Jean Oliver, Janet Fenton and David MacKenzie from the ‘Peaton Peace Pirate’ (PPP) wing of Trident Ploughshares were arrested on 2 February after committing the dastardly deed of pinning a set of ‘Pirate Peace Articles’ to the fence around the Faslane naval base where Britain’s Trident nuclear missile submarines are housed.
The articles stated that the PPPs were committed to disarming the UK nuclear fleet by nonviolent methods, and cited international law in support.
For these un-pirate-like sentiments, the three were arrested by the local constabulary who, not knowing the ways of the sea, refrained from keel-hauling them, even releasing two without charge, bringing the full weight of the law to bear only on the third, Jean Oliver, clearly the most despicable, whom they charged with ‘vandalism’.
The PPPs later released a statement in which they said: ‘it is these arsenals of vile weapons that are the real outlaws, in that they give, the swabs, an unjolly rogering to the universal code of humanity.’
Topics: Nuclear weapons