I’ve just donated £10.00 to Just Stop Oil here using my full name, shame it’s not appearing ;)
ed: Dear oh dear, it seems to have broken …
later ed: I wonder if it’s my name – it’s [3/11/22 I did publish my full name here. I am totally willing to show that I support Just Stop Oil. I’ve removed my name because I’m concerned that it may affect search engine rankings for the whole blog.]
[ed: O}n day 32 of their activism my friends ;) at Just Stop Oil attempted to scale the gates of Downing Street and blocked Whitehall to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents.
At 11:20am yesterday, a group of Just Stop Oil supporters swarmed towards the entrance to Downing street on Whitehall and attempted to scale the gates. A further group sat down in the road with banners to block Whitehall. Some glued themselves to the tarmac. 22 people were involved in the actions.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
“Rishi Sunak is about to U-turn on attending COP27. We demand that he also U-turn on new oil and gas. This genocidal policy will kill millions of people, while failing to address the worst cost of living crisis this country has ever seen.
“Its time for a serious windfall tax on big oil, without the get-out-of-jail-free tax credits that will encourage more oil and gas that we cannot afford. Vulnerable people will be freezing to death in their homes this winter, unable to afford a can of soup, while his government refuses to tax the rich and the big energy companies that are profiting from our misery.
“We owe it to our young people to stop fossil fuels, we owe it to our workers to create a just transition to a zero carbon economy, we owe it to our old people to enable them to live with dignity. We are not prepared to stand by and watch while everything we love is destroyed. “
The action yesterday followed BP’s announcement of a bumper profit of £7bn for the last quarter alone, while it expects to pay only £700m in windfall tax on its North Sea operations for the whole year. It also announced that rather than reinvesting its profits in the transition to renewable energy as it claims or in reducing costs for customers, it is prioritising transfers to wealthy shareholders by spending $8.5bn so far this year on share buy backs.
Yesterday’s action follow four weeks of continuous civil resistance by supporters of Just Stop Oil during which the police have made 678 arrests. Since the campaign began on April 1st, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested nearly 2,000 times, with 6 supporters currently in prison.
This week’s UN Report states that “Staying under 1.5C is no longer credible.”
Going over 1.5C locks in the loss of the coral reefs, the loss of 25% of the world’s fish stocks, the destruction of hundreds of millions of livelihoods and millions of innocent lives.
Going over 1.5C means island nations going underwater and this is just the beginning.
Just Stop Oil will be pausing its campaign of civil resistance from yesterday. They say that they are giving time to those in the government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time.
[This report is sourced mainly from Just Stop Oil press bulletins.]
Having bought tickets to Madame Tussauds, at just after 10.30 the two Just Stop Oil supporters stepped over the rope barrier separating the King from the public and smeared the model with chocolate cake. It’ll clean up.
Eilidh McFadden 20 from Glasgow and Tom Johnson 29, a painter decorator from Sunderland then made the following statement:
“We are here because we seek to protect our freedoms and rights, because we seek to protect this green and pleasant land which is the inheritance of us all. Last year at COP 26 in Glasgow Queen Elizabeth said [2]: “The time for words has moved to the time for action!”
Her successor King Charles III – on the continued heating of our world has said [3]: “We are feeling the effects of all of this now, and disasters are increasing with terrifying frequency and intensity, and causing unprecedented levels of physical and economic damage.”
“no nation, no region and no population will be inured from the impacts of food, water and energy insecurity, and the resulting economic and political insecurity that arise from our seeming utter determination quite literally to test this planet to destruction”
“In every sector of the economy there are solutions available now”
“For the past, what, 40-50 years I have been driven by an overwhelming desire not, to be confronted by my grandchildren – or yours, Ladies and Gentlemen, whom I mind about equally as much – demanding to know why I didn’t do anything to prevent them being bequeathed a poisoned and destroyed planet. Now, of course, we are indeed being confronted by these very children, demanding immediate action and not just words.”
“The science is clear. The demand is simple: just stop new oil and gas. It’s a piece of cake”
[from a Just Stop Oil press release]
Thanks to climate activist. Thank you Morgan and Marcus of Just Stop Oil.
Tory MPs and even Essex Police have taken to call climate activists selfish just recently. It’s totally ridiculous – how on Earth can they be selfish while risking prosecution and imprisonment? Those making these accusations are on the side of those destroying the climate for private profit. It’s them that are selfish of course, these assoles have no fekking idea.
It appears that this news is censored by UK government, it is reported by very few news outlets in UK.
Two Just Stop Oil supporters have climbed to the top of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge forcing police to close the bridge to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents.
At approximately 5 am two climbers ascended the two 84m masts on the North side of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge forcing the police to stop traffic from entering the bridge. It is expected that the bridge will remain shut for at least 24 hours.
Morgan Trowland, 39, a bridge design engineer from London, said
“As a professional civil engineer, each year as I renew my registration, I commit to acting within our code of ethics, which requires me to safeguard human life and welfare and the environment. Our government has enacted suicidal laws to accelerate oil production: killing human life and destroying our environment. I can’t challenge this madness in my desk job, designing bridges, so I’m taking direct action, occupying the QE2 bridge until the government stops all new oil.”
Marcus, 33, a teacher from London said:
“Too many people in this country simply don’t know the scale and intensity of climate breakdown as the scientists describe it. The authorities are criminally failing to get this grim science communicated. During Covid the science was conveyed on a daily basis. Why isn’t the most existential threat that humanity has ever faced on the news every day?
“Our political system is betraying the people of this country. More fossil fuel licenses means global genocide. Only direct action will now help to reach the social tipping point we so urgently need.”
Today’s actions follow over two weeks of continuous disruption by supporters of Just Stop Oil in which they have experienced over 450 arrests. On Sunday, there were 14 arrests of Just Stop Oil supporters, who blocked Park Lane and sprayed an Aston Martin dealership with orange paint. Since the campaign began on April 1st, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested over 1,700 times, with 5 currently in prison.