Jailing oil protestors

 I can't help thinking that jailing  a stop oil protestor for five years is excessive. This was the jail term handed out to Roger Hallam for blocking the M25 in 2022. Some of his fellow protestors were given similar sentences. 

The protestors inconvenienced thousands of people but they did not injure or kill anyone directly . The protests were non-violent. Violent offenders have been given lesser sentences. They were protesting for political reasons, and it looks as if they are right to point out the dangers of climate change. Climate change has serious implications which could result in the starvation of thousands and huge migrations of people with all the attendant problems. The protestors believe that no-one is taking  the dangers seriously, so they are obliged to take drastic action  to get every one to take notice.

 I don't believe that it was right to block the M25 motorway, as emergency vehicles could have been prevented from attending fires and serious accidents; dying people could have been stuck in ambulances. However, I don't believe it was just to jail them for so long; they could have been given suspended sentences, so that they they would be forced to contemplate that they would be jailed if they take further illegal action.

The jails are full and the authorities are having to release prisoners early, so what is the point of jailing non-violent offenders when they could be given suspended sentences?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/just-stop-oil-founder-jailed-for-record-five-years-over-m25-motorway-protest/ar-BB1qdGtO

Joe Biden dropping out

 It is my opinion that Joe Biden did the right thing by dropping out of the US presidential race. He may be perfectly healthy for a man of his age and still have acute mental faculties. His fumbling mistakes and his general physical demeanour, however, have led to a perception that he is not up to the job of being the next President of the US.  He would have lost the election because of how he is perceived. 

He is, now, right to concentrate his considerable abilities to  solving the conflict between Palestine and Israel, to ensure a lasting and just peace. If he can do this he will be recognised as  one of the greatest Presidents of the US.

He was also right to endorse Kamala Harris as the next prospective candidate. Ms Harris is very intelligent and comes across as a strong character who has an sharp sense of humour. She is also socially liberal. She is just the right person to put the misogynistic, spiteful and hateful  populists in their place. Machismo men are secretly frightened of a strong and intelligent woman, and Kamala Harris has all of the character and ability to appeal to the American public in order to win the election. She can  protect the American  people from the worst aspects of prejudice and extremism. I wish her well and hope that she wins.

Who to vote for?

 The UK is in a complete mess. The National Health Service is falling apart. Brexit has and will be a failure. The prisons are so full that the government is thinking of releasing some prisoners early. There are delays in judicial procedures. The immigration system is in complete disarray. Thousands of asylum seekers have not been processed: the boat people have not been stopped nor will they be without co-operation from our former partners: there is some doubt about the legality of the Rwanda deportation  policy. Threatening to leave the ECHR is almost as stupid as actually doing it. There is uncontrolled pollution of our rivers and seas. Now some people have been disenfranchised by the late reception of postal voting packages. The government has failed us and we need a change.

Who to vote for? Tactical voting will probably fail to remove my local Conservative MP as he has a huge majority. I cannot vote for Labour because of their policy on Europe; we need to re-join the single market and customs union. Britain voted to leave the EU not the single market, so there should be no argument about re-joining the institution, as Norway is a member of the market without being in the EU as is Switzerland, albeit by using separate treaties. When we were in the single market immigration was under control and the free market in labour was a better means of controlling the market than points based immigration systems.

I have no choice but to vote for a political party that supports re-joining the single market as a step towards re-joining the EU itself, if our friends in Europe accept this. This means that I have two choices the Greens or the Liberal Democrats. The more voices that are registered to support re-joining the EU  the better.