As Guido flagged last month, the economy-wrecking and ambulance-delaying crazies over at Just Stop Oil have called time on their direct action tactics. Whether slow-walking in front of traffic or sitting in the middle of the road, JSO’s reign of terror led to commuter fury, especially in London. Their tactics became so unpopular that the group realised it was doing damage to its own message, a classic hard left flop…
Now a group of successor organisations are popping up on the radar to take over where JSO has left off. A bunch of nutters called ‘Stop the System’ are planning operations to cut fibre optic internet cables at companies they accuse of “destroying life on earth” by using fossil fuels. One of their actions in January saw Lloyd’s of London, WR Berkley, Chubb and Tokio Marine impacted…
Then there is The Tyre Extinguishers, a loony outfit which goes around slashing the tyres of SUVs. The group has struck several times in the UK and other European countries. One victim told the BBC: “You deflated my tyres without knowing who I am and my status in life. My mother is in palliative care and I came to the car to go to her, but because of your vicious act, I am stuck trying to reinflate my tyres!”. The group seeks to exploit a legal loophole causing uncertainty over whether it is a crime to let the air out the tyres on someone else’s vehicle…
A recent overview of the operations of climate extremists notes that the Conservative-led charge to toughen up laws against direct action had a profound effect disabling JSO’s operations and forcing its shutdown: “From inside the group, I heard that churn had increased: it was proving tricky to recruit when the jail time was no longer a mere possibility but a tangible prospect. A long-running criticism of both XR and JSO, that they recklessly endangered their actionists, seems to have finally had an effect on sign ups.” Don’t be surprised if Labour is weak on this new wave of trouble…
Starmer’s “anti-extremism” adviser, Lord Walney, has been booted unceremoniously from his post – just a day after the anniversary of the Hamas bombings. Bizarrely, the news broke through the hard left propaganda site Byline Times, with a Home Office spokesman confirming to the highly marginal site that Walney was no longer the Government’s ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption.’ Guido hears Walney himself did not find out with much notice, having been under the impression that he’d stay on as Labour conducted a review of their extremism policies…
Lord Walney’s been a thorn in the side of Extinction Rebellion and other extremists groups for a while, having written a report recommending the police be given more powers to curb disruptive, extreme protests. Extinction Rebellion held a protest at the end of last month demanding the government sacked him – which would have been a very good reason to keep him on. And now Labour has bent the knee to their green mob, casting aside a well-respected expert adviser in the (lack of) process…
UPDATE: Walney “remains in post,” Byline has corrected their false article, The Times says he could be on the way out. A mess…
Labour-led Bolton Council has landed itself in hot water after splashing over £1,100 of taxpayers’ cash to fund an Extinction Rebellion “climate café.” In July, the council handed a £1,134 grant to the local XR tree-huggers, ostensibly to host monthly get-togethers to “chat about all matters climate-related”. Sounds riveting…
Billed as a “relaxed and informal” safe space, the café sessions have fuelled outrage among Conservatives who’ve blasted the fact that taxpayers’ hard-earned cash is being recycled into the hands of the eco-warriors. Labour’s habit of burning a hole in the public purse on green causes is raising more than just temperatures…
Despite ‘control freak‘ Sue Gray’s not-so-svengali wrangling causing chaos with government appointments, Labour SpAd teams are coming together and beginning normal operation. Over at DESNZ Ed Miliband’s squad brings some unorthodox ideology to the table…
Miliband is retaining his long-term advisers. Guiding the UK’s energy policy operation will be climate activist Tobias Garnett, the former coordinator of Extinction Rebellion’s legal strategy team who represented the road-gluing activists in court. Garnett believes our trajectory is currently “descending swiftly into a politics of ecofascism forged in the crucible of scarce resources, droughts, floods, climate wars and forced migration.” Doesn’t quite sound like politics that will “tread lightly on people’s lives”…
Also on the team is Jonty Leibowitz, whose passion is arguing for socialist reforms to football that include:
When it comes to his energy brief Leibowitz’ contribution is a policy paper which argues that “regional banking” should be forcibly re-oriented to “financing the energy transition“. Ideas shared by radical Corbynite and “green” bank devotee Miatta Fahnbulleh – recently appointed energy minister…
SpAd Eleanor Salter’s focus is “integrating nature into the climate offer“. Salter thinks a “fundamental shift” is required to deal with the “climate breakdown“, which includes “taking many cars off the roads altogether.” Her other “nature” proposals include allowing anyone to traipse across private property to make “the countryside open to all” but especially to gypsies, whose “access rights are already under threat from the authoritarian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which seeks to criminalise trespass.” And who would have guessed that Salter once said our “best sources of hope” come from Jeremy Corbyn, and that Extinction Rebellion has been “hugely successful… a great accelerator for activism”…
SpAds are often relied on to temper the barmy ideas of their Cabinet Minister. No chance of that in Ed’s team…
In April 2019 Keir Starmer gave his support to Camden Council’s Clean Air Action Plan, which included proposals to limit construction and to force residents into a “modal shift away from private vehicles towards walking, cycling and public transport.” He went further and gave his endorsement to Extinction Rebellion’s tactics:
“Climate change is the issue of our time and, as the Extinction Rebellion protest showed us this week, the next generation are not going to forgive us if we don’t take action. It’s been lots of talk, now we need action and the plan today is about what action we’re going to take here uh in Camden.“
Camden Council has since gone on to propose its own expansive ULEZ which would be charged on top of Khan’s one, as well as limiting families to one car only. Does Starmer support that too?
Extinction Rebellion tactics have racked up Metropolitan Police bills of almost £100 million. The Met is clear that eco-terrorist tactics lead to “hundreds of officers being taken away from local teams” to deal with them. Meanwhile, Starmer’s Shadow Transport Secretary said that Extinction Rebellion has a duty to protest. The loons will have more than one ally in a Labour Cabinet…
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh has some history of calling for “urgent action” on the “climate crisis”, though she’s kept quiet on her long-held activism for a little while. Co-conspirators might wonder whose side will she take when the eco-loons clamber on top of commuter trains…
In 2019 Haigh joined an Extinction Rebellion protest and exclaimed to listening eco-terrorists:
“It is your right if not your duty to stand up and wake up the world to this existential threat facing our humanity, so I am here alongside you tonight because over the world, scientists, teachers, doctors, police officers, parents, and teachers, have joined this movement. Not troublemakers, not uncooperative crusties, but people people make waking us up to the fact that we have failed.”
In a Starmer government Haigh will be responsible for the entirety of England’s transport system and no few elements of devolved ones. Extinction Rebellion will be glad to have such a devoted ally of theirs round the cabinet table…
Starmer loyalist and Housing Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News that Starmer should not be replaced:
“We saw what the Tories did. They were in power for 14 years, and after 2016, I think we had nine education secretaries, seven chancellors, and five Prime Ministers. Doomscrolling through Prime Ministers doesn’t resolve the problem.”