Press Releases & Updates 2004

The 61 year-old poet and historian was one of the 170 people arrested at the Really Big Blockade of the Trident nuclear weapon base on 22nd April last year. He admitted he had lain in the roadway but said that his action and the whole protest had been peaceful. He had been exercising his right under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Procurator Fiscal Imran Bashir argued that this right applied only if it did not contravene domestic law and that Angus could have demonstrated on the pavement without fear of arrest. Justice of the Peace John McPhail accepted this argument and fined Angus £75.

Angus, who lives in Edinburgh, is author of the Myth of the Blitz and the Peoples War. The Myth of the Blitz is an important and controversial book which deals with propaganda and myth-making in Britain during the Second World War.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said; ”Of course we do not believe that a peaceful and nonviolent blockade of Faslane breaches the peace and contravenes domestic law. It only breaches this court’s erroneous and prejudiced interpretation of the law. People who lie in the roadway at Faslane should be as free from arrest as those who stand on the pavement.”

The trial of Charles Booth for taking part in the same blockade collapsed when the second police witness failed to identify him in court after the first police witness testified to the relaxed and carnival-like atmosphere of the blockade. Charles, who is 31 and lives in Edinburgh, is the Scottish Green Party spokesperson on peace, defence and international affairs.

Meanwhile in Plymouth Magistrates Court the case against Pamela Smith for obstructing the highway was dismissed when a Crown witness was not available. Pamela had taken part last autumn in a blockade of Devonport naval base, where Trident submarine Vanguard is undergoing a refit.

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