Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘My prison bag was packed for Xmas’
‘I was happy to do my time in the full knowledge I was right’
An unrepentant Insulate Britain protester who believed he would be spending Christmas Day behind bars has narrowly avoided a jail sentence for blocking major roads.
Biff Whipster, from Sturry, expected to be locked up for the festive season after admitting breaching High Court injunctions by laying in front of traffic to protest climate change inaction.
But after a judge showed leniency and gave him a suspended sentence, he will instead celebrate his freedom on December 25 with a breakfast of cheese on toast with his girlfriend.
The 54-year-old, however, says he would have been “happy and proud to have joined the ranks of fellow political prisoners who have been jailed”.
“My prison bag was packed and I was expecting to go away for a few months,” he said.
“Iwashappytodomytimein the full knowledge I was right.
“Personally, I was torn between the high of realising the court had listened and accepted our arguments, versus the low of thinking of my friends in jail.
“It was bittersweet because
those that had been judged before us for the same offences, in the same court, but by a different judge, had been imprisoned.”
Whipster was given a threemonth suspended prison sentence at the High Court last Wednesday for breaking the injunctions in September by blocking various roads, including the M25.
He believes the judge who heard their case had some empathy with their cause after listening
to their lengthy mitigations.
Other activists who had breached injunction had been jailed previously by a different judge.
“Considering we admitted breaking the injunction, and told the judge that we would not apologise to the court, I consider our suspended sentences were perhaps the lowest he could have given us,” he said
“I’ve been carrying a prison bag ever since I first stepped onto the M25 last September,
because I thought I’d be in prison by the end of the week.”
Whipster admitted breaking injunctions on six occasions the last on November 20, when he glued himself to Lambeth Bridge.
He says a plan to join another road protest immediately after escaping a jail sentence was abandoned by the group due to Covid concerns.
Asked whether he would block roads in the future, he said: “I can’t promise anything. I may,
or I may not. Currently I have no plans to. It all depends on whether this corrupt, greedy, government remains in power, continuing to condemn our children’s lives to a fate worse than death.”
Whipster describes his experience of being arrested for the first time as a “revelation”.
“As a typical, suburban, middle-aged white man I’d never really had any dealings with the police,” he added.
“Having been on the receiving end of numerous arrests, the respect I now have for them is profound. They do a thankless job and in many cases they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. “
Now, the dad-of-two says he will be spending a thrifty Christmas with his partner in Maidstone, having cycled there yesterday (Wednesday).
“On Christmas Day we’ll have cheese on toast for breakfast,” he said. “We’re visiting her family and I’m not expecting any fancy food, but some mince pies will go down a treat. I’m also not expecting any presents, nor am I giving any out, as usual.
“Life is about memories and fun - not plastic baubles, flashing lights and spending money we don’t have on things that we don’t need.”
Whipster is due back before the High Court in January alongside 19 other protestors for further breaches of injunctions in October and November.