Just Stop Oil vow to keep causing disruption – and have this message for people who are affected
Just Stop Oil protesters are the latest group of climate activists to hit the headlines by gluing themselves to things and delaying traffic.
The group was born in the first few months of this year – out of disillusionment with 2021’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow and in response to the government decision to expand oil and gas production in the North Sea and lift the ban on fracking.
Starting to take “direct action” in April, campaigners “locked on” to roads, tankers and other infrastructure at 10 oil facilities across Essex, Hertfordshire, Birmingham and Southampton, which led to hundreds of arrests.
But in recent weeks, they have expanded to disrupting sport fixtures, vandalising artwork and public institutions like New Scotland Yard.
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Who are Just Stop Oil?
Protests at oil facilities ‘didn’t work’
“It didn’t work,” Just Stop Oil (JSO) spokesperson Emma Brown told Sky News.
“When we did the most obvious, common sense thing of targeting oil companies – that didn’t break through.
“Activists across the world have been taking direct action against oil and gas companies for decades. But they’re out of sight of the public eye and the media.
“We’re causing visible disruption in our capital city. Disruption works because it puts pressure on the police, which puts pressure on the government.”
When two JSO activists scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge 200ft above the Dartford Crossing this week, it had to close for 36 hours and caused six-hour delays around much of the M25.
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Just Stop Oil use hammocks on shut bridge
One of them, Morgan Trowland, a 39-year-old civil engineer, said the demonstration was helping to “reach the social tipping point we so urgently need” on climate change.
And when asked about those who had been disrupted, he added they should “have a thought and empathy” for the 33 million people displaced by floodwater in Pakistan caused by melting ice caps this year.
Ms Brown, who got involved with JSO in March, said it’s “really unfortunate people get caught up in the disruption” and there’s “no such thing as a perfect protest that doesn’t offend anyone”.
She stressed the group have a “blue light policy” whereby they let emergency services vehicles through traffic blocks.
Asked whether they are disrupting people’s daily lives to make them see the gravity of the climate crisis, she replied: “I’m not going to be patronising and say to people ‘we’re trying to change your mind’.
“We’re trying to raise this in the public consciousness. And that happens in the media, by literally seeing disruption on the streets of London.”
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Just Stop Oil spray paints Harrods
Experts say protests get visibility – but no support
Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti, director of the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability, said JSO may have succeeded in getting publicity – but that won’t translate into changes in policy.
“When it comes to this sort of activism, we need to differentiate between garnering visibility and garnering support,” he told Sky News.
“What they’re trying to achieve in putting climate change on the national debate is commendable.
“But the strategies they are using are backfiring in terms of garnering support. And advancing the ecological cause only happens when the public is on your side.”
The protest that appears to have generated the most criticism is when two women threw tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London.
Just Stop Oil activists throw tomato soup over Sunflowers at the National Gallery
Professor Fioramonti commented: “To be successful, what you’re trying to stop has to be the enemy.
“The price of what you do has to be paid by the opponent – in this case the oil and gas companies. What doesn’t work is when that is paid by someone else, then the lay person won’t understand it.”
It also risks “dividing the ecological front” and “tainting the cause” of groups who are engaged in constructive dialogue with governments, fossil foil producers and big business, he added.
“The public may rear-end their view of the overall cause because they think all these groups are the same.”
But Ms Brown insists “that initial outrage” over the Sunflowers is what is having a real impact.
“We wouldn’t have had that impact if we just calmly explained the rationale behind moving to a clean energy future.
“We have to do something – and I would advise anyone who is angry or annoyed at us – or thinks they could do better – to come and join the group.”
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Just Stop Oil ‘antagonising people’
Francois Gemenne, researcher on climate governance at the University of Liege and lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argues that we are “beyond the point” of needing publicity.
“Actions like this are a thing of the past,” he told Sky News.
“The question is how to mobilise people to take action and to help them to do that.
“Getting media attention for the sake of media attention is a little problematic.”
He added that many of his peers are concerned copycat movements could happen across the global south where people on the frontline of climate change are less able to cope with infrastructural damage or disruption caused by protests.
Gave up library job to ‘mobilise full-time’
Having formed off the back of talks at universities across the country, JSO is now thought to have thousands of supporters.
