Dr. Aaron Thierry Profile picture
May 12, 2023 28 tweets 14 min read Read on X
I got the chills reading @GeorgeMonbiot's latest column on the draconian police powers of the new ‘Public Order Bill’.

But to understand how we got here we need to take a step back and look at the way these laws have been called into being. It's a wild story🤯

🧵 Image
@GeorgeMonbiot 2/ Let's start in May 2019:

Following @XRebellionUK's actions in London- in which thousands of peaceful protestors engaged in the largest acts of civil disobedience in the UK for a generation- Parliament declares a #ClimateEmergency.

A key demand of the protestors had been met Image
@GeorgeMonbiot @XRebellionUK 3/ The establishment was alarmed.

July 2019: Conservative think tank 'Policy Exchange' hastily put out a report concluding "legislation relating to public protest needs to be urgently reformed in order to strengthen the ability of police to place restrictions on planned protest" Image
@GeorgeMonbiot @XRebellionUK 4/ 'Policy Exchange' charged XR with being 'extremists' in order to justify the crackdown on their peaceful protests.

But it was clear that "This accusation is baseless" as academics @simon_mair & @JKSteinberger pointed out at the time in @openDemocracy

opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/…
5/ The conservative press then promoted the findings of the Policy Exchange report.

For example the Telegraph gave the reports author Richard Walton a column to repeat his call for a crackdown... Image
5b/ (Digression) - Yes, this is the same Richard Walton who was suspended from the Met over the Stephen Lawrence spying debacle.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
6/ The dodgy report was also platformed on the BBC’s flagship radio news program:

7/ As @XRebellionUK spokesperson @RupertRead explained at the time…

"The funders of Policy Exchange are completely non-transparent, but I bet you if we were to find out who they were, we would find out in whose interests it is to undermine XR"

vice.com/en/article/ywa… Image
8/ And lo and behold - it subsequently came to light that Policy Exchange had received funding from the oil giant Exxon Mobil:

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
9/ But over the coming months we would hear repeated calls in the billionaire owned press echoing the report’s call for a clamp down on civil-liberties. ImageImageImageImage
10/ LBC's Nick Ferrari even launched a campaign:
"to give police greater powers when dealing with protests which cause serious public disorder, such as Extinction Rebellion."

11/ By spring 2021 the government had introduced a new ‘Police, Crime &Sentencing Bill’.

Meanwhile, human rights & civil liberties groups were warning that the government's bill was “an attack on some of the most fundamental rights of citizens”
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…
12/ Ultimately, after much public outcry, the House of Lords defeated some of the worst amendments to the bill.

But a still draconian ‘Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act’ was passed in April 2022.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
13/ Policy Exchange celebrated their victory:

policyexchange.org.uk/blogs/the-quee…
14/ Then the whole process started up again.

Nov 2022: Policy Exchange published another report calling for yet more authoritarian legislation:

"It is time for authorities to step up. Policy Exchange proposes new legislation which Parliament should enact" Image
15/ The billionaire owned papers again went into overdrive... ImageImageImageImage
16/ Human rights lawyers and civil liberties groups warn once again of the perils to democracy of granting the police such powers:

edition.cnn.com/2023/01/17/uk/…
17/ May 2023:

The ‘New Public Order Act’ comes into force, and immediately (as @GeorgeMonbiot reports in his column) we see the police abusing their new powers...

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
18/ And are the billionaire- press satisfied?

No! Immediately they are out baying for yet more blood.

Dragging us ever-further into authoritarian rule. Image
19/ All in an effort to prop up an unsustainable status quo:

“governments don’t act on climate without pressure from civil society: threatening & silencing activists thus seems to be a new form of anti-democratic refusal to act on climate"

theguardian.com/environment/20…
20/ The international community is aghast at the new legislation.

With the UN Human Rights Chief calling the 'Public Order Act' "Deeply troubling":

21/ @CIVICUSalliance is warning the UK is “increasingly authoritarian”.

Explaining in a new report that they have downgraded the UKs status due to the "worrying trends we are seeing in restrictions across civil society that are threatening our democracy"
22/ If we value democracy and are committed to securing a sustainable future, we are going to have to refuse to be cowed by these attacks on our freedom.

