The following is a letter I wrote to Catherine Fookes, the MP for Monmouthshire and my local MP. You can write to your MP at https://www.writetothem.com/. If possible, please try to write it yourself rather than copying and pasting a template.
Dear Catherine Fookes MP,
I am writing firstly to congratulate you upon your election to Parliament, and to thank you for your kind words about my partner Owen in your acceptance speech. Owen and I are also very thankful for how encouraging you were to him during the campaign, and we're very much looking forward to working with you on various local issues over the course of the next Parliament.
Everywhere I've lived since my late teens, I have been a regular correspondent of my local MP, so I expect we'll be interacting a fair bit over the next few years. And to start with, I really wanted to write to you about the really awful miscarriage of justice that happened last week to a group of five environmental campaigners who have become known as the Whole Truth Five. Five people were sentenced to a total of 21 years between them (four people received four years, one person received five) for participating in a Zoom call recruiting activists to take direct action. This call was secretly recorded by a journalist at the Sun, who leaked it to the police and the individuals in question were convicted of 'conspiracy to commit public nuisance' under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. During their trial, the judge forbade them from telling the jury their reasoning for undertaking the actions they did, in spite of the fact that this was very clearly relevant.
The Act was brought in by then Home Secretary Priti Patel, and backed up by her successor Suella Braverman. Both of these Conservative politicians have a reputation for extremely regressive and authoritarian policies, and the Act, and the following Public Order Act 2023, were intended to effectively criminalise individuals participating in peaceful protests, which have increased in scale in recent years. The protests have increased in scale for good reason - because Governments have become increasingly authoritarian and under the control of big business, and particularly when we have threats of runaway climate change, there isn't time to wait. We've seen that more indirect forms of democracy, such as petitioning, have not been sufficient to avert the climate emergency. In 2015 the Paris Agreement committed to prevent carbon emissions going 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This target almost certainly will not be met.
In the global south, it is common for climate activists to be physically attacked and even murdered. Thankfully in the Western world things aren't normally as bad as that for climate activists, but our draconian civil disruption laws make the UK one of the hardest places to be a climate activist in the developed world. Two years ago, activist Marcus Decker was jailed for climbing Dartford Crossing Bridge and unfurling a Just Stop Oil banner. He has now thankfully been released, but ever since has been fighting to avoid deportation back to his native Germany, in spite of the fact that he has a life here in the UK with his partner and stepchildren. I thought this was bad enough at the time, but it pales in comparison to the penalty the Whole Truth Five have received for the offence of discussing peaceful protest on a Zoom call (which is more than people get for many violent offences - in fact, earlier this year this very judge refused to jail someone who had been convicted of sexual assault, citing 'prison overcrowding' as a concern). I'll direct you to this statement from Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, in which he criticises the treatment of one defendant specifically, social worker Daniel Shaw, in which he argues that Daniel's treatment breaches the UK's commitments to international law and is potentially against the Aarhus Convention.
As a 30-year-old with the majority of my life most likely still to come, I am extremely frightened by the climate crisis, which has had a profoundly damaging effect on my mental health. I also know that you have children who are younger than me, and that on your campaign website 'combatting the climate and nature emergencies' is listed as one of your top priorities, so I really hope that you'll share my feelings and be keen to deal with both the climate crisis itself and the absolutely horrific way that the criminal justice system deals with brave activists who are keen to shine a light on these matters and create a sustainable society in which we can survive and thrive. One of the reasons I felt unable to support the Labour Party at the most recent election, and why I encouraged Owen to stand, was that I didn't feel the Labour Party had been supportive enough of those who take direct action to put pressure on those in power, something that I've tried to do regularly since I was 17 and got involved in protests against the austerity policies of David Cameron's new Government. Truthfully, this is still a concern I have with the Labour Party. But I should stress that I don't feel this way about every individual Labour politician. The former Mother of the House Harriet Harman was quoted as saying of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act when it was still a Bill, 'One of our most fundamental rights is to protest. It is the essence of our democracy. To do that, we need to make ourselves heard. The government proposals to allow police to restrict 'noisy' protests are oppressive and wrong.' I also know that your Labour colleague Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South, has been extremely vocal about the cruel and oppressive treatment the Whole Truth Five have received, and is seeking a meeting with the Attorney General. So I know that there are plenty of Labour MPs and former MPs who are showing themselves to be on the right side of history over this, and I really hope you'll be one of them.
I'd like to conclude by sharing two resources with you. One is this letter to the Attorney General Richard Hermer, which has been signed by some of your fellow MPs, as well as various climate scientists and concerned individuals. The second is my own blog, The Rebel Without A Clause, in which I expressed my feelings on this (although I wrote it, I also decided to include the full statement from Roger Hallam, as I felt it was more powerful than I was able to express myself).
Please will you stand with environmental protesters, make sure our legal system is fair and respects their rights, campaign to repeal the Acts of Parliament that have caused such damage to their lives, and make sure that combatting the climate emergency is at the top of the Government's agenda?
Best,
George
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