Were climate-protest jail sentences
fair? Metro readers have their say

In MetroTalk: readers respond to the jail sentencing of 5 climate activists.

Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.

Non-violent protesters got similar sentence to violent criminals

The sentences of four to five years given to the Just Stop Oil activists behind the M25 protests are similar to those for manslaughter and rape.

This for merely planning non-violent action in the face of the greatest-ever threat to all life on this planet.

We are now in an insane world, one literally burning around us, where we lock up the alarm-raisers but not the arsonists.

The truly guilty are the immoral profiteers who still extract fossil fuels and the governments that enable them in complete knowledge that they are destroying all our futures.

Our prisons are full – of the wrong people. Graham Pearson, Epsom

Has Chris Packham gone too far?

Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News, appeared on BBC Newswatch on Saturday to defend the channel’s impartiality.

What she wasn’t addressing was the blatant lack of impartiality of individual presenters. Gary Lineker has already been criticised for his political views, but surely Chris Packham has gone far too far.

Commenting on the sentencing of the Just Stop Oil criminals, Packham demanded a recorded meeting with Keir Starmer’s new attorney general ‘to address this grotesque miscarriage of justice’.

That is a direct attack on our justice system and giving support to convicted criminals. He has absolutely no right to be paid by licence-fee money and the BBC CEO should stand by her assertion the BBC is impartial and send Packham packing. John, Canvey Island

The long jail terms given to Just Stop Oil protesters are an affront to natural justice.

Although ‘conspiracy to cause a public nuisance’ is a criminal offence, the protesters were drawing the attention of the public to the fact climate change is an existential threat and governments across the world are not doing nearly enough to mitigate against the threat. Scott, West London

‘Just Go! Ed Davey’

Your front-page headline ‘Just Go!’ (Metro, Fri) directed at the woman whose organisation saw an innocent man spend years in prison should also be directed towards Sir Ed Davey.

Helen Pitcher refuses to resign as chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission despite it missing chances to see Andrew Malkinson released. He spent 17 years inside for a rape he did not commit.

As post office minister, Sir Ed refused to see representations for postmasters falsely accused of accounting crimes. He says he was lied to and the Post Office was meant to be ‘arm’s length’ from the government.

Where does the buck stop, Sir Ed? Robby, Eccles

Dogs are not dumb ornaments, mine found my missing niece!

Further to Eric (MetroTalk, Fri) and his view of cats being ‘clean, clever and cuddly’, unlike ‘dirty, dumb and dangerous’ dogs.

While he may benefit from an occasional half-dead rodent gift from his cuddly, caring and generous cat, might I point out that our domesticated canine companions – when trained and integrated into the family unit – go way beyond being a mere ornament.

When my seven-year-old niece went missing in the village, I asked our twin rottweiler-cross dogs, ‘Where’s Emma?’ and it took just a few minutes to find her playing with friends behind a house nearby. Cats don’t do that. Don Trower, Braintree

While cats may not be mauling their unconscious owners or innocent children,
as is all too often reported in these pages, according to the Mammal Society, they kill up to an estimated 275million prey a year in the UK alone, of which 55million are birds.

This is the just the number that are known to have been caught. Nick Firth, Coulsdon

How inconsiderate

One good thing about cats is their owners don’t bag up their dirty business and hang it off bushes and trees for us all to see. Janet, Kent

Dear Tube users, please don’t let your dog sit on the seats or your children stand on them. It’s gross because their feet have been on the floor and all over the place.

And with the dogs, a lot of people are allergic, and if the animals have fleas etc, you don’t want to transfer them to the seats. Sophie, London

IT outage shows failure of relying on tech, bumpy buses and space clubs

Friday’s global IT outage that grounded flights, caused medical appointments to be cancelled and card payments fail (Metro, Mon) is one reason why we should never have a cashless society.

When you couple the amount of damage it caused with the increasing amount of online scams that are occurring, it’s clear we’ll always need
a failsafe and alternative method for payments. And that method is cash. Carlos, Lancashire

The IT outage just goes to show how vulnerable our infrastructures are. This was a non-malicious situation resulting from a faulty software update. It is frightening to think what would happen in the event of a malicious attack. Bob Readman, Sevenoaks

Regarding Steve’s point about bumpy bus rides (MetroTalk, Mon). As a class-D, manual-geared bus driver of 21 years,
I can say all those bumps wreak havoc on the bus’s underpinnings and regularly cause broken springs and suspension parts. Jolyon Rea, Bristol

Richard (MetroTalk, Fri) makes a good point that a nightclub on the Moon wouldn’t have atmosphere. On a plus side, people wouldn’t be cramped in as when dancing. There’d be a lot of space. Martin Lawrence, South Croydon