Among them are a team of people who focus on organising protests – and another who deal with strategy. Several hundred are currently involved in the protests themselves.
Ms Brown, a 31-year-old artist from Glasgow, is part of a small group being funded by JSO to work for them full-time.
Ms Brown is pictured centre left
She signed up after being handed a leaflet saying “We’re f*****. Come and see what we’re going to do about it” while working at a university library.
Convinced, in April she took part in blockades of oil refineries in Birmingham and London, as well as gluing herself to the frames of famous paintings in Glasgow.
Two months later she quit her job to “mobilise full-time”, claiming her rent, bills and living costs from JSO after they secured thousands in funding from the US-based Climate Emergency Fund.
“Now I do this 50 hours a week,” she said.
“I do talks around the country, leafleting in the street, non-violent direct action training – talking about the principles of non-violence and preparing people for the hostility we might face.”
She isn’t formally employed but is given an allowance, she added.
“It’s just enough to live on. The media likes to portray us as rich kids – but we’re not – we couldn’t do this if we didn’t have any sustenance.”
Just Stop Oil protest through Westminster, with Emma Brown right
Another group necessary to ‘tell government exactly what to do’
Just Stop Oil’s “civil disobedience” strategy is similar to the ones of fellow climate groups Extinction Rebellion (XR), Animal Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
Many XR activists are now involved in JSO.
“XR isn’t part of Just Stop Oil,” Ms Brown explained. “But there are XR people in the group.
“The Insulate Britain campaign has ended – so some people from there have moved on to be part of this campaign.”
Quizzed on why separate groups keep forming, she added: “With XR governments have declared climate emergencies, but they’re not doing what they need to do.
“So we’re having to tell them exactly what to do – which is ‘Just Stop Oil’ and ‘Insulate Britain’. Having focused campaigns mean we can get those demands won.”
JSO says it wants a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the UK over the next eight years – and will stop all protests when this is secured.
COP26 agreed on various targets to “phase them down” between 2030 and 2050.
Until their demands are met, JSO has daily action planned throughout this month, which results in around a dozen or so activist arrests each time.
In response, the government is pursuing a new Public Order Bill to crack down on demonstrations that target essential infrastructure, creating bigger risks of being arrested, fined or imprisoned for JSO members.
Road protest in central London. Pic: Just Stop Oil
‘Listening’ to minority groups over arrest risks
Ms Brown has been detained on four occasions.
Many have criticised JSO and its predecessors for their relative privilege of being able to “just get arrested” without any serious, long-term consequences.
Ms Brown says such criticisms are “very valid” and the group is “listening to people of colour”.
But she added: “I think that kind of criticism is often levelled at us by people who also have that privilege but aren’t doing anything about the climate crisis.
“I would take umbrage with people who are also white and middle class – and trying to discredit us.
“I’m a mixed-raced woman from a lower-middle class background.
“If I get arrested, I do have family support, I have people’s sofas I could stay on, I wouldn’t be made homeless.
“But I had to look deep into myself to establish if I could do this – and I think more people need to do that.”
So what’s next for Just Stop Oil?
Ms Brown says the group is “definitely continuing”.
But beyond October’s month of action, “conversations are still being had” about what else is on the agenda.
There is likely to be coordinated action around November’s COP27 in Egypt, but nothing concrete yet.
“It’ll be a year on since COP26 and they’ve done nothing. It’s outrageous. So we’re not going away,” she says.
UK
Police investigating alleged attack on prison officer by Southport triple murderer Axel Rudakubana
Schoolchildren are asking teachers how to strangle a partner during sex safely, a charity says, while official figures show an alarming rise in the crime related to domestic abuse cases.
Warning: This article contains references to strangulation, domestic abuse and distressing images.
It comes as a woman whose former partner almost strangled her to death in a rage has advised anyone in an abusive relationship to seek help.
Bernie Ryan, chief executive of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, has been running the charity since its inception in 2022 after non-fatal strangulation became a standalone offence.
“It’s the ultimate form of control,” she says.
She says perpetrators and victims are getting younger, while the reason is unclear, but strangulation has seeped into popular culture and social media.
“We hear lots of sex education providers, teachers saying that they’re hearing it in schools.
