Just Stop Oil vow to keep causing disruption – and have this message for people who are affected

Published

2 years ago

October 22, 2022

admin

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

‘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

A remarkable step by the government – and Donald Trump, China and Reform UK have all played their part

Published

6 hours ago

April 12, 2025

admin

A remarkable step by the government - and Donald Trump, China and Reform UK have all played their part

When the sun sets on Scunthorpe this Saturday, the town’s steelworks will likely have a new boss – Jonathan Reynolds.

The law that parliament will almost certainly approve this weekend hands the business secretary the powers to direct staff at British Steel, order raw materials and, crucially, keep the blast furnaces at the plant open.

This is not full nationalisation.

But it is an extraordinary step.

The Chinese firm Jingye will – on paper – remain the owner of British Steel.

But the UK state will insert itself into the corporate set-up to legally override the wishes of the multinational company.

A form of martial law invoked and applied to private enterprise.

That will come at a cost to the taxpayer.

Follow latest: Live politics updates

No number has been specified, but there are wages to pay and orders to make at a site estimated to already be losing £700,000 a day.

There is also clear frustration in government at how the Chinese owners have engaged in negotiations around modernising the Scunthorpe site.

“Jingye have not been forthright throughout this process”, said the business secretary in his department’s official announcement about the new laws.

Time is so tight because of the nature of the steel-making process.

Once switched off, blast furnaces are very hard to turn back on.

If this had happened in Scunthorpe – as seemed likely in a matter of days – then it would have been game over.

This move keeps the show on the road and opens up more time for talks over the long-term future of the plant.

While the official line in Whitehall is that “all options are on the table”, nationalisation seems increasingly likely.

That would need more legislation, if it was done – as seems likely – without the approval of the current owner.

Finding an alternative commercial partner has not been ruled out, but one is not waiting in the wings either.

As for what that long-term future looks like, with just five years of life left in the Scunthorpe blast furnaces, modernisation is inevitable.

Port Talbot’s plant saw its blast furnaces closed last year amid a switch to the more environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces and a loss of thousands of jobs.

Political figures in Wales are now questioning why nationalisation wasn’t on the table for this site.

The response from government is that the deal was done by the previous Tory administration and the owners of the South Wales site agreed to the terms.

But there is also a sense that this decision over British Steel is being shaped by the domestic and international political context.

Labour came to power promising to revitalise left-behind communities and inject a sense of pride back into places still reeling from the loss of traditional industry.

With that in mind, it would be politically intolerable to see the UK’s last two blast furnaces closed and thousands of jobs lost in a relatively deprived part of the country.

Reform UK’s position of pushing for full and immediate nationalisation is also relevant, given the party is in electoral pursuit of Labour in many parts of the country where decline in manufacturing has been felt most acutely.

The geo-political situation is perhaps more pressing though.

Just look at the strength of the prime minister’s language in his Downing Street address – “our economic and national security are all on the line”.

The government’s reaction to the turmoil caused by President Donald Trump’s pronouncements on tariffs and security has been to emphasise the need to increase domestic resilience in both business and defence.

Becoming the only G7 nation unable to produce virgin steel at a time when globalisation appears to be in retreat hardly fits with that narrative.

It would also present serious practical questions about the ability of the UK to produce steel for defence and the broader switch to green energy production.

Then there is the intriguing subplot around US-China trade.

While this decision is separate from discussions with the White House on tariffs, one can imagine how a UK move to wrestle control of a site of national importance from its Chinese owner might go down with a US president currently engaged in a fierce trade war with Beijing.

This is a remarkable step from the government, but it is more a punctuation mark than a full answer.

The tension between manufacturing and decarbonisation remains, as do the challenges presented by a global economy appearing to fragment significantly.

But one thing is for sure.

As a political parable about changes to traditional industry and the challenges of globalisation, the saga of British Steel is hard to beat.

UK

Teachers in England gearing up for potential strike action

Published

6 hours ago

April 12, 2025

admin

Teachers in England gearing up for potential strike action

Teachers in England are once again gearing up for potential strike action after an overwhelming majority of National Education Union (NEU) members rejected the government’s latest pay offer.

In an electronic ballot, 93.7% of respondents turned down the proposed 2.8% pay rise, labelling it inadequate and unfunded.

If the pay offer had been accepted, schools would have had to find the money from existing budgets to pay for the increase – with many saying they are already overstretched.

Some 83% of teachers said they would be willing to take industrial action to secure a better deal.

The vote, which included 134,487 teachers in state schools across England (a turnout of 47.2%), was a clear signal that union leaders are not backing down.

