Daily Mail

Hypocrisy of globe-trotting ringleader

- By Christian Gysin

a Privately educated ecoactivis­t who flounced out of a TV interview yesterday has enjoyed a string of foreign holidays despite criticisin­g air travel.

Robin Boardman- Pattison, 21, appeared on Sky news to defend the Extinction Rebellion protests that have brought misery to hundreds of thousands in London.

But he stormed off the set after presenter adam Boulton suggested he and his fellow middle-class demonstrat­ors were patronisin­g and self-indulgent.

During the interview Boardman-Pattison, who has twice been charged with criminal damage over previous protests, said his group would like to see aircraft ‘only used in emergencie­s’.

But it later emerged that his Instagram page features a series of photos of him enjoying skiing holidays abroad. He has also posted pictures online of himself in Italy three years ago visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

It is unclear how he travelled on his foreign breaks. But a carbon footprint calculator reveals that if Boardman-Pattison took a 1,800-mile return trip to Pisa by air he would have generated 0.20 tons in CO2 emissions.

a similar journey in an average-sized car would result in 0.46 tons. If he had taken either a bus or train from London to Pisa his CO2 footprint would have been 0.04 tons.

Last year Boardman-Pattison sprayed the words ‘Make Ecocide Law’ over the entrance windows of Bristol magistrate­s’ court in an Extinction Rebellion demonstrat­ion.

He and a fellow protester were arrested after reportedly taking ‘too long’ to wash off the paint under police orders. They pleaded not guilty but were eventually convicted and fined a total of £1,804.

Boardman-Pattison has spent much of his life living in Beckenham, Kent, where his parents Roger and Mary own a £1million four-bedroom home.

He previously attended the £17,500-ayear boys-only Trinity School in Croydon, south London, the Guido Fawkes political website reported.

On Sky news yesterday, he said the Extinction Rebellion protests were to ‘wake the public up’.

But Mr Boulton told the activist: ‘I feel very patronised by you. you’re like the incompeten­t middle- class, self-indulgent people and you want to tell us how to live our lives.’

Boardman-Pattison then got up from his seat and walked out of the studio.

 ??  ?? Much-travelled: Robin Boardman-Pattison spray-paints Bristol magistrate­s’ court, top, and on a skiing holiday and a trip to Pisa
Much-travelled: Robin Boardman-Pattison spray-paints Bristol magistrate­s’ court, top, and on a skiing holiday and a trip to Pisa

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