As a no show from a fuelish prosecution acquits biofuels protesters...

Three activists were in court last Tuesday (2nd July) following an anti-biofuels action in central London back on the 23rd of October last year. Two of them had scaled Buckingham Palace Mall and strung a banner across it, closing the strip down for half the day. They had been protesting against the inclusion of biomass (burnable rubbish) under UK plc’s Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) scheme (the method by which green tech is subsidised).

The activists weren’t charged over the banner drop per se, they were charged under one of the more obscure ordinances that govern the quasi-fuedal city state that is the City, namely- “being in breach of the royal parks and open spaces regulations 1997; assembling in a royal park without permission of the secretary of state.”

This odd bit of selectively applied legislation prevents more than twenty people from getting together in one of Her Maj’s personal green spaces. Funnily enough barbecues and birthday parties don’t generally merit the attention of the authorities, yet the possibility that two eco-activists and their mates had gathered in a park beforehand justified the full force of the law.

The defendants had been denied legal aid and so were prepared to fight their legal battle alone. However, when the defendants tried to cross examine their arresting officers, it turned out that the prosecution hadn’t actually bothered to ask them to turn up. With the trial already in full swing, they couldn’t show up in court on time so the judge threw the case out there and then.

As we always say at SchNEWS Towers, “Don’t accept the caution, just spin the wheel of Justice, watch the bastard turn”.