‘Nose-ringed crusties and their hemp smelling tents’
PM’s blast at eco mob as they bring the capital to a standstill
PROTESTERS who left London in chaos again yesterday were branded ‘crusties’ and ‘importunate nose-ringed climate change protesters’ by Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister told Extinction Rebellion demonstrators to ‘stop blocking the traffic’ as the city centre ground to a halt despite a massive police presence.
Officers arrested 276 protesters who closed bridges and major roads on the first day of a fortnight of action in London. Among activists in Trafalgar Square were celebrities including model Daisy Lowe, comedian Ruby Wax and actors Juliet Stevenson and Mark Rylance.
But residents, commuters, hospital patients and paramedics reacted with fury at the protests, which brought the capital to a standstill for the second time this year. Demonstrators set up road
‘Stop blocking the traffic’
blocks on Westminster and Lambeth Bridges, Victoria Street, Whitehall, Horse Guards Road and The Mall. Scotland Yard vowed to take a tougher line after being accused of surrendering the streets to them for more than a week during demonstrations in April.
But despite the arrests, police failed to move them all and restore order. Those affected up by the protest included the Prime Minister, who spoke at Banqueting House on Whitehall during the launch of the third volume of an official biography of Margaret Thatcher.
Attacking ‘ the denizens of the heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs that now litter Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park Corner’, he said the former prime minister was a ‘true feminist green revolutionary’ who took greenhouse gases ‘ seriously long before Greta Thunberg’.
Patients and staff at St Thomas’ Hospital were stranded, with ambulances struggling to get in or out. One paramedic at the hospital on the south side of Westminster Bridge said the protests caused ‘ a lot of disruption’ and delayed ambulance journeys by up to 15 minutes. The gridlock left one cancer patient stuck outside the hospital for more than an hour because a taxi couldn’t get to her.
Veronica Smith, 55, who has lung cancer, attended an appointment at midday to drain her lungs. The care worker from Lewisham, south London, was discharged at 1.45pm but was still stranded at 3pm.
Another patient, who gave his name as Tony, 66, criticised the activists as he hobbled on a broken foot through the protest to attend an appointment.
He said: ‘ My bus should have been stopping outside the hospital. They should be all arrested and water- cannoned. It is absolutely disgraceful. Why do they have to disrupt people’s lives?’ Meanwhile, delivery driver Shah Kamal, 22, from south London, said he had to abandon his vehicle for more than two hours after being caught up in blockades.
He fears he may not get paid after failing to complete his deliveries.
Having started work at 5am, he was still unable to drive over Lambeth Bridge almost 12 hours later. He said: ‘I don’t think I’m getting home tonight. It is just ridiculous.’
Some London activists glued themselves to scaffolding, and one parked a hearse in Trafalgar Square and locked himself to the steering wheel. They also shut down Smithfield meat market in east London. Mark Rylance gave a speech in which he revealed that his decision to resign from the Royal Shakespeare Company over its sponsorship contract with BP was inspired by teenage activist Greta Thunberg. Addressing a crowd off The Mall, he said: ‘The collapse of society is certain.’
Actress Juliet Stevenson said: ‘All over the world, millions and millions of people’s lives are already feeling the impact and livelihoods are being destroyed.’ The protesters staged a wedding, did yoga and set up camps with tents during the demonstration to curb global warming.
They also played cricket outside the Supreme Court, while ‘lady vicars’ occupying the south side of Lambeth Bridge sang hymns.
Extinction Rebellion claims the protests could be five times bigger than those in April, which brought major disruption to London and saw more than 1,100 arrests.
It cost Scotland Yard £16million to police the earlier demonstrations – enough to pay the salaries of 600 bobbies.
Yesterday, Downing Street said protesters who ‘significantly dis
‘They should all be water-cannoned’
rupt the lives of others’ should feel the ‘full force of the law’. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It is essential that people can continue to go about their business. The right to peaceful protest does not extend to unlawful activity.
‘The Government expects police to take a firm stance against protesters who significantly disrupt the lives of others and to use the full force of the law.’
However, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell backed the activists, tweeting: ‘Solidarity #extinctionrebellion.’
responding to a video of a protester resisting arrest, National Crime Agency chief Lynne Owens tweeted that Met Police officers ‘should not have to endure this sort of behaviour’. She added: ‘No cause can justify the assaulting of another human being.’
The protest is part of an ‘international rebellion’ taking place in cities including Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York.
extinction rebellion said in a statement: ‘As dawn broke today, many thousands of people from around the world entered a new phase of rebellion against planetary inaction. Groups across 60 cities began blocking roads, bridges and transport links with the intention of remaining until our voices are heard.’