Matthew McConkey

Postdoc Fellow at Liverpool; PhD in poetry, environment, psychoanalysis 1740-1820; current project on infrastructure and resistance in C18 Britain and America.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

It is said dissent is the foundation of liberty. And yet the travesty of justice that took place today at Southwark Crown Court speaks to a democracy that is in danger of forgetting that at its peril.

We must not be numb to how extreme the sentences handed out today to peaceful protesters are, and how this marks an acceleration in Britain’s democratic decline. These are the longest ever sentences handed out for participation in peaceful, non-violent action.

These sentences have been made using the Tories’ new and draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. So extreme is this law and its impact on environmental defenders, that earlier this year UN Special Rapporteur @ForstMichel "seriously question[ed] the necessity and proportionality of such conditions for persons engaging in peaceful protest" and was "distressed to see how environmental defenders are derided by some of the mainstream UK media and in the political sphere".

Following the sentencing today, @Global_Witness has said the UK is "becoming one of the most dangerous countries in the western world to speak up in defence of our planet."

The ability to peacefully protest is integral to a healthy and robust democracy. Its criminalisation speaks to a deeper malaise. One that calls into question the health of some fundamental democratic cornerstones.

The last Conservative government was one of the most authoritarian we have ever seen in this country. It changed the law to deny defendants the right to use as a defence their concern about the climate crisis and in so doing to speak truth to power.

That power is oil corporations and the big business interests that benefit from its continued extraction. Extraction that will cost us all dearly.

It is why I spoke in solidarity with the five climate protestors. And it is why I back their calls for a meeting between campaigners, scientists and the Attorney General to discuss their case and the laws which saw them imprisoned.

These laws in question should be repealed and the five wrongly imprisoned, pardoned. Our current government must not only undo the damage the last one did to our democracy, but it must also strengthen and protection our democracy with new laws and institutions that protect it in the knowledge that authoritarian governments may follow them the years to come.

[Matthew McConkey @critical__thot]

I wonder if X can be used for five minutes per day for essential academic networking without leading to brain rot.

[British Association for Romantic Studies @BARS_official]

⚓️CfP Announcement: Transnational Romanticism⚓️
More info on the BARS Blog ⤵️
https://t.co/g0ADeZ1ize

[British Association for Romantic Studies @BARS_official]

Call for Expressions of Interest:
BARS 2026 INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
This conference will follow ‘Romantic Making and Unmaking’ (taking place in Glasgow and Online in July/August 2024).
Deadline: Sunday 1 September 2024
https://t.co/g5f57eArIF

[Slí Eile @sli_eile_]

Only three weeks to go before Climate Camp Ireland at Ard Bó. Thinking of joining us for some community, céilís and craic? Let us know you’re attending here: https://t.co/K1zTLZTyK4

[Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole]

Labour would extend right to wild camp to all English national parks, & orgs like @openspacessoc would go further - extending wild camping to all CRoW access land.

This is the impact of public protest following Darwall's court case!

https://t.co/kBlRxMuPfR

[Matthew McConkey @critical__thot]

If you are looking for permission to spend Brighton Pride in a pillow fort in your own home watching John Waters movies, this tweet is it.

[Dartmoor National Park @dartmoornpa]

Great news! The court of appeal has ruled in our favour regarding the right to backpack camp. We're very pleased with the result, but ask if you are planning a backpack camping trip to please check the camping map and follow leave no trace principles ⛺️👍

https://t.co/K50mCtOTNb

[Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole]

*Drum roll* I'm writing a 3rd book:

THE LIE OF THE LAND

To be published by @WmCollinsBooks Autumn 2024

It will examine landowners' claims of stewardship; grouse moors; fenland drainage; invasive species - & put paid to the old lie: that only those who own land can care for it.

[UCD Environmental Humanities @ucd_envhum]

Join us for the first talk in our 'Capital and Nature' series co-hosted with @cce_durham Thu 2 Mar at 4 PM (GMT). Sean O'Brien @sean_obee will speak on "Black Reproduction After Hurricane Katrina: Stagnation, Genre, the Racialization of Foreclosure." Zoom reg details in attached.

[KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory @KTHEnvHumsLab]

We are in collaboration with colleagues arranging an OCC! Online school, a three-weekend interdisciplinary school inviting early career researchers to explore climate change and its consequences through various perspectives. Apply by 15 March: https://t.co/HxGwHOe2jN

[Matthew McConkey @critical__thot]

First tweet is the scariest