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‘Insulting Britain‘ and
climate appeasement - notes from September 2021 Not one but three
days of organised mayhem on the M25, with knock-on effects being felt for
miles. A freelancing contact reports suffering hours of delays and loss of
earnings. We can be appalled at the reports on how long it took
to clear the junctions blocked by protesters – four hours in one case. Some
were just let go, even though they vowed to be back to cause more disruption,
with some then gluing themselves to the road. Little is known about the protest organisers, Insulate Britain (IB); although
they sound like a trade body, they are an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion (XR), whose supporters caused damage
to buildings, and blocked
roads
and rail
in London in 2019
XR and IB’s protests would seem to constitute a breach
of the Terrorism Acts
2000 & 2006 – as they are aimed at influencing
the government (also potentially to intimidate a section of the public), and create
a serious risk to public safety or
health. The assets of a ‘terror’ group could be seized. As the action was
carefully planned, some felt that
the organisers should have been prosecuted for criminal conspiracy You might ask your MP, if Lab, why they are not holding
the current government to account over legal obligations passed by a Labour
government? Or, if Con, why the
government is not delivering ‘law and order’?
The obstructions already breach
the Highways Act 1980 and Road Traffic Act 1988. Hertfordshire Police amazingly defended
the decision not to charge the eco-protesters claiming they still needed time
to 'gather evidence and build a case' despite arresting dozens of them in the
middle of the M25. On 25 Aug, Malthouse actually tweeted
a nice request for XR “to go back to their homes” and “let cops fight crime”. He just doesn’t
get it – eco-agitators are there to commit
crime until what they see as a weak government gives in. Pious bleating
from politicians is not enough. If not nipped in the bud, the protests will
only get worse as November’s COP26 ‘green coven’ approaches. There is a strange sub-plot: Patel talked
up a new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill with draconian powers
on protests that are currently within the law. And, if existing
laws are good enough to cover protests that threaten damage or disorder –
they should have been used properly! The only silver lining is that the public are angry and
drivers are angry. It’s worth us all making
the effort to keep up the pressure
on politicians. So long as the climate hooligans won’t go away, neither will
the backlash – there will be opportunities
for us to harness it in the wider
interest of drivers. Footnote: After
these notes were compiled, some protesters eventually got jail sentences for
breaching injunctions. But the first set of injunctions
were mysteriously leaky, for instance only covering certain roads – to which
the climate bullies just responded by blocking other roads not covered. I was
amazed to read this: What are the loopholes? It is only in place for the M25, meaning protesters
could get around it by taking their disruptive actions to a different road. Last week the group targeted the A3 and the A10 in
Hertfordshire. Why did the Government not apply for a nationwide
injunction? The Government did not use a nationwide injunction
as this would have been seen to be disproportionate and would have risked
causing harm to the right to protest. The narrow injunction means the
Government will have to follow the eco-activists across the UK if they wish
to apply more injunctions against them. What
about the rights of the public, who pay several times over to use the roads? Around
20 days of needless disruption were noted in the national press. The
policing costs alone were estimated at £2 million – money that could have
been spent on public services that people badly need, or used to keep tax/NI
rises down. |
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ABD is not taking disruption
to our lives lying down, whether from climate bullies
or from anti-motorist public authorities. Please
help spread the word and - better still - actively support us.
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