Today I attended the City of London Magistrates Court.
I pleaded guilty to sitting in the road in October 2019. I read out my statement and was told I could leave. Then a moment later an usher came out and asked me to go back into the courtroom. The judge said that he could see my actions came from honestly and earnestly held beliefs, and for such a minor offence he felt the police normally would issue a caution. He was therefore striking off my guilty plea, and asking the police to retract the charge, and issue a caution in its place. He was talking about this being done for all the XR protestors with the same offence that day. (I should hear within 3 weeks).
I am so happy.
This is the statement I read out in court.
“In October 2019, I felt I could do nothing else except highlight to our Parliament the emergencies we face in our natural world, to illuminate facts so awful to grasp that they have been ‘kicked down the tow-path’ as a matter of course by every government since they came to light.
My method of communication was to sit passively in the road – without intimidation or aggression, without violence or force. Just to sit and await arrest.
I did not choose this method of communication myself. It was the one selected by Parliament. For 30 years, environmental experts and climate scientists have sought to engage our political leaders about the emergencies in the natural world, through letters, emails, petitions, meetings, NGO lobbying, marches and protests. All have been met with silence. The one solitary time that Parliament has responded in a manner appropriate to the emergencies we face was when, in April 2019, people sat peacefully in the road.
11 days later, Parliament chose to debate and pass a declaration of Climate Emergency. This wasn’t because a building had been stormed, a riot, or aggression. They chose to engage with facts after a peaceful protest highlighted them.
But then, again, nothing happened for 6 months.
What option did I have – other than to engage our political leaders in the manner of their choosing? I wish so dearly they would select another; but where they lead so I have followed.
Because to remain silent in the face of a billion deaths in my lifetime…. as a minister-in-training in the Church of England, to pass by on the other side is simply not an option for me or my faith.
Parliament is guilty of gross negligence of duty in the face of the greatest preventable loss of life in history.
I am guilty of sitting in the road.”
Alison Moulden
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