We know what happened we were there. However, as soon as the corporate propagandists got their slimy claws on to it it became something distorted and ugly. Sadly it resembled many of the opinions of those who read their far right nonsense day in, day out.
It is tragic but now common for people to believe something from a skewed place simply because it offers no challenge to their pre existing prejudice. The lust for lies is being met by a lust for lies.
The solution is to be open minded and search out facts but alas for many they have chosen another path.
They argued this was about ‘brainwashing’ but it wasn’t. It was about teaching about trial procedure. Their gripe is that it was an infamous millionaire right winger who they protect with all their talons.
What actually happened at the ‘trial’?
Now having arrived at the praxis of the day and the outcomes we can begin to understand reality and work from there.
However, for Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer who organised this event in Bridport Town Hall, he was summoned to the BBC Politics Show, not to repond to the actual events, but to the spin and nonsense constructed by the likes of The Times, the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph (aka The Torygraph).
However, Clive was more than able to meet the establishment BBC head on and generally received support from their guests.
This was an educational experience. This was an opportunity to apply the methodology of jurisprudence to powerful figures who should be held to account. As Clive says he can be put on trial for defending Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been tortured. This is about law, justice and democracy.
The lesson of the trial was that given the evidence and time to discern it, the powerful’s hold on us all is tenuous.
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A mock trial might be a good way of opening a discussion about slavery if the defendant were a historical figure like Francis Drake or Edward Colston. However the presence as a “witness” of Richard Drax’s Labour opponent fro the General Election seems to suggest that this event was a partisan stunt.