preventing these horrifying outcomes.
However, the judiciary – like the police – is proving to be an effective arm of the oil and gas industry, by silencing and imprisoning members of the public taking nonviolent action against climate collapse. Future generations will be disgusted by rulings such as this.”
As the world passes tipping points that threaten the breakdown of ordered civilization, world leaders, captured by the interests of oil lobbyists and big business, are failing to protect our communities. British citizens are sick of being led by liars and crooks. Until we stop Tory oil, supporters of Just Stop Oil will continue taking proportionate action to demand necessary change. Sign up for action at juststopoil.org.
UK Home Office wants to criminalize people looking after their health (by masking up 😷) and personally identifying information (by masking up :blackblob:)
"Greta Thunberg and four co-defendants have been found not guilty of breaking the law when they refused to follow police instructions to move on during a #ClimateProtest.
"District Judge John Law threw out a public order charge due to 'no evidence' of any offence being committed adding police attempted to impose 'unlawful' conditions.
"The 21-year-old was arrested at a #ClimateCrisis demonstration near the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair on 17 October.
"The judge said that the conditions imposed on protesters were 'so unclear that it is unlawful'.
"He added that it meant that 'anyone failing to comply were actually committing no offence'."
WEEK 14: Bristol. Seven activists who protested against Elbit's continued involvement in arming Israel are on trial for the next four weeks.
Picture from outside the Crown Court this morning. #UKPolitics#RightToProtest#StopArmingIsrael#NoBusinessAsUsual
On Tuesday this week, the Australian Financial Review went large with the story headlined, “How a big new solar farm became a stranded asset”. That evening, energy analyst Tim Buckley debunked the story on social media. This was not a stranded asset at all, Buckley pointed out. “Zero stranding … [financially] a brilliant success”.
What is not over, and the point of this republication, is the ‘culture war’ between new and old energy which is played out daily in the press and is frankly misleading for most Australians, and for many politicians whose votes they crave. People tend to believe what they see in the media.
For that reason, there is a generation of older Australians who read and watch the fossil media who are outraged about the demise of coal – this newfangled “not base-load power” solar boondoggle. “When the wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine” blah blah. They are simply, relentlessly, misled by the financial press which is pro-fossil fuels. There is money in it for them.
This is also why you will see Tim Buckley, principal of Clean Energy Finance, and the leading coal and RE analyst in the country published in this journal from time to time, but so rarely ever in the AFR or The Australian. They won’t run him; he doesn’t suit the fossil agenda.
CANNON BALL, North Dakota -- "One of the Standing Rock medics described how police targeted medics, and violently arrested medics, while they were treating people during the violent police attack on Standing Rock water protectors on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 at Treaty Camp, directly on the path of Dakota Access Pipeline.
"The medic could see silencers on police weapons.
"'If they are here for peace, then why do their weapons have silencers on them?'
"As the medics struggled to treat those who were victims of the police attack, they became victims and were violently arrested.
"'The vehicle we were in had red crosses on it. They knew we were medics.They sprayed me head to toe. They pointed shotguns at my back while I was treating patients."