Met’s XR surrender
Police wrong-footed as eco mob brings West End to standstill (again)
EXTINCTION Rebellion brought part of London’s West End to a standstill yesterday as it began two weeks of protest in the capital.
A major Met Police operation failed to stop the radical climate change group from blockading several streets around Covent Garden.
The group blindsided officers by converging on Trafalgar Square in the morning to begin a two-week ‘impossible rebellion’.
As hundreds joined the demonstration, just several hundred yards away other activists erected a giant pink table in the
‘It’s like another lockdown’
middle of a busy junction. In what onlookers likened to a ‘military operation’, several protesters then climbed on to the obstacle – which carried the slogan Change Is Now on top – shortly after midday.
Police were further thwarted when the group drove vans on to two streets surrounding the Long Acre junction and activists locked arms together under their wheels.
The Met had promised to take a more robust approach after previous protests by the group had paralysed the capital, but officers at the scene yesterday admitted they had been taken by surprise.
Police tried to end the occupation by enforcing a cordon, allowing people to leave the junction, but not return.
But as a result, the small area that would normally be thronged with tourists and shoppers was left predominantly occupied by protesters. Officers were eventually forced to move some of their cordons after being encircled by members of the group.
Business owners bemoaned the protest as another ‘kick in the teeth’ after a year of financial difficulties caused by the pandemic.
Mustafa Ahmadi, 37, who runs Star Gifts near Leicester Square Tube station, said he could lose as much as £10,000 this week. He said: ‘It’s like another lockdown because the shop is so quiet.
‘The police have many of the roads locked off and so the tourists and families who we would normally see are being kept out.’
Roberta Marzocca, manager of the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant, said: ‘The last thing we need is to be hit financially again.’
The Covent Garden blockade is expected to be a focal point for the two-week protest. A spokesman for the group said: ‘The table launched XR’s impossible rebellion, bringing the seemingly impossible to life in outlandish Extinction Rebellion style.’
The pink structure is said to feature sleeping quarters and an in-built stereo system.
Last night, the Met said it had made eight arrests.
First-time protester Maddy Hayley Thomas, 33, said: ‘What is extreme is the fact that the Government, huge corporations, all of our system, is allowing the devastation to our planet.’
Before the protest, the Met Police Federation, which represents the rank and file members of the force, said it was putting more pressure on ‘worn-out’ officers.
Meanwhile, Police Scotland is set to boost the number of officers trained to deal with disorder ahead of COP26.
The UN’s climate change conference will take place in November, with thousands of leaders and activists coming to Glasgow.
The force had 1,100 officers trained to deal with major disruption and protests over a year ago, but there are now 2,100, with a further 100 set to undergo training in the lead up to the event.