Rebel yell
Former civil servant turned activist makes emotional plea from gantry above M25
A visually impaired former civil servant claimed she was scared of heights as she blocked the M25 during yesterday’s Just Stop Oil protest.
Jane Touil, 56, filmed a minuteand-a-half long outburst on top of a gantry between junctions 10 and 11 of the UK’S busiest motorway. The Sheffield University politics graduate gave up her job at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in Manchester earlier this year to become a full-time activist.
Metropolitan Police officers made 16 arrests on the second day of the eco-group’s disruption on the M25.
Mrs Touil, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is part of Extinction Rebellion Rochdale and has previously been arrested blocking roads with Insulate Britain.
In her video yesterday, she said: “I’m Jane, I’m 56, I’m visually impaired and I’m scared of heights. I’m here, between junctions 10 and 11 of the M25, on a gantry and I’m terrified.
“Why am I doing this? Because I’m more terrified that if we don’t stop new oil and gas, we are on the brink of climate catastrophe, runaway climate change, the collapse of human civilisation and the loss of everything we love. I cannot let that happen.”
Mrs Touil went on to claim the Government’s energy policies were a “death sentence” for people facing the worst of extreme weather events.
Addressing PM Rishi Sunak, who is at Cop27, she vowed to keep protesting until “you stop new oil and gas licences”.
Mrs Touil has previously tweeted about taking part in Kill the Bill protests last year. She was among 12 Just Stop Oil protesters arrested for obstruction of the highway on Aug 23, after sitting on an approach road to the Navigator oil terminal in Essex, stopping tankers going in and out.