While a cross-party cabal of MPs consipires to block Brexit, one of the incipient ‘yellow vest’ group in Britain is arrested in connection with pretty tame abuse dished out to Remain-ultra MP Anna Soubry, subsequent to an entreaty from MPs to take the abuse of remainer MPs more seriously.
This situation must now be viewed in a light that transcends the petty and dogmatic divisions of Brexit. Reasonable Remainers and Brexiters must now concede that we are in a situation that brings great shame upon a nation that was once the gold standard of freedom and democracy.
For better or worse, we had a referendum where a massive proportion of the British public, and a clear majority of those who voted, elected to leave the EU. Since then the resistance to the public’s demand has been relentless, with a multi-pronged strategy ranging from outright refusal to comply to death by a thousand tiny cuts.
While abuse of pro-Brexit MPs and members of the public has gone on unhindered for more than 2 years, a legitimate – if lowbrow and infinitesimal – demonstration against key a pro-Remain MP has landed a guy in police custody.
As I’ve said many times before, the process is the punishment now in this country, so the man arrested will doubtless be held as long as legally possible, charged and released on conditional bail that will mean he has to avoid all public rallies and demonstrations and he will have to report to a police station on a regular basis, probably for months to come. He may also be left unable to communicate with his friends or use Facebook to stay involved in a legitimate act of public resistance to MPs’ betrayal. Who knows where it’ll end for him, but one thing will be for sure – the authorities, as well as wanting him out of the way, will want to make an example of him, pour encourager les autres.
Meanwhile, the conspiracy to blatantly defy a clear democratic mandate continues apace, and looks ever more likely to be successful.
And all in the short term interests of some petulant MPs who must have their way, because the little people know not what they do, and should never have been given a say, in spite of the fact that a massive majority of MPs voted to hold the referendum.
The situation we find ourselves in is disgraceful and shameful. And if people can bring themselves to leave their sofas for just a little while, it could end very badly indeed.
So what can we do? Well for one we can chip in to support James Goddard’s legal defence and fund him in whatever way necessary. We can also provide funds to support the movement of which he’s a part. Of course, the paypal and Facebook pages we may have used for this purpose a week ago have now been shutdown, and I haven’t yet found out if there’s a new crowdfunder set up already, but I intend to find out, and to contribute. I’ll share details here if and when I find them.
AJ
Update: New crowdfunding site is here.
Update 2: He’s been released. Sooner than I expected, but on apparently on conditional bail (or other legal mechanism) that severely curtails his ability to play any further part in legitimate demonstrations against an establishment stitchup. I expect this to remain in place until after March 29th at least.
The reason to be optimistic is that, if the Yellow Vests follow the playbook established by the Gilets Jaunes, the organisation will be effectively leaderless, which limits the authorities’ opportunities to ‘behead’ the organisation by legal or other means.
Update 3: Spiked are on it. Their lawyer reckons it’s a stitch-up, too.
Al Jahom's Final Word 