“We know teachers have been asked, ‘how do I teach somebody to strangle safely?’
“Our message is there is no safe way to strangle – the anatomy is the anatomy. Reduction in oxygen to the brain or blood flow will result in the same medical consequences, regardless of context.”
Bernie Ryan, CEO of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation
A recent review by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin recommended banning “degrading, violent and misogynistic content” online.
Violent pornography showing women being choked during sex she found was “rife on mainstream platforms”.
Ms Ryan says she “wants to make sure that young people don’t have access to activities that demonstrate that this is normal behaviour”.
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Strangulation is a violent act that is often committed in abusive relationships.
It is the second most common method used by men to kill women, the first is stabbing.
According to statistics shared by the Crown Prosecution Service, in 2024 there was an almost 50% rise in incidents of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation – compared to the year before.
Kerry Allan pleads for other victims of abuse to seek help
Domestic abuse victim Kerry Allan has a message for anyone who is in an abusive relationship.
Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022. While she said “at the beginning it was really good”, within months he became physically abusive.
In August last year her friends found his profile on a dating app.
“I confronted him and he denied it. I knew we were going to get into a big argument and I couldn’t face it, so I said I was going to my mum’s for a few days and take myself away from the situation.
“I came back a few days later and stupidly I agreed we could try again and everything escalated from that.”
Injuries to Kerry’s chest. Pic: CPS
In the early hours of 25 August the pair had come in from a night out at a concert and got into an argument.
“He was having a go at me, accusing me of flirting with other people, and I was angry. I told him he had a nerve after what he’d done to me in the week and how he humiliated me.
“I told him that I wanted to leave, that we were done and that I wanted to go to my mum’s and that’s when it got bad.
“He pinned me to the bed and that’s when he first strangled me.”
Kerry’s neck injury. Pic: CPS
Kerry says this was the first time she’d ever been violently assaulted. Cosgrove was eerily silent as he eventually let go and Kerry gasped for air.
“I remember trying to get my breath back, I was crying and hyperventilating… I was sick on the bedroom floor and I was asking him to go.”
Cosgrove strangled her for a second time before letting go again.
“He was saying I wasn’t getting out of this bedroom alive. I was dead tonight, he hoped that I knew that. Just kept saying how I’d ruined his life.”
Injury to Kerry’s eye. Pic: CPS
“I remember feeling a sort of shock thinking at this point, I’m not going to get out of this bedroom, he’s actually going to kill me.”
Kerry began screaming and shouting for help as loud as she could.
Her neighbours heard the commotion and called the police. While they were en route, Kerry was once again being assaulted.
Bleeding in Kerry’s eye
“I ran over to the bedroom window and tried to jump out, he grabbed me as I went to open the window, and we struggled. And then I was back in the same position, he was on top of me on the bed, and his hands were round the throat again. But this time it didn’t stop.
“I remember trying to struggle and trying to kick out and hit him and I just kept thinking that I definitely was going to die, because at this point, it wasn’t stopping.”
The next memory Kerry has is opening her eyes to see police and paramedics in the bedroom.
Michael Cosgrove. Pic: CPS
Cosgrove had heard the sirens, jumped out of the bedroom window and went to hide in Kerry’s car.
Kerry remembers opening her eyes to paramedics caring for her: “I remember thinking, I’m alive. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I was alive and I wasn’t dead. My last memory is him being on top of me with his hands on my throat.”
Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022
She gives this advice to anyone who is in an abusive relationship: “Please speak to somebody, whether it’s friends, family, a work colleague, whether it’s somebody online, whether it’s a charity that you’re directed to, any sort of abuse is not okay.
“Whether it starts off emotional, they often start off that way, and they escalate, and they can escalate badly.
“Take what happened to me as a huge warning sign, because I wouldn’t want anyone else to be in the position I’ve been in the last eight months.”
Cosgrove was found guilty of attempting to murder Kerry and intentional strangulation.
He will be sentenced in July.
If you suspect you are being abused and need to speak to someone, there are people who can help you.
The National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 247
Respect, the helpline for male domestic abuse victims: 0808 8010327
Galop, the LGBT+ anti-violence charity: 0800 999 5428
Two men have been found guilty of cutting down the famous Sycamore Gap tree that stood for more than 150 years.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were convicted of causing more than £620,000 worth of damage to the tree and more than £1,000 worth of damage to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
On 27 September 2023, the pair drove 30 miles through a storm to Northumberland from Cumbria, where they both lived, before felling the tree overnight in a matter of minutes.
