For the past two years, my husband Michael and I have been fighting an exhausting and financially devastating legal battle after we kept our small coffee shop open for a time during the 2020 lockdown.
We were subjected to a prolonged campaign of harassment and defamation after an anonymous complaint to Plymouth’s Environmental Health Department about staff in our café not wearing facemasks. We were also accused of not enforcing lockdown rules on customers entering our shop.
We thought the matter was resolved when we pointed out to visiting Environmental Health Officers that legitimate exemptions applied, and that if we had challenged staff or customers about not wearing masks we could have faced fines under the Equality Act 2010.
Michael and I thought that was the end of the matter until our local paper, PlymouthLive, became involved, and news reporters gathered on the pavement outside our café and began to interrogate passers-by.
When in November 2020 the Government announced that food and drink outlets would be restricted to takeaway service only, the police started to make threatening appearances in our coffee shop.
After a great deal of thought, we made the decision not to withdraw table service to our customers, some of whom were vulnerable and elderly.
PlymouthLive’s comments’ section condemned the stance we had taken, stating that we should have followed the rules “like everyone else”. But we also received support from people who felt we were standing up for common sense.
We sought legal help throughout this ordeal, including a lawyer who came over from Ireland to speak on our behalf. We were consistently advised that we hadn’t broken any laws – that staff exemptions for facemasks were legitimate, and there was no requirement in law for us to remove tables and chairs from our coffee shop in November 2020.
Indeed, as we now know, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed in autumn 2022 (on I’m a Celebrity…) that there was never any enforceable coronavirus ‘law’, only ‘guidelines’.
We are also now aware that other business owners who were issued fines under the same ‘legislation’ have had them overturned on appeal.
Despite all this, Michael and I are being threatened with prison if we don’t pay the fines that remain outstanding. I believe that the local authorities decided to make some kind of example of us, encouraged by the local press.
To us, the message seemed clear: “We are the authority and you must abide by our rules and regulations (even though we don’t always abide by them ourselves…)”
Because we followed our consciences, we have endured two years of legal wrangling, court appearances, threats, and negative articles in the local press – including insults from angry members of the public urging others to smash our shop windows.
So how did it all start?
Early in 2020 we read Freedom of Information requests to Public Health England and other information in the public domain that we found deeply disturbing and which led us to question what the Government was saying.
Ultimately, at Magistrates’ Court, our limited company (Finla), my husband, Michael, and I were collectively fined £30,000 plus £12,000 costs. Sadly for us, in April 2022 we were forced to close our business of six years.
On appeal, after we’d already paid the lion’s share of the costs, our personal fines were reduced to £10,000 plus costs, totalling just over £14,000.
We now only have a few months to pay the outstanding fines before we face the judiciary again in March 2023 to hear whether we will be taken into custody for “non-payment of fines”.
It certainly feels as if the odds have been stacked against us from the start.
I know ours is just one of many tales of hardship in the last couple of years.
I feel many – hopefully most – people are beginning to understand the toll on people’s health caused by the lockdowns. But we feel people would be equally shocked to learn of the treatment meted out to us by the authorities, and the way in which we have lost our small family business.
If you feel able to help, we would be most grateful for any financial contribution, however small. We have set up a crowdfunder here.
At this stage, we are losing hope…. We would love to get back on track with our lives with our two young children.
Please help if you can – and thank you for taking the time to read our story.
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She’s got friends?
No. Interests.
Probably Starmer or Sue Gray attempting to get rid of the foul-mouthed slapper.
Wasn’t she supposed to replace Two Tier in the usual pre-Conference interview on BBC TV this morning, when he chickened out? So where was she, then – yet another chicken? Or is the freebies scandal coming home to roost?
Nope! My apologies, she’s at the Conference. I got my wires crossed, cancel my comment.
