Bishop Hill Going down?
The highlight of the day looks as though it's going to be the sentencing of the Heathrow 13 - the gang from Plane Stupid who thought it would be amusing to shut down Heathrow airport for several hours. Expectations are that a jail sentence beckons.
The usual suspects are protesting outside the Magistrates Court and there will no doubt be lots of spurious claims that these were "peaceful protestors", as if preventing people from going about their daily business were anything other than thuggery.
Massive support for #Heathrow13 here Willesden for sentencing. A travesty and a disgrace if they are jailed. pic.twitter.com/HmamLzvV4x
— Sian Berry (@sianberry) February 24, 2016
It's about time these people were dealt with.
Bishop Hill
As always, it's good to look at the protests from a wider angle.
Bit late but im here to support the #Heathrow13 pic.twitter.com/1NyEVM2DTY
— Isabel Bottoms (@IBottoms) February 24, 2016
Bishop Hill
Six week sentences, suspended for 12 months, plus community service plus fines.
I wonder if this will put any of them off.
Reader Comments (264)
One of them is a PhD student in climate science. See if you can guess which university, and who her PhD supervisor is, then click here to check your guess.
UCL is my guess or, LSE.
Sian Berry, spends a lot of her time trying to get elected but failing miserably - whodathunked it?
May God spare the nation from supercilious idiot green campaigners who are a bane to all society and social nuisance and nothing other.
Too easy, Paul.
Is a bell bottoms trousers?
"Massive support", really. A few leftist thugs and losers creating a lot of noise outside court. Hopefully the magistrate will see that, and decide to add another few months on to their sentences.
Just clicked on the Guardian page - full width advert at the top for long haul flights to Oz!!
A deterrent sentence is required. A single robust magistrate could prevent these protests from escalating once and for all. 9 months each, so out in 4, but with detrimental implications for years to come for all of these 'hero's. Would be worth it for the greeniac squealing alone.
As always it is the empty vessels that make the most noise.
I also wonder whether UEA condones its students who support what was clearly an illegal activity?
UEA clearly has a case against such individuals for bringing the University into disrepute.
What the hell are you people smoking? This is quite possibly the most absurd thing I have ever seen on this site:
Though the commenter above wishing for people to be murdered probably deserves to be in the running. This remark basically paints every major civil rights movement as nothing more than thuggery, with thousands of noted civil rights activists being labeled as nothing more than criminals. It's almost as obscene as it is absurd.
Heaven forbid peaceful protestors interfere with people's daily business. If they do, they're thugs who should be thrown in jail, or according to at least one commenter here, hung until they die.
'This remark basically paints every major civil rights movement as nothing more than thuggery'
They bear no resemblance to Martin Luther King or any other civil rights protester and deserve jail.
Brandon. No one denies anyone the right to peaceful demonstration but these people were denying others their right to go about their business without let or hindrance.
In the UK we live in a democracy where, if these people can convince a majority, their cause will be carried.
Different attitudes apply in the EU and other benighted parts of the world, which is why the UK has a referendum pending to leave the travesty of democracy that has subsumed the continent yet again.
@Shollenberger: do I judge your contribution as meaning that any protestor who breaks the Law (in this case trespassing on an active aircraft runway) should not have to face the consequences of their action?
If so, that is (1) a recipe for Anarchy and (2) means the effect of protests which is to run the risk of being convicted for disrupting others, is rendered zero.
Anarchy generally leads to a worse Society than reasonable Law abidance, with protests having real meaning instead of being consequence-less gestures by airheads out to cause maximum disruption with no blow-back.
Brandon Shollenberger,
It is *entirely* possible to protest something without needing to disrupt it and without committing criminal acts.
Tweeter #1 Green politician campaigning.
Tweeter #2 Employee of (yet another) Green Blob company.
one of thenm - Danni Parffard - is a career climate activist (ie employed) and has previous conviction of aggravated trespass of West Burton Power station - so jail time? as she has not learnt her lesson
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-22795661
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Danni-Paffard/-1965937730
http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/speaker_detail/10572
Brandon- I don't condone what Alan said about hanging, so don't paint all contributors to this site with the same brush.
However these "Plain Stupid" (what an apt description) morons need a sharp lesson for interfering with the general public's right to go about their lawful business.
The "Green" movement has become a byword for intolerance. I see many Greens as latter-day "Brownshirts" i.e. fascists.
Utter, utter tripe, Brandon. These scumbag thugs are not in anyway comparable to the suffragettes, those who fought apartheid inside South Africa or the US civil rights movement. For starters, these people are not fighting an injustice, they simply have a different opinion than the majority. Secondly, they live in a democracy, they can get their way by persuading enough people to vote for the Greens. However, having the same vote as others is not good enough for them, they want to find ways to exert disproportionate influence by making a nuisance of themselves. They are not peaceful protesters, they are free to peacefully protest anytime they like, but, again, that is not good enough for them because people are free to ignore them. Instead they choose to take actions that force people to notice them. Why the hell should they feel free to massively inconvenience others because the majority don't give a stuff about the cause they hold dear? I sincerely hope they get jailed as should any sanctimonious, undemocratic thugs who follow in their footsteps.
