SCOTTISH protesters have glued themselves to the tarmac outside Downing Street to demonstrate against a Tory government “choosing profit over human life”.
Members of the Just Stop Oil coalition travelled down to London and blocked one entrance to the Prime Minister’s street to demand a halt to new oil and gas licences.
Late last week, the UK Government dismissed concerns around the climate crisis and opened up a new licensing round for oil and gas exploration. They are set to award as many as 100 new licences in the North Sea, with around 900 sites up for exploration.
Liz Truss’s government has also lifted a ban on fracking for shale gas in England, but has said it will only go ahead with “local consent”.
Lee Matthews, a 22-year-old student from Aberdeen, said he had gotten involved in protest action “because the UK Government is not only complicit in the climate crisis but actively choosing profit over human life”.
He went on: “I cannot stand by and watch my younger sisters’ futures be destroyed. I have to take action.
“Civil resistance is my only viable choice at this time, we need systematic change and an end to all new fossil fuels.”
Matthews and eight other Just Stop Oil protesters established a roadblock on the Horseguards Road entrance to Downing Street on Wednesday morning, sitting in the road with banners and gluing themselves to the tarmac.
Jennifer, 26, from Glasgow, said she had joined the protest because she had "been left with no other choice".
"We're seeing wildfires unlike anything else we've seen before, we're seeing floods, a third of Pakistan is underwater and 33 million people have been displaced. This is only going to get worse, unless we stop it now," she added.
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: “Liz Truss and Suella Braverman have called our actions ‘unacceptable’. We agree. People are right to be irritated, frustrated, and angry at the disruption being caused. It’s miserable, this is not the country we want to live in.
“The UK Government has the power to end this today by agreeing to stop new oil and gas licences and consents.
“This Government’s failure to act on the climate and cost-of-living crisis – both fuelled by our continued reliance on oil and gas – is threatening millions of families with hunger and misery this winter and starvation in the years to come.
“As drought, crop failures and extreme heat events multiply across the world, we face famine, food riots and ultimately the collapse of ordered society."
The protest comes on the twelfth day of action organised by Just Stop Oil, with their “Occupy Westminster” demonstrations planned for the length of October.
Protesters from Insulate Britain also engaged in civil disobedience on Wednesday morning, attempting to block the route which the Prime Minister would use to attend parliament.
Activists obstructed part of the road at Parliament Square, just outside the Palace of Westminster, but police managed to preempt the protesters and traffic made its way past the blockade.
