Many of us have been yearning for the self-indulgent, unaccountable green activists who inflict mayhem on our society to be given the punishment they deserve.
Ordinary people have grown increasingly incensed by these arrogant eco warriors, who believe that their obsession with the so-called ‘climate emergency’ gives them the right to vandalise public property, paralyse the transport network and cause endless disruption without facing the consequences.
That’s why, like millions of others, I applauded the robust stance taken by Judge Christopher Hehir at Southwark Crown Court last Friday, when he threw the book at five zealots from the extremist pressure group Just Stop Oil who had mounted a major protest over four days on the M25.
One of the famous names signed on to an ‘open letter’ bemoaning the ‘injustice’ of the sentences is former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams
The gang’s pony-tailed ringleader, former organic farmer Roger Hallam, got five years, while some of his fellow zealots — blessed with genteel names such as Cressida Gethin and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu — received four years each.
Cressida’s mother was naturally upset about her daughter’s sentence and in an address to supporters outside the court lamented that ‘this means she will not be present at her brother’s wedding next summer’.
Forgive me if I sound hard of heart, I wish the sentences imposed on Cressida and the rest had been even longer. The liberal Establishment has, of course, been roused to fury, a fit of the vapours that culminated in a ludicrously pompous ‘open letter’ to no less a personage than the Attorney General, demanding an ‘urgent meeting’ to address the ‘injustice’ of the jail terms.
Brimming with peevish outrage, the signatories decry ‘one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history’ and bemoan ‘the jailing of truth tellers . . . on trial for holding a zoom call [sic]’.
Together they wail: ‘How can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity?’
Some 1,100 prominent people, including movie actors, rock stars, academics, lawyers, peers, artistes and assorted campaigners, have added their names to this bizarre document.
(It is also signed by a long list of, well, nobodies, including at least one yoga teacher, a ‘poet’, a ‘philosopher’, an ‘imagination activist’, a ‘futurenaut’ and even a ‘Student at Oxford University’.)
It is perhaps no surprise to see Rowan Williams’ name there, too: the former Archbishop of Canterbury has long had a fondness for Left-wing views. I find it outrageous that he should use the moral authority bestowed on him by his position as a former Archbishop to push political positions.
Similarly, you might not be surprised to see represented Jeremy Corbyn, the Old Etonian TV cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the fox-killing trans activist Jolyon Maugham — or, indeed, the Oscar-winning film director Adam McKay, who has handed £3million to a fund that bankrolls Just Stop Oil, but is nevertheless happy to flit 5,000 miles between his £6 million Los Angeles home and his eight-bedroom ‘12-acre getaway in the Irish countryside’.
Perhaps, like other Hollywood-types, he is buying carbon credits to offset his emissions and to avoid suggestions of hypocrisy.
Presenter and naturalist Chris Packham has long been outspoken about the need to go green, and has labelled the jail terms a ‘grotesque miscarriage of justice’
Other names, however, might raise an eyebrow.
The actor and comedian Steve Coogan, who wants to ‘raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced’, was once a well-known petrolhead who proudly owned a succession of luxury gas-guzzlers, including a 1969 Aston Martin DBS V8, which he auctioned off a few years ago for more than £150,000.
Another signatory is Eddie Dempsey, ‘Senior Assistant General Secretary’ at the ultra-Left RMT transport union — no longer affiliated with Labour because it’s too extreme for that well-known centrist and former ‘friend’ of Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer.
Dempsey may fancy himself as some kind of climate warrior, but he seems more of a fan of the real thing. In 2015, he apparently thought nothing of the impact on his carbon footprint when he travelled all the way to the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, then as now held by Vladimir Putin’s occupying force of murderers and rapists.
Dempsey was happy to pose for chummy photos with the paramilitary leader Aleksey Mozgovoy (‘charismatic,’ said Dempsey), boss of the pro-Russian ‘Ghost Brigade’ militia that is branded a terrorist organisation by Ukraine’s supreme court. (Dempsey has since said he ‘does not support either Vladimir Putin or his actions in Ukraine’.)
Some of the names speaking out for the convicted criminals they seek to christen the ‘Whole Truth Five’ sound like the guest list for a painful new panel show on Radio 4. There’s the comedienne Sandi Toksvig, the artist Tracey Emin and the writer Ben Okri.
Frank Furedi says that he, like millions of others, applauded the robust stance taken by Judge Christopher Hehir when he threw the book at five zealots from Just Stop Oil who had mounted a major protest over four days on the M25
The idea that we need more awareness about climate change, from these people or anyone else, is absurd. Environmental concern is the dominant creed of our times, drummed into us by every civic institution, broadcast media outlet, government department and political party.
The BBC has essentially become the propaganda arm of the environmental movement, just as corporate Britain loves to parade its green credentials. The luvvie alliance behind this letter may see themselves as a brave band of heroic revolutionaries battling the forces of reaction. But their self-regard is spectacular. Who do these armchair activists think they are to presume to judge our judicial system and demand special treatment for their favoured political causes?
The wisdom of their judgment is in inverse proportion to the strength of their opinions. Marinated in the sheep-dip of the Left-wing consensus, many of them have a track record of getting everything wrong: from Brexit to immigration, crime, welfare reform and tax.
Just because they are in the public eye does not mean that their views should be heeded. The BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham has separately described the jail sentences as a ‘grotesque miscarriage of justice’.
But what is truly grotesque is Packham’s implicit meaning when he says so. He and his ideological bedfellows seem to suggest green protesters should be above the law. Is their cause so virtuous that they should not face any consequences for their actions?
If we accept this dangerous notion, then the State will be powerless to prevent serious criminal acts like paralysing the M25, which may be perpetrated without any risk of imprisonment for the offenders. That is recipe for one thing: anarchy.
Through this abominable letter, the luvvies show one thing above all: that they have no understanding of ordinary people’s lives. For them, environmentalism is the ultimate luxury belief. It flaunts their political virtue but has little impact on their own lives.
In their academic ivory towers, their London chambers or their plush studios and films sets, they are not the ones who have to suffer the inconveniences inflicted on the little people.
Judge Hehir had it right. We need more from the likes of him — and less from the likes of Rowan Williams and his tiresome flock.
Frank Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent.