HMG sends message to JSO (and others) by… keeping a 78 yr old in jail. #2cotAED

This year I am going to write something short, mostly daily, about what is going on – “2 cents on the Arrived Ecological Debacle” (2cotAED). I have to write it; you don’t have to read it. If you DO read it, feel free to tell me how wrong I am (and hopefully why). Re: the debacle aspect: in 2004 the English writer Sara Maitland  wrote about the “pending ecological debacle.” The expression stuck with me; it’s a debacle because it was foreseen, warned about and was avoidable. Well, it’s no longer really “pending” is it?

The performative cruelty of keeping a 78 year old woman in jail because your contractor (rather than she) cocked up, is unsurprising but still breath-taking.

The backstory (from this Guardian story)

Gaie Delap, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November under the home detention curfew (HDC) scheme.

She was recalled to prison just before Christmas. Because of a history of deep-vein thrombosis, she could not have a tag attached to her ankle and no wrist tag that fitted her could be found.

You can find more details below, from the latest Private Eye, subscribe here(1).

Well, now it turns out that

On Friday she learned that the time she must spend in prison had been extended. Her supporters said she was shocked to receive a letter delivered to her cell saying that her time behind bars had been extended by 20 days as it corresponded to the period of time after she was notified of her recall to prison.

So, let’s step back and not call it mere intransigence or standard story of a bureaucracy moving slowly/unwilling to admit mistakes because doing so could set a precedent or “open the floodgates” blah blah.

I suspect Labour’s “justice” Secretary is perfectly happy keeping a 78 year old woman in jail (or maybe she has qualms, but you suppress them, don’t you?)

Let’s remember, Labour (and frankly the other ‘major’ parties have a hatred, fear, jealousy, contempt for the kind of ‘extra-Parliamentary’ activity that JSO and so on do. All politics is supposed to be done by MPs. Actually, by Ministers.

More specifically, Starmer spent time specifically slagging off JSO when he was LOTO, “grow up, outrageous, pathetic” etc.

So, in my opinion, all this is about the following messages

a) to JSO etc – “if we are willing to do this to a 78 year old white woman, who is normally a ‘perfect victim’, imagine what we are willing to do to someone younger, or male, or – gasp – a person of colour. Think about that.”

b) to the tabloids – “sorry chums, you don’t get to run a ‘Labour in pocket of the green lobby’ story about this. I’m sure you’ll make up some other factoids though. How about attacking Red Ed again, it’s been 24 hours since you had a good smear job on him.”

c) to Policy Exchange and the corporations Policy Exchange shills for – “yeah, we understand our role and are able to do it- protect our (well, your) infrastructure at all costs, reputational and otherwise. Btw, are there any other regulations you’d like us to torch? You want some more subsidies?”

d) to the Conservatives/Reform MPs/voters – “go on, try to make THIS into a cause celebre.”

e) to the corporations bidding for contracts – “don’t worry, there is NO cock-up so egregious that you won’t be back bidding (and winning) soon. Just remember us when the voters boot us out and we’re looking for cushy non-executive directorships, ‘kay?“

So, a brave woman (and others) are in jail. Labour talks about expanding airports. And the emissions climb. That 2004 vasectomy, pre-spawning, remains one of my smarter decisions.

Here’s the Private Eye piece.

Footnotes

(1) Was saying to The Wife yesterday that now I have again weaned myself off listening to BBC news bulletins, some of the satire in the pages after the letters flies over my head, and so my enjoyment rests “merely” on the superlative investigative reporting and the court gossip.

Tomorrow – on the difference between repertoires, tactics and strategies, and how you can tell that most “social” “movement” “organisations” are basically spasms of headless chickens.