Brandon, when I lived in Seattle a local student was shot dead near my house by a pizza delivery man when stopping him from going about his daily business. No charges were brought.
Don't be such a plonker.
@ Paul Matthews. Ms Gilbert as described in the UAE magazine:
"Leopard-print head, boxer, vegetable habit. WLTM skilled writers w/ GSOH. Ella is the token radical, fond of spouting defamatory remarks about people in positions of power. Now she’s got her own, she’ll likely spend the year struggling to reconcile new-found authority with her love of non-hierarchical decision-making and/or complete her masters in climate science."
Just the type of raw material that makes for excellent scientists and science.
Isabel Bottoms has a lovely blog, showing her adventures around the world. I wonder how she travelled to Egypt.
travelled - actually she regularly travels..... (via Heathrow?)
"I tend to be based between Wales & London and Egypt" - Isabel Bottoms
http://www.isabelbottoms.com/about/
@Brandon Shollenberger: Listen bucko, of course I don't want these useful Leninists do actually die, but they will kill before too long, mainly as a result if their sheer arrogance! Oh sure, they won't"mean" to have done, the plea of many a murderer I hasten to add, but they will before too long cause actual bodily harm or death, as a result of their unchecked protestations! So get a life! These people care nothing for the environment it's just an expediencey, apart from said useful indiots who blindly follow the "cause" whatever it may be, they just want to manipulate & control others around them! Pipe & smoke it spring to mind!
Did you see their picture in the Grauniad? Soft putty faces, worried smiles, nose rings and chin fuzz--as homogeneous as clones. Terribly young and completely vulnerable to the utter nonsense they have been fed. Their teachers should be in the dock with them.
The number of useful idiots seems to be on the wane. These people are thugs; I've seen them in operation first hand. Jail time is needed to deter anarchist thugs.
OK - where is / who is the "independent legal observer" who was accompanying these twerps - as is the fashion when disrupting coal mines ? I would find it interesting to know who's representing them - Leigh Day will be in there....
Custodials would send a message - but reimbursing the travelers disrupted and passenger handling fees + APD (Air Passenger Duty) is imho in truth where the emphasis should be placed - put HMRC and the machinery of debt recovery on their case....
@Ramspace - just because a burglar is naive and stupid does not make them less of a burglar - although the activism of some teachers should in truth have an appropriate reward .... restraining teachers is an absolute minefield unless it's got something to do with sex.
Brandon Shollenberger
~ Every major corporation and government on earth supports global warming action, so they are hardly radicals are they ? They're no more than useful idiots supporting the establishment..
Barry Woods
According to her website she does not fly but uses what she calls public transport. See http://www.isabelbottoms.com/uncategorized/82/
It's always the same with the Green/Left. They think their sense of moral outrage trumps any law or custom, and provides an excuse for any kind of behaviour.
That's what Peter Gleick said when he forged Heartland Institute documents, and committed identity fraud at the same time. It's what George Monbiot said after he wrongly accused Lord Macalpine of sexual abuse.
Unabashed, Monbiot appears in today's Guardian, moral outrage to the fore once more, calling these people 'freedom fighters'.
Being Green means never having to say you're sorry.
I am reliably informed that Ella Gilbert is not in fact a current PhD student at UEA, though she took their MSc course last year.
There is a vice news article that says she 'is working towards a PhD' but that may be unreliable as I can't find any other source for this, so I won't link to it.
Brandon Shollenberger Feb 24, 2016 at 10:27 AM
There is a big difference between blocking a runway and civil rights.
The former is about usurping the processes of a liberal democracy by usurping the rule of law to get their beliefs imposed on everyone else.
Civil rights later is about getting the same rights to participate in a liberal democracy for all groups, along with equality before the law.
Taking bolt cutters to a fence to gain entrance is both aggravated trespass and criminal damage - the key word being 'criminal'.
Kevin Marshall
well put - not that lefty Green agitators "get it" at all....
Isabel Bottoms retweets the support of Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP. Does this mean that he supports imposing massive random costs on law-abiding people and generally making life difficult for those who do not conform to his view of the world?
" Every major corporation and government on earth supports global warming action, so they are hardly radicals are they ? "
Interesting point.
Why don't some of the regulars here spend a healthy day out on the hill's blocking the installation of wind turbines?
The reason for the action would be the saving of needless cruel chopping of birds !
I'm sure Monbiot in the Guardian will express moral outrage and support the Bishops 'freedom fighters' in the event of criminal charges?'
So it appears that this 22 year old young woman, of clearly vast life experiences, will never go abroad again unless it can be achieved by train, coach, or car! Interesting. I wonder why on Earth Euro-Star would want to announce that it's green house gas emissions are so much (no calculations were referenced other than to say they had "calculated") lower than it one took a flight to Paris. To drum up more custom amongst the more CO2 obsessed, perhaps, or am I being too synical?
