Extinction Rebellion descend on London for third day of protests

More than 100 police officers stood idly by as Extinction Rebellion (XR) protestors brought chaos to one of London’s premier shopping districts.

XR activists blockaded the busy intersection between Oxford Street and Regent Street, spending the entire afternoon playing drums, eating and listening to speeches as surrounding roads were closed, leaving traffic gridlocked.

Despite the police presence, officers refused to intervene in serious numbers as they stood watching the protest or sat nearby in waiting police vans.

Around 500 protestors arrived soon after 2pm and started erecting a giant table and chairs in the heart of Oxford Circus.

Officers briefly moved in to prevent it from being fully erected but then formed a cordon around it as the protest continued.

A number of protestors chained themselves to the half-finished giant table and chairs, which would have measured 2.5 metres high if it had been completed.

In bright afternoon sunshine, activists munched on food such as papayas and onion bhajis while the XR’s samba band played throughout the protest with their drumming echoing around the West End.

Police simply looked on with their arms folded or stood around chatting showing little enthusiasm for breaking up the protest.

A JCB crane was parked nearby which police failed to use as it remained on the back of a trailer. Specialist teams of officers who had cutting equipment with them were also not drafted in.

Officers from Merseyside were brought into London to assist their colleagues from the Met but spent most of the afternoon in their van as the protest raged.

Around 600 eco-warriors from Extinction Rebellion were involved in the Oxford Circus protest today.

Female protesters moved on the busy junction and erected a 2.5m pink table with a banner that read ‘come to the table’ – while placing two chairs facing each other on top.

The radical group said the seats were left empty as an invitation to ‘all those who identify as female, nonbinary or trans’ to sit down.

Some glued themselves to the structure – which was in the same place a boat was two years ago – while others climbed on it, with elderly women around the outside screaming in the faces of policemen.

Later in the day officers finally began to move on the protesters, yelling through a loudspeaker they had to move or they would be arrested.

Earlier the protesters rammed the streets in Piccadilly Circus – blocking commuters from getting by – and blurted out rambling speeches through a microphone.

The activists, who are calling their latest disturbance the ‘Impossible Rebellion’, lofted banners bearing their familiar slogans and many coated up in face paint for the day out.

XR members also pushed on to the Brazilian Embassy near Trafalgar Square – as they hit out at the country’s President Jair Bolsonaro – and the Department for International Trade on Whitehall.

Some played dead in the road while others dressed up as trees and pretended they could not breathe during the bizarre stunts.

About 118 people have been arrested since activists first descended on the streets, with 40 during the protests yesterday.

It comes as activists claim more people have been inspired to take part in the Extinction Rebellion protest following the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Liam Geary Baulch, who helped launch Extinction Rebellion in 2018, said the group saw a jump in donations from people after the document was published on August 9.

Meanwhile Tory MP Nickie Aiken blasted the group for ‘disrupting local businesses’ and pointed out their hypocrisy for leaving ‘120 tonnes of rubbish’ last time.

She also slammed them for the huge costs having to be pumped into policing the two-week event, branding it ‘shocking’.

XR said the women demonstrators at Oxford Circus used ‘lockon devices and glue’ to stand in circles around the table structure and brazenly blocked all surrounding roads to traffic.

They told members of the public to join them and write messages on smaller pink tables stating: ‘If I had a seat at the table I would…’

Activist Hester, 41, a mother of three, said: ‘ I have campaigned for climate action for 20 years and I am exhausted. I have three children and know many women who refuse to bear children into this dying world.

‘We know that women and children are on the frontlines of this crisis, and at the same time women all over the world are rising to the challenge of this moment. I am small and insignificant; I have no power, influence, wealth, title or celebrity. But when we take action together, in great numbers, we can be powerful.

‘If we are to turn around this suicidal system, women all over the world must take their seat at the table. We are just one part of a movement for change, and we invite all women and those who identify as nonbinary, intersex or transgender to join us as we step into our collective power.’

A Met Police spokesman tweeted: ‘Officers intervened when protesters were building a structure at Oxford Circus.

‘Some individuals have glued themselves to the structure, specialist officers are working to support their removal.’

Meanwhile XR members flooded Piccadilly Circus – one of London’s most popular streets – this morning for the start of their third day of civil disobedience.

Many plonked themselves in the road, stopping buses and commuters desperate to get to work, while others lounged around on a fountain in the square.

