8th June 2022, 10:00
A Brighton woman yesterday lost her appeal against a two week prison sentence for writing ‘INSULATE BRITAIN’ on the front wall of Crawley Magistrates Court in April this year.
Judge Laing at Lewes Crown Court ruled that the appellant, Venetia Carter, aged 58, a tutors from Brighton, was rightly given a custodial sentence. In summing up, Judge Laing said the case was “not about protest” but that it was “about criminal damage”. She further commented that painting on the court wall was “an attack on the rule of law”.
Speaking from outside the court today, Mrs Carter said:
“I’m deeply disappointed that the Judge has failed to recognise that society is at extreme risk of collapse and that the campaign that Insulate Britain undertook was to uphold the rule of law. Along with other Insulate Britain supporters I am upholding the fundamental right to life in the face of the government’s deadly inaction on the climate crisis”
Mrs Carter had used temporary chalk spray paint to write the words at Crawley Magistrates Court, where the first plea hearings for Insulate Britain supporters stemming from last year’s civil resistance campaign were being heard. She was arrested at the scene and charged with criminal damage, for which she was later sentenced to two weeks in Bronzefield prison.
Mrs Carter said:
“Now that so many of us are suffering with the cost of living crisis, practical Government financial support for insulation is needed more than ever. When our homes are insulated, we can use less fuel to stay warm, keeping our fuel bills down in the long term. This makes so much more sense than one-off government handouts. And the less fuel we use, the less carbon will be emitted.
“We all know the climate crisis is a global issue, but the UK could show the way. Instead, our government is allowing new oil and gas fields to be developed. That’s madness.
“Despite the risk of prison, I cannot stand by while the government fails to face up to the threat of climate collapse that threatens everything we know and love.”
I would rather go back to prison than fail to do what I can to push for real and urgent action on the climate crisis. I hope that in future courts will rule that prisons aren’t the right place for ordinary people who are standing up for urgent action on climate.
There are currently 2 supporters of Insulate Britain in prison and in the last 12 months over 50 people from the climate movement have spent time in prison. There were 1015 arrests during the campaign last year and the combined total of all prison sentences handed down to date was 599 days and while suspended sentences totalled 1188 days.
A spokesperson for Insulate Britain said today:
“It is shameful that there are currently people in prison for doing what is right at this point in history. The judiciary is making criminals of ordinary people who are acting to preserve life, in the face of impending societal collapse. We declare that the British legal system no longer has legitimacy in our eyes.
“The courts will continue to be a site of nonviolent civil resistance for as long as it takes for the judiciary to do what is right. This means refusing to criminalise peaceful members of the public who are desperately trying to save lives and prevent the loss of our pensions, our economy, our NHS, the very fabric of our society and everything we hold dear.”
END
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Notes to Editors
About Insulate Britain
Insulate Britain is a campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing.
We demand the Prime Minister and the government to #getonwiththejob, face up to their responsibility and lead our country through the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis.
We are ordinary people with simple and achievable demands to #INSULATEBRITAIN
The UK government must immediately promise to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation and retrofit of all social housing in Britain.
We demand a national home insulation strategy that gives British people the justice they deserve: a future for our loved ones, lower energy bills and safer living conditions.
We are scared: our livelihoods are at risk and the futures of our children are uncertain
The Climate Crisis is a threat to all: we demand the government to act now.
Our Demands
1. That the UK government immediately promises to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain by 2025;
2. That the UK government immediately promises to produce within four months a legally binding national plan to fully fund and take responsibility for the full low-energy and low-carbon whole-house retrofit , with no externalised costs, of all homes in Britain by 2030 as part of a just transition to full decarbonisation of all parts of society and the economy.
Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jt5FI-kinEXoqZtPDrCvnAVQ2EFn8Aea/view
Insulate Britain ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.