For the benefit of anyone who does not immediately realise from the title, here is a warning - this blog post contains irony.
Britain is supposed to be, and largely is, a free country and the peaceful and lawful expression of almost any view should be encouraged without any comeback or reprisal.
That includes the right to non-violent demonstrations against any plan to drill for or generate new sources of energy, provided that the demonstration does not include any element of criminal obstruction, and even where the concerns of the demonstrators bear no resemblance to what is actually proposed.
However, where the law has been broken, perhaps the courts should be given the power to make the punishment fit the crime.
Perhaps the courts should be given the power to impose on anyone convicted of a criminal offence designed to sabotage, frustrate or prevent legitimate activities of the energy industry, an order cutting off gas and electricity to their residence for a week.
Or where that might affect an innocent third party, for those engaging in criminal activity which might make Britain more dependent on Vladimir Putin's Russia for gas, another possible punishment would to send them for a fact-finding tour of Siberia.
It's not going to happen. I am not seriously suggesting that it should happen. But we seem to have a serious epidemic of "Stop the world, I want to get off" at the moment.
Britain is supposed to be, and largely is, a free country and the peaceful and lawful expression of almost any view should be encouraged without any comeback or reprisal.
That includes the right to non-violent demonstrations against any plan to drill for or generate new sources of energy, provided that the demonstration does not include any element of criminal obstruction, and even where the concerns of the demonstrators bear no resemblance to what is actually proposed.
However, where the law has been broken, perhaps the courts should be given the power to make the punishment fit the crime.
Perhaps the courts should be given the power to impose on anyone convicted of a criminal offence designed to sabotage, frustrate or prevent legitimate activities of the energy industry, an order cutting off gas and electricity to their residence for a week.
Or where that might affect an innocent third party, for those engaging in criminal activity which might make Britain more dependent on Vladimir Putin's Russia for gas, another possible punishment would to send them for a fact-finding tour of Siberia.
It's not going to happen. I am not seriously suggesting that it should happen. But we seem to have a serious epidemic of "Stop the world, I want to get off" at the moment.
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