522 When I first met Magna Carta I wept— for it was a weekend in Salisbury March 2014 and after annexing Crimea unmarked Russian soldiers were stirring up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine but in the UK there was peace and habeas corpus and access to Justice or Right by the Law of the land and it was in gratitude I wept. This weekend I wept— for Millicent Fawcett from her plinth in Parliament Square had witnessed 522 peaceful protestors carted off by the Met for the crime of free speech by means of placards in contravention of Article 13 of the Terrorism Act. Unlucky for some. Unlucky for the 50% over 60 or 70 or 80 years old and the 50% years from claiming their pensions. Unlucky for the roll call of the principled Sir former government advisor and the professor of poetry emerita and the son of a Holocaust survivor. Unlucky for the 2.1 starving millions disproportionately penned in Gaza. From her grave Hannah Arendt proclaims the banality of evil is again on the rise. The Met and soldiers and spies were only following orders. © Clare Bryden, 10 August 2025
My small offering, for Jyoti and the other peaceful protestors arrested under #Article13 of the #TACT2000, and for environmental campaigners willing to risk the same. Respect. This what it is coming to.
#Poetry #Poem
Numbers (522/532) and individuals taken from www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...