Ministers ‘demand more beaters for their offices in the Commons’
In an extraordinary development not seen since Harold Macmillan took a fortnight’s holiday on the Duke of Devonshire’s Barden High Moor grouse moor, Labour Ministers are demanding that they be allowed to claim beaters on their private estates as House of Commons office expenses.
What next? Plus fours and spaniels gifted by Lord Alli?
When asked for comment, the Government Minister for Shooting and Chairman of the ‘Save Our Butts’ charity simply said:
At this difficult time, we all need to tighten our belts and, unfortunately, that means that all the poor people we use as beaters on our estates need a 50% pay rise but if we put that on our office expenses and misprint it as ‘heaters’, the stupid people who voted for us will never notice.
Rumbled!
This is the moment Christian, Hatun Tash, is arrested and forcibly removed from Speaker’s Corner. The absolute b’stards! That applies to the huge baying mob of Muslim men and the disgusting Stasi police/Muslim Protection Squad;
”Christian Hatun Tash was arrested by @MPSRoyal_Parks
at Speaker’s Corner while being mocked by a group of Islamists. She was stripped searched, i/v’ed at 4 am & held for 15 hours.
Christian Concern have secured a £10,000 settlement.
Speaker’ Corner is a hot bed of Islamist bullying, & the home of two-tier policing. She was also stabbed by a Muslim, the man has never been arrested.
I allege they know the mosque he prays at but refuse to take inquires further.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1837198053746282754
This article describes the previous persecutions of this brave lady by the hateful, intolerant Muslims and police, and the subsequent compensation she was awarded but did not keep for herself;
”Responding to the settlement, Miss Tash, who has given the settlement money to an organisation supporting individuals who decide to leave the Islamic faith and face persecution for doing so, said:
“I have been dealing with two-tiered policing for years. Muslim mobs at Speakers’ Corner are above the law and have been allowed by the police to do what they like to silence debate, increasingly by any means.
“I have been treated appallingly by the police and have been repeatedly humiliated when I had not done anything wrong.
“The police, as usual, just did exactly what the Muslim mob wanted them to do. They even sided with the men who had stolen my property and to this day have taken no action.
“The police have repeatedly taken away my rights and told me that they cannot protect me because they do not want to offend a certain group of people.
“More must be done to properly deal with Islamic violence and intimidation at Speakers’ Corner. We don’t live in Pakistan; we don’t live in Saudi Arabia. I am Christian and by default I believe that Muhammad is a false prophet. I should be allowed to say that in the UK without being stabbed or repeatedly arrested.
“I am concerned that power has been handed over to Muslim mobs on Britain’s streets, and that there is no coming back from this.
“The British public urgently need and deserve better policing.”
https://christianconcern.com/ccpressreleases/christian-preacher-assaulted-by-islamic-mob-chanting-allahu-akbar-wins-10000-pay-out-after-false-arrest-at-speakers-corner/
Just another assault on Posie Parker by some nutjob, demented man ( I think the word ”man” is pushing it, mind ) who hates women, especially opinionated non-submissive women. There are men on here who will be fully supportive of this man’s aggression though, as they too are intimidated and feel threatened by ballsy women exercising their right to free speech, evidently. Women, standing up for their rights? Whatever next?!
”BREAKING: FAR LEFT EXTREMIST MAN ATTACKS WOMEN’S RIGHTS ORGANISOR Posie Parker during her “Let Women Speak” in Sheffield this afternoon.
These scumbags seem to think they are on the right side of history when in fact they are nothing more than sewer rats.”
https://x.com/UnmaskedAntifa/status/1837484053903167646
”There are men in our society who think attacking a woman at a “Let Women Speak” event puts them on “the right side of history”. Fortunately for us Posie Parker and friends are indefatigable, and not going anywhere.”
https://x.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1837542185526612233
He’s been arrested and bailed. Who’s willing to bet he’ll get sent down the same as the people who only shared a meme or shouted at police/dogs but never actually assaulted anyone? Nah, me neither. Just another pathetic so-called ”man” who gets triggered by strong women who aren’t backwards in coming forwards about defending their sex-based rights/spaces and protecting their daughters from predatory sex pests;
”A 34-year-old man has been charged with two counts of assault by beating following an incident in Sheffield city centre earlier today (21 September).
Ben Lindsay, of Fitzwilliam Street, Barnsley, was arrested by officers earlier this afternoon during a demonstration in Barkers Pool.
He has since been released on conditional bail and will appear before Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on 25 November.”
https://x.com/NewsNowYorks/status/1837585086327493101
He’s possibly one of these guys. There’s a fair amount on here who certainly meet this description. ‘Projection’ is their middle name and introspection is an alien concept as women must be blamed for all things gone wrong with society at all times, including the men’s own personal failings, and to hell with the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary. Can’t get laid? Well, that’s obviously women’s fault too;
”Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) are a part of the manosphere, a broad set of male supremacist, anti-feminist, misogynist and sometimes violent movements that exist largely online. MRAs embrace traditional masculinity as the ideal state of men in society and vehemently reject the principles and advancements of feminism.
In the modern era (roughly 2015 to present), MRAs, who have adopted a narrative of victimhood, tend to congregate online, populating websites, forums, image boards, subreddits and social media platforms. White men appear to be particularly drawn to MRAs’ internalized victim mentality, in part because it aligns with their claims that feminism has eroded their social and political capital. Men’s Rights groups blamed their collective problems on the rise of feminism and the resulting gains in women’s equality, empowerment and success.”
https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/mens-rights-activists-what-you-need-know
Swedish Professor: ‘Disinformation’ Label Used To Limit Free Speech
And totalitarian socialist fascism is what follows. This is what it looks like:
On 15 March 2022, the McCain Institute and the Phoenix Council on Foreign Relations invited Kara-Murza to speak in Arizona. While there, he addressed the Arizona House of Representatives, where he said: “The whole world sees what the Putin regime is doing to Ukraine. The cluster bombs on residential areas, the bombings of maternity wards, hospitals, and schools, and the war crimes. These are war crimes that are being committed by the dictatorial regime in the Kremlin against a nation in the middle of Europe.”
For that speech, he was indicted in Russia on the charge of “dissemination of knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces,” which carries a sentence of ten to fifteen years. The indictment alleged that “Kara-Murza . . . distributed, under the guise of reliable reports, deliberately false information,” which included data on the Russian military’s bombardment of residential areas and social-infrastructure facilities (maternity homes, hospitals, and schools) and on the use of prohibited “means and methods of warfare during a special military operation in Ukraine.” Thus Kara-Murza had caused “substantial harm to the interests of the Russian Federation,” the indictment accused.
….We learned from a late-night phone call that Vladimir had been poisoned in Moscow.
Against all odds, Vladimir survived that first poisoning, as well as a second……
On 31st July 2023, the First Moscow Court of Appeal left the sentence of 25 years imprisonment to Vladimir Kara-Murza unchanged. From that day it entered into legal force. Then, on 4th September, I learned that he had been secretly moved out of the detention centre in Moscow and has disappeared from view.
The authorities said he had been moved to hospital; in fact, they transferred him to IK-11, an even stricter colony, removing his final right, his access to his lawyers.
“The hospital was only that by name,” he said. “When people hear the word ‘hospital’, they imagine beds, doctors walking around. No, it was nothing like that. It was actually the harshest prison I had been to, in all my two years and three months, which was some achievement.”
….he was shoved into a tiny punishment cell. His only walk was for half an hour “in a circle over and over again” in an enclosed courtyard with bars overhead.’
