Update received on 11th May 2022
Yesterday in B’ham crown court I was represented, which you get legal aid for. There is no opportunity to give a statement even if you self-represent, so I emailed the judge beforehand, not expecting it to be read, but it was! This is what I wrote:
Honourable Madam,
I am due to appear before you on Tuesday the 10th, which I will do, however, this court will be convened purely to protect the property of oil companies, as such it is wholly contemptible, and I agree with my friends who are being held in contempt of court.
These injunctions that are being granted willy nilly up and down the country, simply remove the rights of ordinary people, and protect the fossil fuel industry.
We no longer have the protection of GDPR regulations, and in some areas names and addresses of protestors have been attached to bus stops and lamp posts, in others, they are posted to hundreds of people with a nasty note on the front saying what is inside, I’m not the only person with a communal post box.
We lose the right to put our reasons for acting as we have before the court, which is of no interest to people who are simply protecting oil company assets, we are effectively gagged. We also lose the right to be released from police custody within 24 hours of arrest.
It is because I have no right to address the court that I am writing to you today.
According to all the top climate scientists, we have must reduce the use of fossil fuels, and only have a brief window of opportunity to do so, this year, which is already nearly half gone, and possibly next year, after which it will be too late to save our liveable climate. This is not an opinion, or point of view, it’s real and we are running out of time. The bottom line is, in a dozen years, maybe less, when the harvest has failed, and we a facing the real possibility of famine, will you be able to look your children in the eye and say you did everything you could to prevent this happening. How will you explain that it was your job to protect the fossil fuel companies, and you did so in full knowledge of the facts? Do you think “it was my job” will be acceptable?
Please, we need you to care, you have so much more power than I do. I will go on putting my life and liberty on the line to try to get the government to do the right thing and stop NEW fossil fuel extraction. It is the only option I have.
Thank you.
I was fined, but no costs.
