Last week, I visited my cousin in Wandsworth prison. James Brown, a businessman and Paralympian, was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment on 24 September for climbing on to a plane at City airport to highlight the climate emergency. His is the first custodial sentence given to anyone associated with Extinction Rebellion. The sentence, reported by the Guardian and most other national newspapers, was widely seen as a warning to future activists.
Also last week, Rishi Sunak announced a new lower rate of air passenger duty from April 2023. This week, we host Cop26. Meanwhile, James is out of sight in Wandsworth prison. Except he’s not out of sight to many. Every night, like-minded supporters hold a vigil outside the prison, and every day he receives a stream of letters from well-wishers.
But there is a silence from the newspapers. Why has no one reported on the huge level of support for this man? Why has there been no questioning in the mainstream press of such a harsh and disproportionate sentence? And why has there been no challenge in the press to the judge’s comment that James “cynically used” his disability?
Christine Sanders
London
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