‘Most Russian penal colonies and prisons were built back in Stalinist times. Despite several attempts to reform the prison system in Russia, they still resemble the Soviet Gulag: human rights violations and torture are common, the prison service is a machine that knows well how to hide pathologies and earn extra money (for example, by taking bribes and engaging in financial swindles).’
https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2019-02-07/russia-behind-bars-peculiarities-russian-prison-system
“The whole world sees what the Putin regime is doing to Ukraine. The cluster bombs on residential areas, the bombings of maternity wards, hospitals, and schools, and the war crimes. These are war crimes that are being committed by the dictatorial regime in the Kremlin against a nation in the middle of Europe.”
For that speech, he was indicted in Russia on the charge of “dissemination of knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces” …
And quite rightly so. Pure projection: these are the crimes that Ukraine has committed and still commits today – not Russia.
How would I know? From watching numerous video reports directly from the Donbas area over the past two years, for example: https://odysee.com/@EvaKareneBartlett:9?view=content or https://www.youtube.com/c/PatrickLancasterNewsToday.
And if you believe these videos are all somehow concocted Russian propaganda, then how do you explain both these reporters being placed on the infamous Myrotvorets website: Ukraine’s hit list?
As far as Russian prisons are concerned, yes, they are presumably not as comfortable as UK prisons and Russian prisoners are probably not released after serving only 40% of their sentence. It is encouraging (in a sense) that fewer people are being incarcerated but the prisons are undoubtedly left-overs from the Soviet Union and it will simply take time before improvements can be expected. The UK is also not particularly interested in building new prisons.
And the West is not short of political prisoners, Julian Assange being the more famous sufferer. To avoid the “dissemination of knowingly false information” problem you mention, I will state that I read an unconfirmed report that Germany is still holding Reiner Fuellmich in solitary confinement, which would be contrary to German law, not to mention human rights: but I certainly hope that is not true. And has Guantanamo been closed?
For context, Vladimir Kara-Murza, March 15th, 2022:
‘It was very frustrating for us in Russia, for those of us who believe in democracy in Russia, to see Putin rise to power.
I can say, for one, I realized just who Mr. Putin was and just which direction he would lead our country and the world.
In December of 1999, I even remember the specific date, it might sound strange, but there’s a reason for that. December the 20th, 1999.
The day is still marked in Russia astonishingly as Chekist day, the day to commemorate the founding of the Cheka, later known as the KGB, the Bolshevik secret police, in 1917.
On that day in 1999, Vladimir Putin, then still Prime Minister of Russia, went to Lubyanka Square in Moscow, the site of the old KGB headquarters, to officially unveil a memorial plaque to Yuri Andropov.
Yuri Andropov, of course, was somebody who symbolized and epitomized the worst of the worst of the post-Stalin political repression in the Soviet Union.
He was somebody who was among the organizers of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.
He was somebody who had, for years, prioritized targeting and prosecuting political dissidents in the Soviet Union.
One of the things he did was institute a horrendous practice of punitive psychiatry.
Dissidents, people opposed to the communist regime, would be forcibly confined to psychiatric institutions, declared mentally insane, and kept there in torturous conditions for years and years.
So it was to that man that Vladimir Putin unveiled a memorial plaque back in December of 1999.
To me and so many of my friends and colleagues in Russia, there were no more questions about who this man was and what he would do.
To make it absolutely clear if anybody still had any questions, during the first year of his role, Mr. Putin reinstated the Stalin-era national anthem of the Soviet Union as the national anthem of the Russian Federation.
Russia is a country of symbols, and to choose a symbol like that is an unmistakable message of what direction you’re going to take.
Very quickly, the symbols turned into actions.
Very quickly, Vladimir Putin began to go after independent media, began to go after opposition parties, began to rig elections, imprison opponents, then murder opponents, and very quickly, within the space of literally a few years, transformed Russia from an imperfect democracy that we had back in the 1990s to the perfect authoritarian state that he has built today.’
