Three cases dropped for Plane Stupid Scotland

Is the Government scared of taking climate activists to court now? Just two weeks after the widely-publicised and successful trial of the ‘Kingsnorth Six’, three Plane Stupid Scotland cases were dropped by the Scottish Crown Courts in one week.

The ‘Kingsnorth Six’ were found to have a ‘lawful excuse’ to cause damage to climate-destructive Kingsnorth coal fired power station because they were acting to protect property around the world "in immediate need of protection" from the impacts of climate change, caused in part by burning coal.

Back in January a bunch of us blockaded a private jet operator working from Edinburgh airport. The first six defendants were on trial the day before the Kingsnorth trial. Two activists were charged and pled guilty. The remaining four had their charges dropped “after full and careful consideration of the available evidence”. You’d have thought the video and photos they took might have been enough, but then again, I’m not a prosecutor.

One of the Greer activists had also been arrested for allegedly breaching bail (being at the airport for an interview) over Summer. Unsurprisingly the charges got dropped. Round two to us!

Back in April 2008 we scaled the Scottish Parliament, edged along the glass roof, and unfurled a huge banner, directly over the main entrance of the building. We were on the roof from 8am to 1pm. It was a lovely sunny day, and we eventually came down voluntarily to cheering supporters and courteous police officers - who promptly arrested us.

Three of us were charged with breach of the peace and released on the condition that we do not approach Parliament, nor go to Edinburgh airport (unless we wanted to fly – the police have a polished sense of irony). On the intermediate trial on September 12th (after the widely publicised outcome of the Kingsnorth trial), the charges were dropped entirely. Apparently, “an evidential difficulty arose and a review of the case disclosed that there was now insufficient evidence to continue the prosecution”.

So it’s three-nil to Plane Stupid Scotland. I'll leave you to insert your favourite football joke here.