"What sort of truths are they that the majority usually supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen."
― Henrik Johan Ibsen, An Enemy of the People.
I broke an injunction twice. It was for something quite similar in spirit to the decent and worthy actions of the 'Insulate Britain 9' and the 'Filton 24'. I broke it deliberately, but it was personal and in no way an act of humanitarianism or concern for others' lives. It was very personal.
On 17 November 2021, nine protesters were imprisoned for breaching an injunction against road blockade protests. On 2 February 2022, five protesters were imprisoned for the same reason, with eleven others receiving suspended sentences.
I was judged in the High Court in London. I walked out a free man. As I did so, all those who protest and act against injustice, fuel poverty, genocide, Palestinian self — determination, illegal wars, supplying weaponry and parts for the genocidal Israeli war machine should walk free. And eventually, after being on remand far beyond — double — the six-month limit for trial and going on a hunger strike because of that, they were.
That they were not allowed to leave as free men and women was a deliberate act of war. Class war. It was a calculated and cold message to every single protester in Britain who was and is contemplating non-violent direct action to protect the environment or prevent the State murder of non-combatants. This was not justice. This was vengeance by the State and a warning. The arrests and denial of bail were a warning shot across the bows of our right to protest.
This was the same State vengeance that kept Julian Assange in jail and has put our ex-Ambassador Craig Murray in jail, and has now led to the 9 protestors of Insulate Britain being sentenced to between 3 and 6 months. They are:
Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Louis McKechnie, 20, who got three months, while Dr. Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, all received four-month sentences. The 6 months given to Ben Taylor, 37, was because he has stated his intention to — once released — immediately carry out the same protestations.
The submissions made by Ben Taylor, 37, to the court were described by Dame Victoria Sharp as "inflammatory" and a "call to arms", and he was therefore given a longer sentence of six months "to deter (him) from committing further breaches".
And their crimes?
They sat on the road. It was Junction 25 of the M25. A motorway that is of significance for the transport of goods and people to and through London. It is estimated to have cost the government or the taxpayer £1,000,000. How that estimate was reached, I have no idea. Yet we know now the billions and billions that were lost in scams by friends of the then Tory government in procuring Covid19 safety apparel. Most of this was deemed substandard and unfit for purpose. Any charges? Not a single one.
But as with the estimate of the cost of damage by Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya for the four holes made in the Dakota Access Pipeline — $3,000,000 — the estimate has been completely exaggerated to emphasize the spurious cost of the allegedly criminal act. Yet as we know, the greater cost is to the Earth and us. It is literally life and death. That is a real cost. Although at least the Insulate Britain 9 were not charged under any terrorism legislation. That was to come with the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the protests that ensued for 2 years.
And the taxpayers losing a million quid? Part of the divide-and-rule narrative was regurgitated by the media after the sentencing. Of course, the taxpayers of England lose far more, both in the lack of insulation promised but not provided for by each successive government/regime change, and the increased personal costs and national costs of energy consumption and production, and in the effect on global temperature rise. The costs are in reality billions.
But this narrative also serves a more sinister purpose. Many Insulate Britain protestors were attacked by members of the public who were delayed on their journeys, both personal and business. I was reminded of the XR protestors being beaten up by frustrated travelers when they stopped a tube train from leaving the platform a few years ago. Divide and rule.
It is a stratagem of the neoliberal State to demonize and criminalize activists as Enemies of the People. A law was brought in by the Johnson regime, with Priti Patel leading the fascist charge to create a new criminalizing category of 'aggravated activist'. The neoliberal Establishment knows chaos is coming in the form of widespread public discontent with the cost of living and protests against UK involvement in wars far from home. And they had prepared the political and legal arena in their favour. Or so they believed.
Yet, with the Elbit acquittals recently, it showed that when humanitarian arguments are put before a jury — not an individual judge who represents the neoliberal State — the defendants walk free. PM Starmer has taken up the baton of criminalising protest and dissent with more draconian laws and removing trials by jury. But this authoritarian double whammy has pushed the Labour Party to now become a bona fide Enemy of the People.
Henrik Ibsen wrote some mighty plays in the late 19th century, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Master Builder, and, personally, for me, the one that resonates the most was An Enemy of the People (1882), about a very similar situation that dealt with the attempt by one man to alert the townspeople to the spa water being contaminated.
It was adapted by the greatest playwright of the 20th century, Arthur Miller, in 1950. My first experience was watching Steve McQueen in the 1978 film adaptation of the Arthur Miller version of the play. He was utterly brilliant, and I have never forgotten both his performance and the film.
Recently, on the BBC, they have been showing every play by Ibsen performed by some of the acting giants of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. These are stage productions but recorded by cameras in a TV studio. They are a treasure trove of great acting and priceless in the opportunity to follow every written word by that grumpy genius, Ibsen. It is truly remarkable just how modern the themes are in Ibsen's canon.
They were sentenced to jail for breaking the injunction taken out by the Tory government against Insulate Britain for a previous blockade. The sentencing occurred after COP 26, which is important. Had this been prior, then they would have walked free, but with — probably — a community service order and/or a suspended sentence.
