Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer gave her speech ahead of the first of two days’ legal arguments at the Royal Courts of Justice. The hearing, on behalf of 16 climate protesters, challenges the harsh sentences handed down to people involved with Just Stop Oil’s demands for urgent government action on climate change.
MP Carla Denyer joined Jenny Jones, a peer in the House of Lords, to greet a group of walkers taking part in the 16×16 support campaign for the appellants in the High Court hearing. The 16×16 initiative asked people to symbolically support the 16 political prisoners, for instance writing 16 poems or baking 16 cakes and so on. The overnight walk from Staines, via HMP Bronzefield where some of the prisoners are held, was nominally 16 miles, but by the time they got to the High Court it would end up being several more.
Arriving in Parliament Square with a large ‘16×16’ banner, they were given a warm welcome by a small group of waiting supporters which included the Green MP and peer. Both women spoke about the way that Lord Walney’s ‘independent’ report had helped frame the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which ramped up repression on protesters with new restrictions and harsher sentences. It has emerged that “Lord Walney” (who is the disgraced MP John Woodcock forced to resign in 2018 over sexual misconduct allegations) has financial connections with arms and fossil fuel companies. His report suggests that the activists who campaign peacefully against those very same industries should be treated in the same way as organised crime or even terrorist organisations.
The 16 political prisoners who are the subjects of the sentencing appeal have become known as the #LordWalney16, and over the two days last week, more than a thousand people protested outside the court. Watch out for more Real Media coverage soon.