‘The whole modus operandi of the Putin regime is that the people around him, let’s not forget, it’s not just an autocratic regime, it’s a kleptocratic one as well, from the classic Greek definition of the word “ruled by the thieves”; those thieves want to steal in Russia and then spend and stash away that stolen money in the West, where they have their yachts, their villas, their bank accounts’
‘I’m not only a politician, but I’m also a historian by education, and one thing we know from history is how the appeasement of dictators ends; it always ends the same way.
I wish we had been wrong on this, but today the whole world sees what the Putin regime is doing to Ukraine. The cluster bombs on residential areas, the bombings of maternity wards, hospitals, and schools, and the war crimes.
These are war crimes that are being committed by the dictatorial regime in the Kremlin against a nation in the middle of Europe.
This is, unfortunately, where all the years of Putin’s rule have led us.
But as much as it’s difficult for any of us to be a little bit optimistic and even a little bit hopeful about the future, I also want to speak about the other side of Russia to you.
Very often, people in the West only see the official side.
They see Putin, the repression, the aggressive actions, and the war that is now happening.
The other side is very often lost. The other side, of course, is that there are millions of people in my country who fundamentally reject and fundamentally disagree with everything that the Putin regime stands for and represents, from the Kleptocracy to the abuses, repressions, and crimes against humanity that are being committed.’
https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/in-the-news/statement-on-vladimir-kara-murza/
But you are not one of those millions of people, are you?
You stand condemned, out of your own mouth, as a totalitarian socialist fascist running dog.
This is a site for free speech.
You can say what you like on here.
But you would have courageous free thinkers in Russia imprisoned in barbaric and inhuman conditions for ‘dissemination of knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces’.
By that measure, you and many others on this site who still pronounce that Russia has armed forces of any integrity would be consigned to the ‘Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Colonies’
You are an absolute disgrace.
You and I have nothing more to say to one another.
78% of the Russian population participated in the recent presidential election, of which 88% voted for Vladimir Putin. So the claim that there are millions of Russians who fundamentally reject everything Putin stands for is mathematically possible but it is hardly presenting a true picture of the massive support Putin has from the Russian population – a level of support that a European or US politician could only dream of.
The talk you cite was a speech given to the US McCain institute:
So, the way I first met Senator John McCain was when we worked with him and others to introduce back in 2010, a bill in the American Congress called the Magnitsky Act, which put forward a very simple principle: that those people who are engaged in human rights abuses and corruption in Russia, and in fact, any other authoritarian state around the world, would no longer be able to get visas on assets or use the financial and banking system of the United States.
Which all sounds very noble except when one lists the human rights abuses performed all over the world by USA, bombing this country, bombing that country, overturning this government, overturning that government, installing military bases wherever they like, stealing Syrian oil, and so on and so forth.
However, I have no idea who Vladimir Kara-Murza is and I can well believe many of his claims, especially regarding USSR, except for “The cluster bombs on residential areas, the bombings of maternity wards, hospitals, and schools, and the war crimes”, because those are precisely the actions the Ukrainian military have provenly performed, not to mention dropping Butterfly mines all over Donetsk, not to mention dropping explosives from drones on bus stop queues, waiting for emergency forces to arrive and then dropping more explosives. And so on …
This is all clearly documented in the video links I provided.
“Transposing the First Amendment into U.K. law would be an emphatic restoration of what England has lost, argues Harrison Pitt in the European Conservative.”
Not going to happen. There’s no broad groundswell of opinion in favour. Most people I speak to say they believe in freedom of speech up to the point where you cite examples of speech that would be allowed that they find abhorrent, and then the caveats start to flow.
Reform proposed a “Comprehensive Free Speech Bill” but they don’t explicitly state they will repeal the relevant parts of the various acts that limit speech. I think under the US First Amendment a lot of the activities of Ofcom would be illegal.
I usually say that immigration is the most pressing issue we face because it is in practice irreversible, but freedom of speech is a close second because without it, we cannot have a properly functioning democracy.
Tell those ministers they can only have wind or solar powered heating, see how they like it.
Must also be heat pumps.