More than 80 climate anarchists set up roadblocks on the M25 during rush hour today for the second time and clashed with stranded motorists who angrily told them ‘we’ll lose our jobs’ as the demonstrators try to compel urgent action to ‘save the planet’.
Eighteen protesters from Insulate Britain, an Extinction Rebellion offshoot, halted traffic near Junction 23 at South Mimms while another group shut down the main carriageway of the M25 anti-clockwise in Surrey between Junction 9 at Leatherhead and Junction 8 at Reigate.
Protesters held signs which said ‘sorry for the disruption’ as they clashed with drivers stuck in the queue. One motorist at the scene told LBC: ‘They are working against themselves’, while others screamed abuse telling the activists ‘we’ll lose our jobs’.
Videos shared on Twitter show one police officer arriving at the sit-down on his own and awkwardly being met with silence after asking the demonstrators which of them organised today’s demo. He then tells them ‘I’m going to have to ask you to move’ before leaving.
Insulate Britain, which is demanding government action on home insulation, tweeted: ‘#InsulateBritain are back. @BorisJohnson can you hear us yet?’
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari, one protester revealed that he was involved in the first blockade this week but was released by police and not prevented from returning to the M25. He said his actions were justified because ‘humanity is in a code red’ and even compared his cause to those of Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes and Mahatma Gandhi.
‘The United Nations have made it very very clear that humanity is in a code red, which means that emissions – global emissions – are rising. I do believe that insulating the housing stock of the UK is the most cost-effective way to reduce those emissions’, the activist said.
‘History has shown that breaking the law peacefully and causing disruption – with Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes and Gandhi – that these are the most effective tactics to get change to happen quickly.’
Most of the activists who brought the M25 to a standstill three days ago have been arrested for the crime of blocking a public highway, which carries a maximum penalty of £1,000 but just a fifth of that for the first offence – meaning they be fined just £200.
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Eighteen demonstrators from Insulate Britain, an Extincion Rebellion offshoot, halted traffic near J23 at South Mimms while another group shut down the main carriageway of the M25 anti-clockwise in Surrey between J9 at Leatherhead and J8 at Reigate
More than 80 climate anarchists set up roadblocks on the M25 during rush hour today for the second time this week in an apparent bid to force action to reverse climate change and save the planet
Protesters held signs which said ‘sorry for the disruption’ as they clashed with drivers stuck in the queue. One motorist at the scene told LBC: ‘They are working against themselves’, while others screamed abuse telling the activists ‘we’ll lose our jobs’
More than 80 climate anarchists set up roadblocks on the M25 during rush hour today for the second time this week in an apparent bid to force action to reverse climate change and save the planet
Insulate Britain, an Extinction Rebellion offshoot, is demanding government action on home insulation
M25-blocking eco-warrior calling for better insulation ‘lives in house with the worst possible energy rating’
Roger Hallam left Extinction Rebellion to join offshoot Insulate Britain to urge residents to stop heat escaping from their properties
An Extinction Rebellion co-founder who blocked the M25 to protest at people not insulating their homes apparently lives in a house with the worst possible energy rating.
Roger Hallam left Extinction Rebellion to join offshoot Insulate Britain to urge residents to stop heat escaping from their properties.
However, his 2,000 sq ft detached farmhouse has an energy rating of G and allegedly produces four times the amount of CO2 of an average household.
A 2015 report on the property in Carmarthen, South Wales, shows the ‘granite or whinstone’ walls have ‘no insulation (assumed)’ and the roof also has ‘no insulation’.
There is ‘no low energy lighting’ and the building could achieve a much better score if insulation and draught excluders were installed.
Ex-farmer Mr Hallam, 55, declined to comment when approached by The Sun, but a spokesman said: ‘This is the point – UK homes are the leakiest in Europe.
‘Millions of families are unable to afford the advice and help to insulate the building they live in.’
In a statement, an Insulate Britain spokesman said: ‘The world is burning and burning, each year worse than the last. They are disrupting not just today or this week but the next hundred thousand years – for ever.
‘This country is facing the greatest crisis ever and we are told to plant trees and do the recycling. We can take the lies no longer. We are not stupid. We are not children. We will no longer tolerate this dishonesty. We demand credible action now.
‘Proper jobs for hundreds of thousands of people to start the first real step – to insulate all the homes of this country – which pound for pound gives us the biggest reduction in carbon emissions.
