MoJ protestors blast ‘ridiculous’ Labour prison scheme

To Westminster, where outside the Ministry of Justice more than 300 protestors have held a silent vigil this afternoon. Activists from a myriad of campaign groups – including Just Stop Oil, Palestine Action and Black Lives Matter – gathered in front of the department building for 90 minutes today to call for the release of political prisoners and the resignation of crossbench peer Lord Walney, an independent adviser on political disruption. The action was organised by ‘Defend Our Juries’ which slams ‘sham trials’ that, it claims, jail protestors for ‘peaceful acts of protest’ like road blocking, traffic disruption and throwing soup at 100-year-old paintings.

Now climate and justice activists have come together to protest the tightening of protest laws and the conclusions of the domestic extremism report by Lord Walney. For his part, the crossbench peer slammed today’s ‘road block stunt’ by ‘extreme protestors’ and shared an ‘instruction manual’ for the event on Twitter, writing: ‘[It] gives insight into a well-resourced network adept in tactics like burner phones usually deployed by hardened criminals.