In a statement after the vote, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said a move towards industrial action by teaching unions “would be indefensible”, given work being done to increase school attendance and urged the NEU to “put children first”.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said years of what he called “real-terms pay cuts” had left the profession in crisis.

He also took aim at the government’s decision not to fund the offer centrally.

“This will only make things worse,” Mr Kebede said. “Our members tell us every day of the desperate state their schools are in due to lack of funding.”

The union says the offer falls below inflation and lags behind private-sector wage growth.

But critics argue strike threats will only cause more damage to students still recovering from the disruption of the pandemic.

The union’s national executive is due to meet at its Harrogate conference next week, and all eyes will be on whether full-blown strike action will be announced.

UK

Protests in ‘ghost town’ where £400m ships don’t fit the harbour

Published

6 hours ago

April 12, 2025

admin

Protests in 'ghost town' where £400m ships don't fit the harbour

Those unfamiliar with Scotland’s so-called ‘ferry fiasco’ would barely believe it is a true story.

The new vessels cost quadruple their original price tag, one was delivered seven years late, the other is still being built, and both are too big to fit the main harbour for their daily journeys to and from the Isle of Arran.

But in this latest chapter of the scandal, the unbelievable is very much part of the script. And, as Sky News has been hearing, the consequences are brutal.

“It is completely and utterly nuts,” one exasperated campaigner exclaims as we stand overlooking the deserted Ardrossan Harbour on Scotland’s mainland.

Ardrossan, on the Ayrshire coast, has been the main port for the ferry service to and from Arran for decades. It is the quickest, most efficient route.

But the 30-year-old ferry serving the islands for generations is failing and two new bespoke-designed ones were ordered, with them due to enter service from 2017.

The original £100m cost ballooned to £400m, the shipyard was bought by taxpayers amid financial crisis, one vessel finally started carrying passengers in January 2025 while the other is still being built.

And to add insult to injury, both are too big for Ardrossan Harbour’s jetty to cope with and require an £80m upgrade.

In the meantime, services are being diverted along the coast to Troon.

Protest as tensions rise in ‘ghost town’

Ardrossan was promised it would remain the primary port for connectivity to Arran. But now the community is in limbo and is fearing for its future.

Christine Cowie, from Save Ardrossan Harbour, told Sky News: “It is completely and utterly nuts.

“Why anybody would commission a ferry which doesn’t fit the harbour for the route it is meant for is crazy. I cannot understand it at all.

“Ardrossan is like an extension of Arran. A lot of people come here to the dentist and use other businesses they don’t have on the island which are losing money since the ferries have gone away.”

A botched design process, mismanagement and a string of costly blunders have given the project the label of one of the biggest procurement disasters in the history of Scottish devolution.

People from Arran are joining Ardrossan campaigners on the mainland for a protest on Saturday. Hundreds are expected to gather as tensions boil over.

The group’s chairwoman Frances Gilmour said Ardrossan has become a “ghost town”.

She said: “It is so quiet. It is spooky. It’s frankly a disgrace. Businesses are suffering.

“Economically, this is the route. This is the economic route. We have the infrastructure. We just need the berths fixed.”

The 33-year-old MV Caledonian Isles, which has been away over the winter for extensive repairs, is expected to return to Ardrossan next month. But locals question how reliable and sustainable that vessel is.

On the edge of the once bustling harbour carpark is the Bute MOT garage.

Manager Scott Revans says they rely on customers from Arran previously hopping off the ferry and leaving their car for repairs at their centre.

He told Sky News: “The harbour is a ghost town. We’d get the passing trade doing whatever customers need from batteries to punctures. It has had an impact on us.”

Could taxpayers pick up the bill?

Ardrossan Harbour is owned by private company Peel Ports.

The Scottish government is currently exploring buying the port, but the talks are a secret, with campaigners feeling left in the dark.

No one involved in the discussions would answer questions from Sky News about when they expect to alert communities to the next steps.

A spokesman for the Scottish government agency Transport Scotland said: “We absolutely understand people and communities’ views in favour of retaining Ardrossan as the mainland port and remain committed to ensuring the Arran ferry service is fit for the future.

“The Scottish government has instructed officials… to explore options on purchasing Ardrossan Port.

“We will of course update parliament once there is progress and an outcome to report, however, it would be inappropriate to get in the way of these complex and sensitive discussions.”

Jim McSporran, port director at Peel Ports Clydeport, said: “Peel Ports Group welcomes the Scottish government’s statement that it intends to explore the potential purchase of Ardrossan Harbour.

“Regardless of the outcome of this process, our willingness to invest in the harbour remains steadfast. We take comfort that the port continues to operate this lifeline route and that it remains the port of choice for the people and businesses of Arran and Ardrossan.”