‘It is a total no-brainer and yet this Government refuses to get on with the job. This is criminal negligence.
‘We have decided there is something more important than our fears. We have a quiet, iron determination now. We are here to do our duty – to fulfil our responsibilities to our grandparents and their parents who gave their lives to preserve our way of life. To our children and the next thousand generations who will curse us for eternity if we do not act.
‘We will keep going until the Government responds.’
The failure of police to immediately arrest protesters who blocked five junctions of the M25 for up to four hours sparked fury this week.
Yesterday Richard Madeley accused the original M25 eco mob of ‘fascism’ for ‘blocking out reality’ in an angry clash with an activist – as motorists trying to haul away protesters were called ‘heroes’ amid anger at the slow police response.
Electrician Liam Norton, 36, who did not take part in the protest but was one of the organisers, went head to head with the Good Morning Britain host yesterday morning as he attempted to justify the disruptive roadblocks as a means of protecting the planet.
He said: ‘Why do you think grannies are on the road yesterday? Why do you think that’s happening? This is the way that has been proven to force the Government to act… the Government is not looking after their citizens, Richard.’
But Mr Madeley rejected the argument, saying: ‘You’re blocking out reality, aren’t you? You’re only seeing one aspect of reality. You’re ignoring the reality of the individual.
‘You’re seeing the reality of the state, and that’s fine, but you’re seeing it at the expense of the reality of the individual, and that’s fascism, I’m afraid.’
A video has emerged of officers protecting the law-breaking activists while dragging away an irate and incredulous driver who decided to take the law into his own hands. The unnamed motorist tried to pull activists off the sliproad, believed to be at junction three for Swanley, Kent, as another man repeatedly yells at a policeman: ‘I just don’t understand why you won’t move them’.
The driver trying to break-up the protest and tear down banners was then dragged away by officers who then returned to guarding the members of Insulate Britain.
A second video showed another motorist trying to clear protesters at junction 20 of the M25 at Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, leading some people to call him a ‘hero’ – although others warned about the dangers of vigilantism.
There was also disruption and long queues at junction six for Godstone in Surrey, 14 for London Heathrow Airport, 20 for Kings Langley in Hertfordshire and 31 for Purfleet in Essex near the Dartford Crossing. There have been 92 arrests so far.
Surrey Police arrested 35 activists for a range of offences including highway obstruction – but all have now been released. A total of 15 were released on conditional bail while the rest were released pending investigation.
No one has yet been charged, with the force saying they are collecting witness testimonies and dashcam footage to ‘progress the investigation’.
Insulate Britain confirmed that electrician Liam Norton was not among those arrested.
The failure of police to immediately arrest protesters who blocked five junctions of the M25 for up to four hours sparked fury this week
Police then tackled the driver as people took to social media to praise him and criticise the officers who dragged him away
An irate driver who had enough of the queues on the M25 took the matter into his own hands and began moving protesters with links to XR and grabbing their banners
Obstruction of a British road ‘without lawful authority or excuse’ is an offence under Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980, with a punishment of a fine and up to six months in prison. Yet at Junction 14 of the M25, close to Heathrow, it took four hours to arrest the activists and reopen the road at one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the UK.
With police again accused of being too scared of tackling climate change activists, one critic tweeted: ‘Public servants stand by while the public do the job they are paid for. This bl**dy country at times is just beyond. They were happy to arrest people for going for a walk or stopping on a bench for a coffee’.
Another wrote: ‘If the police won’t enforce the law then that leaves no choice but to do it ourselves. These climate change imbeciles have no legal basis upon which to block the highway especially as such nonsense could potentially hold up emergency services and cost lives’.
Officers from Kent, Surrey, Essex, Hertfordshire and the Metropolitan Police dealt with the incidents that caused delays of up to four hours at rush hour. Many questioned why it took up until Midday to break-up protests that began at 8am.
A former chief constable said the protest was ‘extraordinarily dangerous’, while motorists – some of whom were stuck in traffic for three hours with young children – said it was ‘madness’, with one urging police: ‘Move them.’
The Metropolitan Police said it took action ‘to ensure disruption was minimised’ while the Hertfordshire force insisted it ‘quickly mobilised resources to the scene’.
AA president Edmund King said: ‘This action is not only incredibly dangerous in potentially putting lives at risk, but it also backfires in environmental terms by causing more delays and more vehicle emissions.