Putting someone in prison is a very serious decision to make, especially if they have no previous convictions. You are giving them a criminal record and the undoubted trauma that will never leave them, of spending, I would suspect, 7 weeks inside a prison. One of those sentenced, Emma Smart, stated that at the time she intended to go on a hunger strike. The Suffragettes did the same.
Recently, we have had the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. This was a hunger strike in the United Kingdom that began on 2 November 2025, undertaken by 8 people incarcerated for alleged pro-Palestine protest action. The hunger strike was the biggest in UK prisons since the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
All 8 prisoners were being held on remand for alleged direct action at either Elbit Systems UK's Filton research hub in August 2024, or at RAF Brize Norton. The last two of the group, Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed, ended their hunger strikes on 15 January 2026; by then, Heba Muraisi's protest had lasted for 73 days.
I remember the feelings before I was to be sentenced. For most of us, going to prison is one of the most fearful things we will face. But for it to actually happen to you is for a nightmare to become your waking reality. I can only imagine what they went through. And yet they were sent to prison. A message was being sent from the State to people like you and me who are not your obvious revolutionary subject forged in war or revolution but brought up in the very easy world — the first world — of the late 20th century and of the 21st century.
It was a world of plenty. For us in the Global North. Still. We know nothing of real hardship or suffering. But many of us can and do empathize with the suffering of others. And some of us do act upon those decent and good feelings. And there is now a plethora of good and necessary reasons for acting directly with those feelings as catalysts — the climate emergency and existential threat to all life on Planet Earth, the ongoing GENOCIDE in Gaza, the illegal war on Iraq by Israel and America, the slaughter of schoolchildren in Iraq, the Epstein files and unpunished 'elites.'
The Insulate Britain 9 acted. And it affected the State. The State would rather silence the protestors and put them in jail than address the correct assertions on the failure of the government to properly insulate homes in England. The neoliberal State had declared war upon dissent, and it would use its powers to create legislation that would criminalise protest and then continue by making protest synonymous with terrorism.
Fuel poverty in England is at its highest level ever. Millions of people are affected. But the elite suffer no fuel poverty. Locking up people who are trying to help those millions in fuel poverty was and is an act of Class War.
But cronyism, corruption, and the crackdown on dissenting voices in England are still the operating principles of the Labour neoliberal regime, and the darker forces that now operate in collaboration with the pro — Israel regime of Starmer,
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose/the more things change, the more they stay the same
Locking up people who have the science on their side and the moral high ground, and those communicating to the wider public the reality and the truth, is not a good look for any Prime Minister of any democratic State. But Keir Starmer and suppliant Home Secretaries have overseen the arrest of so many dissenting, decent people under Counter — Terrorism and prescription under Terrorist legislation and smeared them as criminals. These stated supporters of Zionism have forced George Galloway, a peace-loving, popular, and highly respected leader of a British political party, into exile with his family. Where I ask you is the outrage?
And where is the Labour regime's allegiance to the country and to the people whom they serve? It is the political regime of Starmer who should be seeking exile in another country. It is members of the Labour government who should be arrested by the Counter — Terrorism police for their support of GENOCIDE in Gaza and the illegal war against Iran by allowing RAF bases to be used for arming those massive superfortresses landing in England and dropping those bombs on people in Iran.
Once upon a time, England was a home and a sanctuary for many of the greatest truth speakers to power, both proletarian and intellectual, who were being hounded by foreign despots and regimes of corrupt, intolerant aristocratic elites, where nepotistic power was defended by state violence, harassment, and the secret police. England is now exactly that, with the political class now in an enforced, coercive control. This is why I believe I am justified in calling the Starmer political regime of the UK an Enemy of the People.
Sending people protesting about the environment, or war, or the removal of democracy and 800-year-old rights to prison for non-violent direct action was setting a precedent. The Insulate Britain 9 and the heroes of the Elbit disruption damaged only the pretence of concern for the poorer citizens, the weaponry of war, and Genocide. They only subverted the lie that the neoliberal State is on the side of the people and shone a light on the evil machinations between Israel and the British government. They were being made a scapegoat by the State because of the truth they represent. The truth hurts, especially to those in power.
Criminalizing those who are trying to help others and save lives is truly disturbing. A new front has suddenly opened up in the Class War, which is potentially an existential war for Democracy that could very well lead to a Revolution in England. On multiple fronts under the fascist regime of Starmer, things are heating up in this war between State repression and the introduction of controversial information gathering by American hi-tech companies such as Palantir against climate activism, the interminable cost-of-living crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran (a.k.a. The Forever Wars), and the continuing reduction and redaction of our hard-won civil liberties.
The attack on democracy by the British State, by removing trials by jury, and participating in a catastrophic war against Iran, which no citizen wants, and the embedded cronyism in our political system, is reminiscent of the experiences in despotic regimes just before they fall, and a Revolution erupts on the streets or boulevards.
How much more can the people endure?
Not much.