I love this from Isabel Bottoms. (Apart from her unfortunate name...)
"For a more humane and fair world free from the grip of carbon."
I can see a Josh cartoon here.
Oh dear............Hmm a "radical" speaking out? What is this? and in support of the 'enemy'? How quaint it all becomes and with never the merest whiff of (very confused? hypocrisy?
Aye big corporations..... they do the dirty and pass the costs on, stop the little guy from competing via the transport and through adherence to the rules and laws which they help draft (look up and see how the EU works lad) - of global warming man made fantasy and it helps enormously with keeping the SME's out of the way - big corporations fix the rules Brian - or naive as you no doubt are - don't you get it?
Every major
corporationaka the cartel club of robber barons - pays lip service to the great global man made swindle, all of it based on a lie and if they can see their way to making a big fat profit out of duping their customers - Glory! then so be it.Going green for the big boys makes sense for their bottom line, it makes no sense to the consumer only, it adds costs.
Perhaps Ms Bottoms should research the grip that carbon has on her, she being largely composed of the stuff...
Just to appease Brandon;
The protesters should be hung by the neck until they are very, very ill.
This is hilarious. People here are actually defending what this post says, primarily with statements like:
Here's a hint people, whether or not you like, support or agree with a cause has nothing to do with whether or not the people advancing that cause are behaving in a reasonable manner. Applying different standards based upon whether or not one agrees with a cause is pure hypocrisy, especially since there is nothing resembling an objective differentiation here (if alarmists are correct, global warming is as serious, if not more serious, than civil rights movements were).
As for the moron who said:
How could anyone possibly come up with this absurd interpretation? Peaceful protestors get arrested all the time. Thousands upon thousands of people got arrested during the United States' Civil Rights Movement. That was appropriate. They broke the law, so they got arrested. These people broke the law, so they got arrested.
The nature of peaceful protests is to cause a conflict that forces people to address an issue with the minimal amount of harm possible. Shutting down businesses through things like sit-ins is a common example. That doesn't mean it is good. Whether or not it is good is up to the public to decide, and their decision will necessarily impact whatever punishments the legal system decides to give out.
But calling people thugs simply because they disrupted other people's daily business is absurd. Doing so simply because one doesn't like what cause they were trying to advance is obscene.
Brandon
Can you even spell sense of humour?
peaceful protest does not include preventing people working or simply entering and leaving public buildings, acting otherwise will cause police intervention.
Bitter&Twisted:
Um, okay. I won't. But I didn't either. I made it perfectly clear only one person said anything like that. It might merit discussion to consider what reaction there would have been to his comment if I hadn't said anything, but I intentionally avoided focusing on his comment because I wanted to focus on the main issue - the absurdity of what this post says.
Where's Judge Jeffreys when you need him?
@Brandon Shollenberger
So criminal damage is peaceful protest ?
Disrupting passenger aircraft at a critical phase of operation (landing / takeoff) of is OK?
The reason that they were there - doing what they did - is that few were paying attention or interested in their delusions and they presumed that their cause had a moral imperative that trumped everybody else and hence justified their actions.
I'd like to see the reaction of travelers to them blocking the M25 (London Peripheral freeway) might be - if the police didn't show up.
If there was any justice they would be placed in stocks on the terminal passenger aprons and organic matter would be provided ...
Brandon
If these people were animal rights protesters, rather than corporate, carbon trading shills, they would be banged up for 10 years. Let's see what happens. I predict slaps on the Bottoms all round.
@Brandon Shollenberger , on this UK issue you don't know what you are talking about, you being in the US.
- You don't get arrested in the UK for peaceful protest.
....The police bend over bckwards not to arrest people when they protest illegally; using their discretion not to arrest on the grounds that proportionality of prosecuting is not worth the cost.
When you block the one public access road to the country's main airport it is quite a big crime
...cos among other things people couldn't get a flight to visit sick relatives etc.
You suggested BHers "were smoking something"
..The truth is these protesters were stopping the "tripping" of thousands of legitimate travelers.
When I was a teenager; the following was an example of British (well English) sick humour:
How do you stop a paraplegic from falling off a bicycle?
Answer: weld him to the cross bar.
There was never any sense in which this was a threat or an insult to disabled people and more importantly; everybody understood that without needing laws to prevent it.
"But calling people thugs simply because they disrupted other people's daily business is absurd."
So Brandon got his Troll lever thrown over 'thugs'.
Yawn.
Andrew
Does an individual have a higher or lower carbon footprint, when in prison? Centralised heating and cooking, reduced travel opportunities, restricted use of electricity etc.
Some useful and constructive research could be carried out, to pass the time. 101 ways to make vegetarian food interesting with limited resources could be available by Christmas.
One of the main purposes of any protest is to publicise the issue being protested. On that measure, a resounding success!
Thanks.