‘These are some of the busiest sections of the M25 where tens of thousands of drivers will have been affected and it has a negative knock-on effect on economic activity.’
A Surrey Police spokesman said: ‘We were called to Junction 6 and Junction 14 of the motorway just after 8am following reports that a number of people were protesting on behalf of Insulate Britain.
‘A total of 35 people were arrested on suspicion of various offences, including public nuisance, obstructing the highway and conspiracy to cause danger to road users. They were taken to custody, with 15 released on conditional bail while the rest have been released under investigation pending further enquiries.’
The mob included an organic farmer who compares himself to Mahatma Gandhi, a puppeteer, a vegan ‘business coach’ and a ‘rebel’ IT project manager.
Farmer Roger Hallam, 55, who helped found Extinction Rebellion, before leaving to joining protest organiser Insulate Britain, wants to ‘bring down all the regimes in the world’, starting with Britain, and believes those running society ‘should have a bullet through their heads’.
Steve Gower, 54, pictured in a ‘Team Corbyn’ T-shirt from Gloucester, is one of the ringleaders of yesterday’s protests
Liam Norton (left), 36, an electrician; and Zoe Cohen (right), 51, a self-employed mother, are both part of Insulate Britain
There have been allegations of a ‘cult-like’ following for the Welshman who compares his tactics to those of heroic activists Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He is said to have been inspired to take up climate activism after his farm in Wales went bust due to bad weather.
Ironically, Mr Hallam owns a farmhouse which was described as ‘poorly insulated’ in an official energy performance certificate. His 2,000 sq ft farmhouse in Carmarthen, South Wales, was given the lowest possible energy rating on the certificate. It is unclear if Mr Hallam has taken steps to improve the rating since it was issued six years ago.
Asked about the certificate last night, a spokesman for the group said: ‘This is the point – UK homes are the leakiest in Europe, with many millions of families being unable to afford the advice and help needed to insulate the building they live in.’
Joining Mr Hallam was David McKenny, 38, from Cambridge, who was one of six XR protesters who ‘doorstepped’ TV wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough, 95, at the height of pandemic after he criticised their tactics. The group posted a letter through Sir David’s door as he isolated due to his age last year.
Vegan business coach Zoe Cohen, 51, from Lymm, Cheshire, said she joined yesterday’s action to demand ‘real action’ from ministers. She was involved in XR’s takeover of central London last month.
Ms Cohen said then: ‘We are more scared of the reality of what this system is doing to ending life on Earth and ending our future and our children’s future than we are of spending a night in a cell.’ She describes herself as a ‘carbon literate coach’ and ‘XR catalyser’ on social media.
Janine Eagling, 60, from London, helped to block the M25 and A13 junction yesterday. She has been involved with XR since 2018, helping to form blockades across Waltham Forest.
The IT project manager describes herself online as a ‘world citizen’ and ‘rebel’ as well as a cyclist, walker and gardener. She has overseen IT projects at top universities and was part of a campaign to improve safety for cyclists in the capital.
Liam Norton, 36, a London electrician who helped organise the protest, said he was ‘shocked at the lack of significant action from our Government’.
He became involved in climate activism in 2018 when he helped blockade five bridges in the capital and went on to join XR’s ‘actions team’, which is responsible for planning civil disobedience. He was convicted over blocking printing presses last year.
He delayed court proceedings by gluing himself to a table. It took three hours for police to remove him and the stunt is thought to have cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds.
He told Good Morning Britain: ‘The government is not looking after their citizens. We are. We’ve got a plan to insulate Britain that gives you the best value for money in terms of reducing emissions. Hundreds of thousand of meaningful jobs will be created.’
Another protester, Steve Gower, 54, from Gloucester, is unemployed but describes himself as a volunteer advocate for the homeless and is an active Unite union campaigner.
Last summer Gower was ordered to pay £267 by a magistrate after he dropped a cigarette in the street while visiting a Jobcentre. He said that the fine spiralled because he couldn’t afford the reduced fine of £75 and was told there was no opportunity to pay in instalments.
He was joined at the M25 road blockage by Eli Rose, 26, who spent 16 days in a tree last September to protest the HS2 rail link.
Ms Rose lived in the tree in Parliament Square because she ‘cannot bear’ knowing her potential future children will be born ‘into a world where they will have to battle through food shortages and drought.’