“The sentences handed to the five Just Stop Oil campaigners are utterly disproportionate,” environmentalist and author George Monbiot wrote on social media. “Four and five years in prison for peaceful protest? This is what you might expect in Russia or Egypt, not in a supposed democracy.”
due to a four-day direct action protest on the M25 that Just Stop Oil ultimately held in November 2022.
They aren’t being penalized for the content of their speech. If they wanted to run around with signs that argued their point, nobody would have blinked an eye. They’re being penalized for dicking up British transport.
You can say what you want; that’s your political speech. You cannot try and disrupt the country if it isn’t doing what you want.
Russia’s going to go after you for criticizing the war. They have a problem with the political message. What you’re getting in trouble for here is for the disruption, not the message’s content.