I have so many threads to unravel and weave into a coherent tapestry that it’s not easy to know where to start. I’ve posted about most of them many times and I have too many references to mention in this blog. So I’ll delve right in and set a background.

I’ll start with our dysfunctional prison system for context. Apart from many other problems, prisons are so overcrowded that prisoners are being released before serving their minimum sentence – often with nowhere to go and therefore at risk of reoffending. Five Just Stop Oil have been sentenced to 4-5 year sentences and more have been arrested on charges of “conspiracy to cause significant disruption.” The number of Just Stop Oil activists now imprisoned has now reached 26.

Please note they were only charged with intending to cause disruption which, even if it had happened, would have been minor compared to what has actually taken place in many of our cities. The government’s response is to release more prisoners to make room for rioters who haven’t yet been convicted. One judge inadvertently supported JSO by admitting that they were aware of their cause but forbade them from presenting that as defence.

I would have liked to have attended the proposed protest camp at Drax Power Station for one day, I live locally but far enough away that I would need assistance which wasn’t forthcoming from the organisers who aren’t familiar with the district. Plans had to be changed at the last minute, which reduces the possibility of my participation from difficult to impossible!

Early this morning over 20 of our crew were preemptively arrested in a mass operation.

We are currently working on alternative plans for the weekend and will update you further as soon as we can.

Due to essential items including tents, toilets and track for wheelchairs being seized the 6-day camp can no longer go ahead.

I live closer to Drax than either York or or Leeds but far enough away that transport is a problem and lack of wheelchair access makes it impossible!

These were pre-emptive arrests, like those of Just Stop Oil protesters. They weren’t arrested for committing a crime but on suspicion that they might do so! Yet, if convicted, they’re likely to get longer sentences than those actually committing mayhem! Some people on Twitter are arguing that it’s common practice for defendants to be remanded in custody if there’s a likelihood of them absconding or re-offending, that’s true but they’ve been arrested before they could commit an offence!

Bear in mind that Just Stop Oil are prepared to go to prison for their beliefs, but their sentences are disproportionate. As a young man in my twenties I spent a month in prison on remand in Australia for the crime of altering a cheque, to which my sentence was a slap on the wrist and told to be a good boy in future which I have been. Having a criminal record didn’t stop me getting a job civil service job, but failure to declare it and being found out would have done! My brief experience half a century ago gives me an insight into what the activists can expect even if they’re not convicted!

Keir Starmer has proposed further use of facial recognition despite the evidence that that it’s 85% inaccurate, and recruiting a specialist police unit to counter the threat. Does anyone else have a sense of deja vu? We haven’t forgotten the case of Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, who was convicted of rape and murder, and we have more recent evidence of a police officer stamping on the head of a suspect lying on the ground after being tazered – which kind of blurs the distinction between goodies and baddies.

Those most responsible for instigating the violence from afar may avoid retribution. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, is sunning himself in a 5-star hotel while his minions are setting fire to migrant hotels with their inhabitants inside. He may not be there for long, Cypriot police are awaiting a request from the UK government for his extradition and he’ll be facing more serious charges than skipping bail! Just a reminder that the only offence that Julian Assange committed in the UK was skipping bail on a charge that was dropped!

Laurence Fox was last seen aboard a flight to Ireland while Nigel Farage is joining calls for the recall of parliament, no doubt so he can claim parliamentary privilege for his vile rhetoric. I haven’t heard anything from Suella Braverman recently, although her inflammatory language has done most to spark this conflagration.

Braverman epitomises the perversion of our language that I’ve remarked about previously – describing anti-genocide demonstrations as “hate marches” encourages the conflation of peaceful protests with violent riots! I continue to see complaints about Jews being afraid to go into central London when a protest is taking place, but if they do it’s because they believe the propaganda. They’re afraid because they’ve been told they should be afraid, if they listened to Jews who participate in the marches they would know there’s nothing to fear. There can be no comparison with Muslims being assaulted in their homes and mosques.

Elon Musk has jumped in, sparking demands for Twitter/X to be banned in the UK by people who don’t see the irony of using the platform to make their demands – this includes a human rights lawyer! They’re not demanding that the Daily Mail, GBNews or other right-wing ‘news’ outlets are banned, they focus on the one platform that gives us a voice! It works both ways – close down Twitter/X and fascists will find away to mobilise, but anti-fascists will find it more difficult to mobilise in greater numbers and we would be prevented from sharing material that isn’t even remotely political! Some people with more sense have taken the view that Musk shouldn’t be taken seriously, he’s being childishly provocative and Starmer has risen to the bait. Right now #BlockMusk is trending.

What is becoming evident is that we don’t need to resort to violence to oppose fascism – We are many, they are few! That’s the response we’re seeing now, communities coming together in solidarity against aggression. Muslim leaders are exhorting their congregations not to meet violence with violence, but there’s no need! Wherever fascists turn up they’re met with a multitude of peaceful citizens saying No Pasaran!

Far right activists, journalists and politicians – let’s call them “patriots” – talk a lot about British values but I doubt if those values, assuming they have any, are the same as yours or mine. “Far right journalist” is an oxymoron and as a famous Irish playwright once said “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” (I’ld have to take a Wilde guess who said it as I’m not Shaw).