The Sycamore Gap tree before it was cut down. Pic: CPS
The pair each denied two counts of criminal damage to the sycamore and to Hadrian’s Wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it, but were convicted by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday.
The Sycamore Gap tree sat in a dip in the landscape and held a place in pop culture, featuring in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
It also formed part of people’s personal lives, as the scene of wedding proposals, ashes being scattered and countless photographs.
Footage of the moment the tree was felled was played during the trial.
Daniel Graham. Pic: Northumbria Police/PA
Adam Carruthers. Pic: Northumbria Police/PA
In the clip, the sound of a chainsaw can be heard, and the silhouette of a person can be seen, before the trunk eventually tumbled.
The footage was shot on Graham’s iPhone 13, with the metadata providing the coordinates of the tree.
Part of tree kept as ‘trophy’
Over the course of the trial, the pair blamed one another, but the prosecution argued they were both responsible for what the court heard was a “mindless act of vandalism”.
As well as the video footage of the felling, an image of a piece of wood and a chainsaw was found on Graham’s phone.
Adam Carruthers (R) and Daniel Graham (L) worked together felling trees. Pic: CPS/PA
An image of a piece of wood and a chainsaw was found on Graham’s phone. Pic: PA
Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court: “This was perhaps a trophy taken from the scene to remind them of their actions, actions that they appear to have been revelling in.”
Voice notes played in court
The jury was also played voice notes the pair had sent one another, commenting on the media coverage the incident was receiving.
In one of them, Graham, 39, said to 32-year-old Carruthers: “Someone there has tagged like ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, like News News News”, before adding: “I think it’s going to go wild.”
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Sycamore Gap seeds saved
Another piece of evidence was a photo of the defendants felling a different tree, about a month before the Sycamore Gap was cut down.
The prosecution said Graham, who owned a groundworks company and Carruthers, who worked in property management and mechanics, were “friends with knowledge and experience in chainsaws and tree felling”.
From the beginning, much of the trial focused on the significance of the tree, with Judge Mrs Justice Lambert telling the jury to put their “emotion to one side” before proceedings began.
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Voicenotes from Sycamore Gap tree trial
‘Mindless acts of violence’
Northumberland Superintendent Kevin Waring, of Northumbria Police, said: “We often hear references made to mindless acts of vandalism – but that term has never been more relevant than today in describing the actions of those individuals”.
Graham and Carruthers gave no explanation for why they targeted the tree, he said, “and there never could be a justifiable one”.
Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, called the felling of the tree “unfathomable” and said, although “there was no remorse [from the defendants], there was compelling evidence, and now there will be justice”.
Gale Gilchrist, chief crown prosecutor for CPS North East, said Graham and Carruthers took “under three minutes” to bring down the “iconic landmark” in a “deliberate and mindless act of destruction”.
She said she hoped the community “can take some measure of comfort in seeing those responsible convicted”.
‘Enormity of the loss’
Reflecting on the verdict and the actions of the pair, Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Parks Authority, said: “It just took a few days to sink in – I think because of the enormity of the loss.
“We knew how important that location was for many people at an emotional level, almost at a spiritual level in terms of people’s connection to this case.”
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Moment Sycamore Gap tree cut down
Read more from the trial:
Two men went on ‘moronic mission’ to fell Sycamore Gap tree
Man told police he was being ‘framed’ over tree felling
Defendant says friend wanted to cut down world’s ‘most famous tree’
Jurors played voicenotes in Sycamore Gap tree trial
The tree’s stump still sits by Hadrian’s Wall, where new shoots have been emerging.
Its largest remaining section will go on display at the National Landscape Discovery Centre in the Northumberland National Park later this year.
The effort to preserve the tree’s legacy also goes beyond the region where it stood.
Forty-nine saplings taken from the tree have been conserved by the National Trust. They will be planted in accessible public spaces across the country as “trees of hope”, which will allow parts of the Sycamore Gap to live on.
The defendants, who didn’t react when the verdicts were delivered, will be sentenced in July.
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