Climate trials continue as temperatures rise and justice withers / 1

JVL Introduction

Ludi Simpson, JVL member and environmental activist was arrested with two others in September 2022 for throwing soup at the glass and frames of two Van Gogh paintings to publicise climate breakdown in the face of insufficient action by the UK government to keep fossil fuels grounded.

His trial will take place at the beginning of 2026. His action marked the conviction of two other activists, Phoebe and Anna, for a similar action in 2022. They received sentences of two years and 20 months respectively from Judge Hehir who had previously given suspended sentences to two “thugs” who beat up two off-duty police officers, one of whom “required major surgery”.

Here Ludi gives his final update before his trial at a time when global heating, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising at a faster rate than ever.

Whether Ludi gets a custodial sentence or not will depend in part on the sympathies of the particular judge and the view of the jury on the proportionality of the actions in the face of the hurricane of climate breakdown.

Jewish Voice for Liberation publishes the update in solidarity with Ludi and other climate and Palestine activists facing trial.

TB

Soup and Sunflowers update 5th November 2025

Hello dear friends and family

I expect this fourth update will be the last one before our Soup and Sunflowers trial begins on January 5th . As usual I am sending this to some new friends, who can see the past updates here: Jan 1st 2025, Mar 16th 2025 and Jun 13th 2025. As usual, if you don’t want to receive these, just let me know and I’ll take you off, no questions asked. And as usual, the update consists of answers to questions I’ve been asked, for example at last week’s ‘Prattle’ discussion in Shipley (thanks to Oli for inviting me).

What’s the timetable now Ludi?

It feels like legal jaws are opening, with a risk of distracting us from the continuing inaction in the face of climate collapse. We have a pre-trial hearing on 24th November, when the prosecution and defence tell the judge how prepared their cases are, and agree which witnesses will appear at trial.

The judge, probably Mr Tomlinson, may already decide at this hearing what defences we will be allowed. He may well use precedent that ‘significant damage’ to the frames means we can’t claim the right to protest as a defence. We will counter-argue that the damage is disputed and so this must wait until the trial itself, preferably for the jury to decide.

The trial is scheduled for Monday January 5th at Southwark Crown Court, to last 3-4 days. If we can’t persuade the jury to find us not guilty, it is very likely that the judge will set a date 1-2 months later to sentence us, after he has read reports on our personal circumstances, and we’ll be at liberty during that time. The judge could take as a precedent the sentences of 20 months and 2 years given to Anna and Phoebe whose footsteps we followed in. Or go higher because we threw soup onto the glass coverings of two paintings. Or go lower because… well, if that’s what they want they’ll find a reason.

How is the legal preparation going?

The same very thinly stretched justice system creates long delays before trials and leaves everything until the last minute. The Secret Barrister (2018) exposes it very well.

We’ll mix a challenge to the charge of criminal damage to the paintings’ frames, with explanation of why we acted as we did. More than 2,000 media reports linked our action to climate in the two days after we were arrested. The last ten years have been the ten hottest global average temperatures on record. One has to take decisions in the face of injustice.

To be honest I’m much more anxious about the trial than the possibility of jail. There is so much that is unpredictable about the prosecution and the judge, and so much to hold in mind about how to connect to a jury. I’m trying to absorb advice to be myself, do my best, and accept the rest. Easily said!

I have generous character references and good pictures of the frames (thanks, you know who you are!). We are still searching for experts on how an antique frame can or can’t be damaged by soup. And thanks to all of you who contributed towards the nine thousand pounds raised for our legal funds, a wonderful reassurance.

Doesn’t it help you that the Stonehenge paint-sprayers were found not guilty?

It’s great news that a jury felt that spraying Stonehenge with water-based paint that was easily removed is a reasonable disruption to expect in protest about climate inaction. However, their charge was public nuisance, one of the new offences created by the last government. The decision won’t have any legal effect on our trial.

Isn’t climate protest old hat now?

Oh my god: don’t look up, look away! This government has clamped down on protest about Palestine and has banned as terrorist the only organisation which was practical about stopping UK factories arming Israel’s genocide. It has introduced new police powers to restrict whistleblowing protests. It has demoted jury powers, fuelled genocide, and keeps ignoring the mass murder of fossil fuel pollution. I think mass murder is a fair description of those already killed in floods and fire and storms, let alone the Institute of Actuaries’ prediction of 80 million dead at its most limited assessment, rising to two billion at the catastrophic level that the current trajectory indicates.

Is it an irony that government shows its weakness by needing to be so authoritarian? I believe that giving priority to profitable private industry over people’s needs fuels militarism, climate catastrophe and extreme inequality. This doesn’t even feel like I’m on a soapbox! I’m just telling a well-known story.

What’s good in your life?

That’s more like it. Civil Partnership! Sue’s sealing the knot with me and I’m very happy about that. Yes, it will make it easier to manage my affairs if I’m away. Sue’s also taking risks in a stand for rationality and morality; she’s one of the two thousand who have already been arrested for holding up a piece of cardboard saying ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’. Fingers crossed that the Judicial Review later in November rejects the proscription of PA, in a way that annuls all those arrests.

And I do take heart from this morning’s news of Zohran Mamdani’s thorough win in New York mayoral elections, fought on cost of living issues.

What does solidarity look like during your trial?

Several people have asked me about attending Court during the trial, and there is a public gallery. We’ll have family and others there, and really want to emphasise that the issue is not us and our legal fate or whether we can persuade twelve members of the jury. After all, this is what we knew was going to happen.

So I’m really interested in ideas for highlighting the real climate criminals during that week. We can send daily news from the trial, which can be the hook for publicity about simultaneous activities elsewhere. Activities that highlight the catastrophe of not moving fast to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Please email me if you want to help on that. Knowing someone on trial helps publicity.

Will you argue that art isn’t sacred?

Not me! We were never in danger of damaging van Gogh’s paintings which I do love. There’s a different argument about the value of frames in a gallery, which we had no intention to damage and I don’t think we did. But frames are hardly the stuff that people come to see.

Of course art isn’t sacred. I also love Banksy’s commentary stencilled onto the Royal Courts of Justice on September 7th this year, rubbed out by the Courts the next day.

All good wishes to you all from me, Ludi