A good day for peaceful protest

This is why jury trial should be protected at all costs

I remember well the outcry in summer 2024 when Just Stop Oil activists threw orange powder over Stonehenge to demand the end of the burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. How dare they? They’ve damaged the lichen!

They had not damaged anything. The action had been carefully planned not to cause damage. They are environmentalists after all. The orange powder they threw at the ancient monolith was made of cornstarch and food dye and it was cleaned off the same day. The monument remained open to the public. Those stones have been there for 5000 years and have weathered far more than a bit of cornstarch.

IMAGE: Just Stop Oil

The headline in the Daily Mail at the time was “Stonehenge expert fears rare lichen in rock could be irreparably damaged after Just Stop Oil paint attack as JK Rowling leads social media mockery of eco zealots.”

Social media went mad citing the danger to lichens. I suspect many of their detractors barely knew what lichen was, let alone had ever cared about it before they jumped on the toxic rhetoric spouted by The Daily Mail. Chemicals were not needed to remove the cornstarch, as a Reuters fact check article confirms and shows one such social media post where its author had signed it off with the words “enjoy prison, tossers”. Cornstarch is an organic compound often used in the food we eat, tosser.

For the last two weeks three Just Stop Oil campaigners have been on trial in Salisbury for that action. Rather symbolically it was around the corner from the home of the Magna Carta which was the first step towards establishing the rule of law in our country. Today, the jury gave a unanimous not guilty verdict.

During the trial the defendents were allowed to talk about the climate crisis and why they took action. If this sounds obvious to you that they should have been allowed to do that, then I am sorry to burst your bubble and I recommend you watch my film The Line We Crossed. I was compelled to start making that documentary when I heard that climate campaigners who had taken direct action were being told they could not talk about the climate crisis in court. The defence was able to cite the Penn-Mead trial in 1670, the outcome of which led to the right that still exists today for juries to acquit on their conscience. They were able to place the case in the context of current news headlines that include the worst ever hurricane to hit Jamaica, massacres in Sudan and the latest reports coming out of the number of deaths from rising heat.

So often in law courts we are buffeted with impenetrable legalese and technicalities but sometimes it needs poetry to cut through.

I heard it reported that the first two stanzas of The Goose and The Common Poem were read.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own,
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

So often I am reporting on the plight of climate campaigners who have been given harsh prison sentences, placed on remand, given draconian bail conditions or are being silenced by a litany of anti-protest laws that continue to be rolled out. Today I am happy to report good news. Today, we saw the power of the jury. Today we saw how important it is to be able to be judged by your peers. (Jury trials continue to be under threat.) Today we saw the actions of protesters judged in the wider picture of what is happening in the world. Today we saw a win over the toxic press and social media coverage that opted to revel in demonising climate campaigners rather than questioning why they had had to take this direct protest action in the first place.