Insulate Britain supporters returned to roads this morning stopping traffic outside the Houses of Parliament to coincide with the Prime Minister’s arrival at the House of Commons for Prime Minister’s Questions. [1]
Today’s roadblocks are part of the Just Stop Oil coalition’s month-long campaign of nonviolent civil resistance happening daily across central London. [2]
At around 11.30am, 26 supporters blocked the roads around Parliament Square at two points in resistance to Liz Truss and her cabinet’s ‘kill’ policies. Supporters sat down in front of stationary traffic, some glued their hands to the road surface, all supporters then waited for the police to arrive to take responsibility for their actions. [3][4]
Tracey Mallaghan, 46, spokesperson for Insulate Britain, said:
“It has been 13 months since Insulate Britain started our campaign and we have had no choice but to return to the roads because the demand to Insulate Britain has not been met.
Insulate Britain supporters will continue to be in nonviolent civil resistance with the millions of Brits who are having to make the awful decision between heating their homes, eating a decent meal or providing basic essentials for themselves and their families. We will not turn our backs on people like this Government has.”
Speaking today from the road, Liam Norton, 37, an electrician from London, said:
“Last year we had a no-brainer plan, insulating Britain’s cold and leaky homes to stop thousands of our elderly from freezing to death in their homes and bring millions out of fuel poverty.
“Since then the government has imprisoned at least 100 ordinary people for peaceful civil resistance. Meanwhile our government has accelerated fossil fuel exploration and licensing, they have borrowed hundreds of billions of pounds which instead of going into our pockets is going through our roofs and into the energy companies coffers. We aren’t experiencing a recession in Britain right now, we’re experiencing a robbery!
“Politicians have shown that they are only interested in making the rich richer and the poor poorer. We have to resist them.”
National Energy Action (NEA) estimates that the number of households in fuel poverty across the UK is 6.5 million, as of the start of April 2022, an increase of more than 50% in just over six months. It is estimated that as a result of the energy price hike on October 1st this year, a further 8 million households will now fall into fuel poverty by April 1st 2023. [5][6]
A paramedic from Cumbria, speaking to our spokesperson Fiona Atkinson, said:
“As a Paramedic I see the devastating consequences of government failure first hand. I attend elderly people who have died in cold, uninsulated houses. Often living in just one room to try and save on heating costs. Scared to turn the fire on. Chronic hypothermia sets in and they die needlessly, in one of the wealthiest nations on earth. This is one of the most upsetting things about it. We should be able to support these elderly vulnerable people. They should be able to live in a warm, well insulated home. The government, and companies making obscene profits such as Shell and BP should be ashamed!”
Insulate Britain is a part of the Just Stop Oil coalition. Insulation is vital in lowering the UK’s demand for energy and carbon emissions and for improving energy security by reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels. We urge citizens to take a stand by joining the Just Stop Oil coalition’s campaign of nonviolent civil resistance happening every day throughout October, meeting at 11am outside Downing street.
The Just Stop Oil coalition has publicly committed to immediately stopping our campaign of nonviolent civil resistance once our government makes a meaningful statement, that we can trust, to insulate our homes and stop granting licences and consents for new oil and gas. If the government chooses to ignore us, we will escalate our actions.
ENDS
Press contact: 07762 987334
Email: insulatebritainpress@protonmail.com
High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Kucq-NfhnZLGJWwLx1HX03cWR7M9Y2-m
Website: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insulatebritain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/insulatelove?lang=en
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8N5mAeeCLbD-AFUqtPaF0g
Notes to Editors
[1] Insulate Britain is a campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing.
Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here:
https://insulatebritain.com/
Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jt5FI-kinEXoqZtPDrCvnAVQ2EFn8Aea/view
[2] Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. More information here: https://juststopoil.org/
[4] Insulate Britain ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.