A microphone was set up so spokesmen could rant about a smorgasbord of issues on top of climate change, with the crowd occasionally clapping and hooting.

Some held up green and pink flags and banners and played drums and chanted during the sit down, while others appeared to have simply stopped to watch events unfold.

Activists also piled down the road towards Trafalgar Square, where they made a racket outside the Brazilian Embassy.

They blocked the road and held up signs with mixed messages on them reading ‘protect the Amazon’, indigenous emergency’ and ‘down with Bolsonaro’.

One heavily tattooed man wore a tea towel over his mouth with the word ‘babes’ printed on it and the scrawled message: ‘Protect indigenous peoples.’

Another bizarre stunt saw a woman with a cardboard cut out of a globe strapped to her waist gyrate about with face paint on.

She screamed into the air while holding a bin bag aloft, before tumbling on to the concrete and pretending to be dead.

Around her fellow activists banged drums and waved flags as they continued their demonstration with what appeared to be a minor police presence.

Protester Rowena Fields, 66, said she had travelled down to London from York this morning especially for the protest outside the embassy and claimed the police were going soft on them today.

She told the Independent: ‘I’m here because I want to support indigenous people and highlight the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

‘This is my fourth XR protest. I think there’s a lighter touch here now compared to before, and it almost feels now the police are more sympathetic to our cause.’

She added: ‘Some of the conversations I’ve had with them – it appears as if they feel like ”this protest makes a lot of sense”.

‘You can’t look at the IPCC report and not think: something urgent needs to happen. Our tactics are also different. They are more fluid and more dispersed.’

From the Brazilian Embassy some protesters split off and moved towards the Department for International Trade building on Whitehall.

Activists from Money Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, gather at the site and held a mock awards ceremony where a ‘Charred Earth’ award was given to the department.

Money Rebellion said the ‘ironic award’ was ‘presented to those who are making an outstandingly awful contribution to climate change’.

A rambling post on the group’s Twitter read: ‘Charred Earth Award Winner. Claim that by treating Brazil as a friendly future trading partner the DIT is condoning deforestation, human rights abuses against Indigenous people & a climate catastrophe. It will have horrific consequences for everyone across the planet.’

Police have so far arrested 118 people during Extinction Rebellion’s protests across the capital this week, with more expected over the next two weeks.

Activists claim more people have been inspired to take part in the Extinction Rebellion protest following the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Liam Geary Baulch, who helped launch Extinction Rebellion in 2018, said the group saw a jump in donations from people after the document was published on August 9.

The report gave a stark warning and outlined that human-caused climate change, which has pushed up global temperatures by 1.1C, is driving weather and climate extremes in every region across the world.

Mr Baulch said: ‘Last week £100,000 was raised in crowdfunding in just 24 hours ahead of the two weeks of protests in London.

‘With the IPCC report just coming out, a lot of people have been reignited with the urgency of taking action on the climate and ecological emergency and are aware that, now it’s more safe for everyone to come to London [due to coronavirus restrictions being eased].’

He added: ‘We are again running groups all over the country and people are being encouraged to come down to London… When they’re here they are all involved with different kinds of protests, all with the aim of like really inviting people to get in and come and talk with us.’

Tory MP Ms Aiken was among many fed up with the group, as she slammed them for making life miserable for Londoners living and commuting where they are.

She told LBC: ‘The disruption to local people and to businesses is immeasurable. I was told last night by Westminster City Council that last time XR were here for two weeks they cleared 120 tonnes of rubbish left behind

‘That added £50,000 worth to their costs and this is local people’s council tax. I want to point out that obviously Westminster and the City of London are considered very wealthy areas.

‘But I want to remind people that actually it’s not all about wealth. There are major areas of deprivation in central London, 25 per cent of homes are social rented and the wealthy who live here have gone for the summer.

‘So it’s those who live here permanently, who can’t escape who are living with this so called beautiful chaos. I can’t tell you the number of calls and emails and letters I’ve had from really worried local people.

‘It’s just gone too far. I think nobody denies we are in a climate emergency and I also don’t think we can deny that this government is probably the most progressive green one we’ve ever had.’

She continued: ‘This government has made tackling climate change a priority and it may not be as quick as XR wish but life is never as simple as we want it to be.

‘We’ve got to bring the people with us and ensure the great British public do their bit. We’ve all got to do our bit but if we act like XR are doing now I think it’s putting people off the cause and it’s going to have the reverse.

