![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1477-550x370.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nI posted this on Twitter yesterday:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Protestors seeking to draw attention to the desperate plight of our planet have been sent to prison for four to five years. And they were only planning a protest. They did not even cause disruption.<\/p>\n
No one has been imprisoned for causing the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n
No one is being imprisoned for polluting our rivers.<\/p>\n
No one, so far, faces jail for the Post Office scandal.<\/p>\n
And no one is being threatened with prosecution for permitting 230,000 deaths from Covid as a result of failed preparation.<\/p>\n
Nor is anyone being threatened with prosecution for the mass pollution of our planet.<\/p>\n
But for peaceful protest you can be described as a fanatic by a judge and be jailed for five years.<\/p>\n
Is this the end of freedom of speech?<\/p>\n
Is it just fascism in action?<\/p>\n
Is it a sign of the madness of the end times of neoliberalism?<\/p>\n
Or is it the state, captured by neoliberal interests, putting the right to make profit above human and democratic rights?<\/p>\n
Maybe it is all those things.<\/p>\n
And will Labour do anything about this? I very much doubt it. These judgements fit very nearly with their authoritarian views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"