No more Protest

[lightinthebox]

Regardless of your views of Just Stop Oil, we should all be worried.

This has gone through easily because people hate Just Stop Oil, it’s an easy target and has fooled people.

We should not be celebrating lengthy jail sentences for planning protests, we should be scared about what this means.

Not just that, but if peaceful protests equal a jail sentence then what’s to stop people from going to violence if they know they can’t protest.

People should stop and think, ignore your prejudice and see the bigger picture.

Of course they have, thats the view of my Barrister cousin too.

A 5 year sentence is very extreme, pro democracy protestor's in Hongkong have got less.

Protest, by its very nature will be disruptive, now the authorities can charge people under terrorism offences (for peaceful protest) and the courts have the precedent to impose long jail sentences & this will act as a v strong deterrent for anyone thinking of protesting for whatever reason.

Fuck the tories and the right wing press. That is all.

My neighbour’s cat thinks the same.

Fortunately we don't need to theorise on this as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon organised a protest just last month.

Given that roads were blocked, balaclava clad men marched the streets, thousands of police had to be deployed to monitor the protest, smoke bombs were set off, drunk and disorderly behaviour was observed, an emergency worker was assaulted and women racially abused, we can expect to see Stephen going down for a significant spell very soon.....

Peaceful protest is fine. What isn't fine is disrupting the tax paying public working for a living, endangering life, while our useless police force pander to them, bringing cups of tea etc.
My favourite one was when a bunch of these morons climbed atop a tube train and the fed up to the eyeballs commuters starting pulling them all off. And even better when some protesters in Germany glued themselves to the floor in a car factory. The workforce simply switched off the lights, locked up, and went home for the night 🤣🤣
I'm another one who thinks "climate change" is nowhere near the massive catastrophe it's made out to be. I'm not saying mankind shouldn't change its ways but the globe has had weird weather patterns for millennia and will continue to do so with or without the human race.
Pass me my arse!!

Me too. But like OP, I’m disturbed by the vindictive sentences. JSO was just a nuisance. Far more serious offenders get off with less. Protests can be annoying, but essential in a democracy.

And a lemming follows blindly off the cliff.

The best way to just stop oil is go off grid or buy electric cars etc.
The oil industry has a lot to answer for. Everyone seems to be happy with their kids breathe in pollutants, roads being built through beauty spots and higher temperatures globally so as a soecies we are fucked. We also deserve our date as everyone would rather drive round in SUVs than take public transport etc.

Am i the only one wondering why you are having conversations with a cat?

There is help out there.....

Plus the prisons are overcrowded. I'd have sentenced them to community service at a wind farm, woofing and curfews etc instead.

the globe has had weird weather patterns for millennia and will continue to do so with or without the human race.

How can you know so little about a subject and be so confident in your opinion on it? It's bizarre.

It is not just them though, isn’t it? National rail, NHS, teachers: they are all pressuring their employer by targeting « ordinary people trying to go to work or hospital appointments »

One time in France, toll road employees were on strike and they were letting everybody use the road for free, now that is a good way to pressure your employer!

I'm another one who thinks "climate change" is nowhere near the massive catastrophe it's made out to be

Weird, the vast majority of scientific opinion is that mankind is destroying the climate, yet you know better.

The difficulty with this subject isn’t so much ‘denial’ as whether the solutions are actually any better than the problems.

I have no doubt the scientists are right. What I question is whether the sorts of restrictions and changes that are being urged on us by people like JSO would promote poverty, hunger and social breakdown just as much as climate change would.

My guess is that most people think incremental change is fine and are willing to adjust sensibly. Immediately stopping fossil fuel energy generation, and all the products and side-products from fossil fuels, would bring about a catastrophe.

The fact they adopted approaches that impacted most on normal people is an issue for me. Climate change is going to impact the poor the most but mitigation measures that are put in place unless we are very careful will also be most restrictive on the poorer in society. If you don’t have a car that is ULEZ compliant but can afford to buy one then life goes on as before after the zone is introduced. If you can’ afford to adapt your house then energy bills increasing have less impact on you. We need to make sure change is made in a way that doesn’t leave one sector of society colder, poorer and more restricted than the other. It’s baked to the structure of society as it is but if people see this and aren’t happy with the impact on them and can see that isn’t happening to others in the same way then there will be problems down the line.

I don’t want to see JSO (say) disrupting the single holiday a family takes with their children that year. I don’t care if they disrupt my friend’s DP’s trips to the States that he takes every other week and I know much of what he does could be discussed remotely but he likes his lifestyle.

I don’t want there to be an equivalent of an environmental life tax where the highest marginal rate is paid by those who are poorer.

Given you've started this thread, and you know people that get arrested on suspicion of protesting royal weddings, I'm assuming you're part of this bonkers activist 'scene' and I'm going to take a wild guess that they were actually planning to protest the royal wedding.

Be honest, is that the case?

They don't block ambulances. They are always let through.
Just another tabloid accusation that's stuck.
I think as a form of protest, it's flawed because it's so divisive.
On the other hand parading with placards, even if a million people do it, doesn't move the dial.
Either way the sentence is ridiculously disproportionate
A serious assault in our town that left lasting damage to the girl got a 2 month prison term.

And how do ambulances get past the gridlock to the front of the queue?

Not true. There is plenty of video evidence from reputable news sources (not just the right wing press) that shows ambulances and fire engines on blue lights being held up unnecessarily.

Given people die waiting in Ambulances outside AE dept's, i'm not sure this is the issue you want it to be.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimate 250 people die each week due to poor or not available treatments.

How many health ministers have been jailed due to poor funding/management of NHS resources???

Immediately stopping fossil fuel energy generation, and all the products and side-products from fossil fuels, would bring about a catastrophe.

No one's calling for that though. JSO's main demand is for governments to stop new licenses for the exploration, development, and production of fossil fuels by 2030 and to transition away from burning oil, gas, and coal for power/transport. They're not, AFAIK, explicitly opposed to the use of fossil fuels in non-combustion applications e.g., the production of plastics, pharmaceuticals, and other industrial uses.

It's a goal that was entirely achievable, in fact most governments acknowledged this was not only achievable but necessary when they signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. It may still be achievable but the fact they've spent a decade refusing to take action means that the needed for incremental change is fast running out.

The fact that you keep trying to push the narrative that this is is simply because they want to protest suggests you are either wilfully ignoring the facts or lack critical thinking skills

What is the argument you are making here @Alexandra2001 ? Surely most people would want to avoid any unnecessary deaths, whether caused by underfunding of the NHS or by individuals deciding to block traffic including emergency vehicles?

Point here is that as far as i know, no one has died as a result of protests, yet the "They have delayed ambulances" is trotted out repeatedly, as an excuse to give a 4/5 year sentence.

Whilst at the same time, '000s dying per year as a result of poor funding etc is batted away without a murmur.

That’s not how I read it. JSO’s website says on the first page (in big shouty letters; the bold is theirs too):

We have a new Government and they have committed to enacting Just Stop Oil’s original demand for no new oil, gas or coal projects. This is a welcome step in the right direction, but the science is abundantly clear that this is not enough to protect our families and communities from the worst effects of climate breakdown. That’s why Just Stop Oil will be acting with other groups internationally, taking action at sites of key importance to the fossil fuel economy, in order to demand our governments commit to an international, legally binding treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil gas and coal by 2030.

The end of fossil fuel energy generation in five-and-a-half years is pretty immediate. And “extraction” must mean all extraction - the statement makes no sense otherwise.

And it looks like every demand by these groups just ratchets up anyway.