‘This concerns me because we have got to work together. But also the police resources that are going into policing this protest for the next fortnight is shocking.’

About 40 people were arrested at XR protests yesterday as the group’s action in central London continued. The Metropolitan Police said the arrests were for a variety of offences. There were 10 Sunday and 52 Monday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the climate protest group said two women had been arrested for spray painting the floor outside the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

An elderly woman who lay in the road was carried off by four policemen and appeared to be arrested, with XR protesters suggesting this was for obstruction.

Other demonstrators lay in front of a banner saying ‘Government in bed with climate criminals’.

After gathering at Parliament Square, demonstrators ran towards slow-moving traffic on Whitehall for the second day of its planned 12-day mass protest.

XR kicked off its Impossible Rebellion protests on Monday when demonstrators blocked roads, including around Trafalgar Square, as they demanded the Government end investment in fossil fuels.

On Sunday, ahead of the official start of the action, protesters gathered at Guildhall in central London, with three scaling the entrance to the building.

A crowd of about 200 people sang and cheered as the protesters sprayed red paint over the walls of the building and unfurled a banner reading ‘co-liberation freedom together’.

The Met said a ‘significant’ operation would be in place for the protests over the bank holiday weekend but also acknowledged the activists’ ‘important cause’.

The demonstrations continue next week, when the activists will protest against the links between ‘big finance, fossil fuels and the fossil of politics that is Westminster’.

SARAH VINE: The horrors in Afghanistan should silence our eco-zealot hypocrites

There is more than a touch of the Prince Harrys about Dr Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, the middle-class eco-worrier movement currently reducing swathes of the capital to a standstill via the medium of, among other horrors, interpretive dance.

Like Harry, Bradbrook is passionate about climate change. Also like Harry, she seems to subscribe to a ‘Do what I say not what I do’ school of activism. While Harry hops home to California from the polo in Colorado on a mate’s private jet, Ms Bradbrook ferries her kids to rugger and football in a diesel car — the worst-offending kind of vehicle in terms of emissions.

Her excuse is that she can’t afford an electric car — and that there are no buses available where she lives on a Sunday.

A plight one would not be entirely unsympathetic towards — were it not for the fact that she and her followers are busy making life a misery for countless ordinary people who don’t have the luxury of being able to take a fortnight off work to dress up as shamans and play the bongos in Covent Garden.

Also like Harry, Dr Bradbrook likes to take exotic holidays which require long-haul flights: in 2016, she flew 11,000 miles to Costa Rica. Apparently, this was necessary for health reasons. The health of whom, one wonders? Certainly not her beloved planet Earth.

To be honest, though, bad as it is, the hypocrisy isn’t even the worst of it. Extinction Rebellion are, in many respects, the perfect example of a ‘first world’ protest movement. Many come from a place of privilege. One so innate they’re not even aware of it.

This is not only brought into sharp relief by the seemingly infinite number of girls called Chloe with cut-glass accents gushing excitedly about ‘climate emergency, yah’ as though it were a new type of designer handbag while gluing themselves to the railings outside daddy’s office in the City, but in recent days far more poignantly, by contrast to a more immediate ’emergency’ unfolding before our very eyes in Afghanistan.

While Bradbrook and her chums waste everyone’s time and money staging their tedious interventions, waving their dreamcatchers and subjecting us all to their terrible dad-dancing, thousands of women and children are facing the grimmest imaginable fate at the hands of the Taliban.

For many of us, watching the unfolding nightmare has put so many of our own petty daily concerns into perspective.

Against such a backdrop, the antics of XR seem not only puerile, but also utterly misplaced.

For a start, they’re preaching to the converted. Britain has long been at the forefront of dealing with climate change, even though we already have some of the lowest rates of pollution in the world.

But then the truth is the future of the planet is not really why XR stage their stunts. If it were, they would not be targeting Trafalgar Square or harassing civil servants. They would be camped outside the Chinese Embassy, or picketing officials in Bejing, trying to persuade the world’s single largest producer of greenhouse gases — 27 per cent — to scale back.

But they’re never going to do that because . . . well, I doubt whether Dr Bradbrook or any of the lovely Chloes would have the stomach for a Chinese jail.

No, XR do what they do because they’re a group of virtue-signalling, attention-seeking busybodies with nothing better to do all day than harass people who actually have to work for a living.

The fact that the country — and the authorities — tolerate them with such good humour is yet another reminder of what a civilised place Britain really is and how lucky we are to live here.