We're going to have to fight back and force the next government to repeal these unjust and anti-democratic laws.
23/ I feel we should all take courage from…

… the fact that leading criminologists have pledged to

"lend our full support to climate defenders who are criminalised by the state."

24/ …the fact that lawyers are increasingly refusing to prosecute peaceful climate activists...

25/ …the fact that @JustStop_Oil are showing tremendous courage and spirit and are still out on the streets.

They need our solidarity! 💚✊
26/ We have to take a stand against the authoritarian turn of British politics & the continuation of the fossil fuelled death project.

Protest rights and functional democracy are fundamental to securing a livable planet for all.

/END
P.S. If you want to learn more of the wholly inappropriate relationship between the government and Murdoch press, you might want to check this out...

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More from @ThierryAaron

Dec 6
🚨There is so much #Climate news that it is often hard to zoom-out & see the bigger picture.

But every now & then you read a report that brings it all together & stops you in your tracks!

'Collision Course' by @djspratt is one such report. Here are its 10 key take aways: 🧵1/n Image
Global warming was 1.5°C in 2023, and 2024 will be hotter. In practical terms, the world has reached the lower end of the Paris target of 1.5-2°C of warming, and an accelerated warming rate is likely to continue to mid-century. Image
Many impacts are occurring #FasterThanExpected, and beyond model projections, including the severity and frequency of extreme events and system-level tipping points. What has happened in the past is no longer a good guide to what’s going to happen in the future. Image
Read 14 tweets
Nov 22
Looking for books to get for #climate curious friends & family this Christmas🎄?

Here are 6 of my favourites reads this year.

First up @DoctorVive's indispensable guide to talking climate action & fighting fossil fuel propaganda 🧵 Image
@DoctorVive Next, if you need some inspiration then look no further than @mzjacobson's "No Miracles Needed" making the clear case that we have all the technology we need to fully decarbonise.

We can avoid catastrophe if we choose to! 🧵 Image
@DoctorVive @mzjacobson But we're not yet investing in the solutions anywhere near as much as we need to, why is that?

Brett Christophers meticulously shows that this is because the current economic system favours profit over people and planet 🧵 Image
Read 6 tweets
Nov 12
Tonight's @CU_EARTH lecture is being delivered by @dvdmckaydbv on '#Climate Tipping Points'

How close are they? &
What can we do about them?

🧵 1/n Image
The planet is heating rapidly due to burning fossil fuels

2/n Image
How hot it gets depends on how much carbon we emit

3/n Image
Read 18 tweets
Oct 30
I was delighted to be invited to speak to @BristolBioSci earlier this week, where I made the case for responsible scientific activism in an era of planetary emergency.

I've decided to post my slides, so buckle up this is going to be a long thread🧵1/n Image
2/ Before I begin I would like to stress that these ideas have been developed with a great team of collaborators, who I'm extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside.
@berglund_oscar @StuartBCapstick @EmilyCoxSussex @traceyaelliott @JKSteinberger @steviedubyu Image
3/ To start, its really important to remind ourselves of the context motivating the ideas being discussed - we're in a #ClimateCrisis !

Nearly every week we see new headlines like these. Image
Read 62 tweets
Oct 9
"The urgency of mitigating climate change cannot change financial facts" - @thetimes

Oh and which financial facts are those?!😠

(Time for an angry thread🧵) 1/n Image
2/ The FACT that the review by @lordstern1 concluded almost 20 years ago that...

"climate change is a serious global threat, & it demands an urgent global response" &

"the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting"
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cm…Image
The FACT reported in a study by @PIK_Climate researchers this year, that (due to past inaction) the World economy is now already committed to 38 trillion dollars in damages each year by 2050!

pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest…
Read 8 tweets
Sep 28
Hi @michaeljswalker & @AaronBastani thanks for the segment on the sentencing of @JustStop_Oil activists on @novaramedia y'day.

It was great this crucial topic was covered on your show, yet I couldn't help note some of your remarks lacked key context🧵1/n
2/You rightly highlight these remarkably long sentences are politically motivated &that protests by groups like JSO have been vital for driving forward UK climate policy

Thanks too for flagging the need to center climate politics on asymmetries in consumption of public resources
3/ Yet, there were 3 key mistakes that I felt were very problematic.

1st - @JustStop_Oil do have crystal clear demands.

You noted that their first demand has now been achieved, but they have two other demands... Image
Read 16 tweets

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