Joining one thousand people outside the Royal Courts of Justice

On a chilly, sunny January morning, twelve XR Scotland members congregated with a thousand concerned citizens in London’s Temple Gardens.

Advocacy group Defend Our Juries had called for support for the Lord Walney 16, the Just Stop Oil activists who had been sentenced to a combined 41 years in prison, and our appearance coincided with their extraordinary two-day mass appeal. 

The design of the mass action was publicly available, and a legal briefing described its adherence to the principles set out by the UK Supreme Court in the 2021 case of Ziegler, which upheld the right to protest in a healthy democracy.

Lord Walney, an ‘independent adviser’ and paid lobbyist for both the arms and oil industries took aim at the Ziegler judgement in his report ‘Protecting our Democracy from Coercion’ in May 2024. It is a chilling read.

Back in Temple Gardens, one hundred placards depicting political prisoners were handed out, and we started a slow, silent procession up Arundel Street, passed the Met Police videoing teams, towards the Strand. 

As our Scottish contingent approached the Royal Courts of Justice, the front of the procession was already sitting in the road at the Temple Bar Memorial. We were in rows, back-to-back, a thousand of us sitting quietly in the Strand, blocking traffic. Our placards poignantly reminded us of our purpose.

We sat together in silence for the planned ninety minutes while the Met Police advised us that conditions might be imposed on the protest and that we could be arrested. Our sheer numbers made that impossible, however. Nobody moved.

A beautiful scene unfolded as the Climate Choir approached singing Kate Thomas’s ‘Let Us Stand’. As the music grew into  the relative silence of Central London, onlookers were moved.

Solidarity took the form of simply catching the eye of strangers sitting across from us, a gentle smile and a nod of acknowledgment.