ECO-MOB’S PICNIC ...ON VITAL ROAD Plan to ruin Bank Holiday for families by blocking main route
ECO-ACTIVISTS are plotting to cause traffic misery for tens of thousands of families tomorrow.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is organising a ‘picnic’ on the Westway, a key route along the A40 into London from the West, in a protest that would cause mayhem for tourists, Bank Holiday day trippers and Londoners returning home from weekend breaks.
It follows a week of chaos in London, during which hundreds of mainly middle-class ecowarriors blocked Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Marble Arch, costing businesses tens of millions of pounds.
A demonstration also took place on Edinburgh’s North Bridge last week.
After fierce criticism of their ‘softly-softly’ tactics, police officers yesterday finally broke-up the Oxford Circus protest site.
Around 20 demonstrators were arrested after officers encircled them at around 1pm. About ten locked their hands together inside concrete-lined metal tubes, which had to be
‘It will cause absolute gridlock and more pollution’
broken with cutting devices. A final group of 200 protesters dispersed at 5pm and the road reopened, with dozens of officers on patrol last night to prevent it being retaken. But Waterloo Bridge remained blocked as police urged protesters to confine themselves to Marble Arch.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick condemned last week’s ‘miserable disruption’ which has led to more than 750 people being arrested, with 28 charged.
With the protests set to enter a second week, The Mail on Sunday can reveal:
Eco-warriors are using encrypted messages to swap intelligence on police tactics and discuss how they have ‘converted’ some officers to their cause;
Activists have drawn up sinister plans to ‘infiltrate the school system’ in a bid to ‘educate children’;
Six celebrities who backed the XR protests have flown almost seven times around the world between them over the last year, racking up 30 tonnes of flightrelated carbon dioxide emissions;
A MoS reporter gained access to XR control centre, where ringleaders organise ‘flash’ protests with military precision;
The Met asked for 200 extra officers from neighbouring forces amid claims that officers are ‘burnt out’.
The threatened protest on the Westway – a three-mile long, elevated dual carriageway – is set to put even more pressure on police.
More than 160 activists have indicated online they will attend the socalled ‘Last Picnic’ from 11am to 3pm, which organisers say is inspired by an 1862 oil painting The Luncheon on the Grass by Edouard Manet. Protesters have been urged to bring board games and frisbees.
But AA president Edmund King said blocking Westway would be ‘totally irresponsible’ and he urged the Met to prevent it. ‘It will cause absolute gridlock, more emissions and more pollution,’ he added. Meanwhile, leaked WhatsApp messages reveal how protesters have fostered close relationships with the police and gleaned intelligence on their tactics.
In one, activists were advised to request being taken to Croydon police station if arrested as they will spend less time in cells and its custody suite has vegan food.
There are increasing fears that protests by XR, which boasts more than 100 regional groups, could spread nationwide. In Scotland, police in Edinburgh made 29 arrests on Tuesday after eco protestors blocked the capital’s North Bridge. Meanwhile, leaked minutes from a meeting of Devon activists earlier this year reveal plans to ‘educate children and infiltrate the school system’.
Activists are also asked to ‘question our attachment to having pets – what is the carbon footprint of cat/dog ownership?’
XR’s campaign has won widespread celebrity backing, but an analysis by The Mail on Sunday exposes the hypocrisy of six who have voiced their support. Dame Emma Thompson, actors Willem Dafoe and Simon Pegg, plus wildlife presenter Chris Packham, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and documentary maker Jack Harries have jointly flown at least 170,000 miles in the past year, creating 30 tonnes of flight-related carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of the total annual CO2 produced by four average UK households.
The estimates assume the six flew business class and are based on the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation Carbon Emissions Calculator.