Many readers will be aware of the case of David Spring a retired train driver who was given an 18 month gaol sentence following his arrest during a protest in Westminster that was held following the murder of three young girls at a holiday dance club in Southport. This case was featured on here on the 14^th August 2024.

I remarked at the time that there was a discrepancy in sentencing. I told of how this man was dealt with harshly by the courts and how this case contrasted with how the courts dealt had dealt leniently with British Hamas supporters. These Hamas supporters displayed patches on their clothes that clearly showed their allegiance to Hamas, a terror organisation proscribed by British law, yet they walked free with a conditional discharge, even though the allegation was a Terrorism Act one.

The Spring case struck me as remarkably harsh as I’ve attended hundreds of demonstrations over the years as participant, Press observer and occasionally as an organiser and I know that the sort of stuff that was mentioned in court, such as offensive chants, finger pointing at the police and general gob shite behaviour is relatively common on demonstrations and often ignored by police. I myself have on the odd occasion, at Pride marches (before they became dominated by the sort of people that decent LGB’s would cross the road to avoid) joined in with the crowd on chants such as ‘2 4 6 8 is that copper really straight’ whilst pointing at one particular cop and nothing has happened. I’ve also been on demos where there have been present the worst of the worst of the Left such as apologists for the Soviet Gulags who were left unmolested by the police. I’ve covered for the Press British National Party (BNP) demos where ‘there ain’t no black in the Union Jack’ was chanted and the police did little more than warn the organisers before the demo that if the BNP kick off then the police will kick off against them too. I’ve also been present in similar professional circumstances at demos of the Left against particular Parliamentary Bills where chants that could be construed as having a dual meaning such as ‘Kill Kill Kill The Bill’ were made. Also let’s not forget the activities of the ‘Brew Crew’ the pissheads who followed CND around in the 80’s and chanted ‘Bombs Not Jobs’ at a time when the UK was being subjected to a multitude of Irish Republican terror attacks. The ‘Brew Crew’ were as I recall mostly left alone unless they kicked off violently.

Demos are often highly emotive events where people say stuff that is going to be offensive to someone and they make gestures that are also going to be perceived as offensive to either observers or police. Most of the time these gestures and chants do not cross the line in to criminality in the way that we’ve see occurring during the pro-Hamas hate marches such as the use of swastikas and explicit calls for the genocide of Jews. The police and the judiciary are remarkably tolerant and lenient when it comes to demonstrations, except it seems when the demonstration is made up of angry members of the public enraged at yet another alleged murder by an immigrant or second generation immigrant or those disgusted by Islamic extremism.

I’ve had the nagging feeling that there was something a bit iffy about the case of David Spring and it seems that I’m not the only one who is not completely buying the mainstream media stories about it. One of those who have asked awkward questions about this case is Guy who I believe was formerly known as ‘Politico’ on You Tube.

Guy has examined footage taken by members of the public at the Westminster demonstration where Mr Spring was arrested and has highlighted some discrepancies between the police, judicial and mainstream media narrative and what he has found. Yes there is editing in this collection of footage but there’s enough to show that things might not be as they at first seem with this case.

Here’s Guy’s video article on this case.

The pointing and the remonstrating with police is something I’ve seen hundreds of times on demonstrations over the decades and rarely have they resulted in arrest and even when they do come to court the disposal has been mostly by way of fines or other non-custodial sentences or suspended gaol sentences**. Only in cases where there have been severe violence or police have been deliberately injured have immediate custodial sentences been imposed by the courts. I can’t see anything in Guy’s video that would indicate that he’s indulged in the sort of severe violence that would probably deserve some sort of custodial sentence.

Cases like this do little to calm down the allegations of two tier policing or two tier judicial disposals. In fact they make more and more people believe that Britons are being policed and judged unfairly based on skin colour and political cause.

There are a whole load of questions that need to be answered about how those who are being sentenced for their roles in disturbances, even when their role is highly peripheral, are being dealt with including why such a high number of defendants are pleading guilty, whether there is coercion involved in some of these guilty pleas, whether these accused are being given proper and effective legal representation and whether the narrative that we are being fed by the authorities is one that we can have any confidence in regarding its veracity. I certainly believe that there could be opportunities for some of those sentenced to appeal against sentence and I expect that those who can afford to lodge such appeals may do so. Something stinks badly about these cases and many people would like to know what is creating this stink.

** In the 1984 – 1985 Miners Strike, which was one of the biggest outbreaks of disorder in late 20^th century Britain there were 11,000 arrests but only 150 to 200 gaol sentences imposed on defendants, according to one source I found, which is in line proportionally to what I would expect having been a former habitué of demonstrations. This is a disturbing comparison with the high number of immediate and remarkably custodial sentences that have been dished out by judges following the recent disturbances.