Just Stop Oil eco-mob spark M25 rush-hour chaos AGAIN as they scale gantries
Just Stop Oil today blamed ‘rich men’s profit’ for climate change as they evaded police to climb motorway gantries again – despite choosing the same time, locations and the exact same method for their protest.
Fed-up drivers ignored smart motorway markings to go into closed lanes in a desperate attempt to get to work.
They targeted the M25 gantries at junctions 1b, 8/9, 12/13, 7/8, 11, 12/13, 14/15, 20, 21a, 22, 27 and 31. Many of them were the same locations hit yesterday, sparking disbelief police were today not better prepared.
By 9am the gantry at junction 7/8 was cleared and the protester arrested, with the same happening at junction 31 within the hour.
The eco-zealots, who widely publicise their activities, want an end to the use of fossil fuels for the sake of the environment.
Speaking from the top of a gantry protester Charlotte Kirin, 53, a social worker and parent from Bury St Edmunds: ‘In order to survive, we need to take action to stop new oil and gas.
‘For as long as the government pretends this isn’t the priority, I will do what I can to demand a response.
‘History shows us that we have to challenge unjust laws.
‘What is being done to people all over the globe in the name of profit is the greatest imaginable injustice.
‘I will not turn my back on people whose lives are being destroyed for rich men’s profit.’
Just Stop Oil said ‘approximately 15’ of its supporters climbed onto overhead gantries in ‘multiple locations’ on the UK’s busiest motorway from 7am, causing police to halt traffic.
Officers from Kent, Essex, and the Met have be called into action for a second day to remove protesters from motorways
An extremely rare view of the M25, totally empty in both directions after Stop Oil protestors forced police to close both carriageways at Waltham Abbey in Essex during this morning’s rush hour
Traffic builds up near Oxted in Surrey westbound towards junctions 7-8 where activists from Just Stop Oil occupy a gantry over the M25
Proud of themselves: Just Stop Oil proudly posted their latest stunt in an embarrassment for police who failed again to stop it
Just Stop Oil supporters have climbed onto motorway gantries around the M25 as part of their campaign to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents
The protesters did exactly same thing as yesterday but nevertheless took police by surprise when they repeated the action
From 7am this morning, approximately 15 supporters of Just Stop Oil climbed onto the overhead gantries of the M25 in multiple locations, both clockwise and anti-clockwise causing police to halt traffic
Incredibly the protesters returned to some of the same locations from yesterday but police were still unprepared to stop them
Edred Whittingham, 25, a student from Cambridge said: ‘Politics is broken in this country, and it’s up to everday people to fix it.
‘We are living in a time when millions of people are literally going hungry or freezing to death in their homes, while fossil fuel companies are making record profits.
‘We can change this, but we need to resist. Climate change will destroy the global food system while displacing hundreds of millions of people from their homes, leading to starvation, war and social unrest.
‘For our government to be still approving new fossil fuel projects is an act of genocide.’
Gridlock caused on the Dartford Crossing this morning by the Just Stop Oil protesters again
The protesters put up brightly coloured banners on the motorway gantries to try and project their message to drivers
Protesters from the groups, offshoots of Extinction Rebellion, have blocked roads and bridges in the capital in order to highlight their demand that the government stops new oil and gas projects
Who are protesters today disrupting people’s way of life and ability to work?
Charlotte Kirin, 53
Ms Kirin is a social worker and parent from Bury St Edmunds. She was among a number of XR activists who conducted a 14-hour blockade of Newsprinters in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on September 4, 2020. She and four other protesters were found guilty of obstructing the highway during two trials at St Albans Magistrates’ Court in 2021.
Edred Whittingham, 25
Mr Whittingham is a student from Cambridge and had been Exeter University. He too is a repeat protester, with his most notorious act happening in an art gallery. He glued himself to the frame of a painting at the Manchester Art Gallery, back in July.
Molly Berry, 70
Retired lipreader Ms Berry is also no stranger to protests and disrupting the public. The campaigner is profoundly deaf and has a cochlea implant. In May she blocked Berkhamsted High Street with a placard hanging over her shoulders. It read: ‘I’m terrified there will be more pandemics because of the climate crisis’.
Molly Berry, 70, a retired lip-reading tutor from Hertfordshire said: ‘The climate crisis is not left wing or right wing.
‘It’s not an opinion or a point of view or a cause.
‘It’s real, and it’s happening now, and it is getting very close to destroying absolutely everything we love.
When my friends show me photographs of their grandchildren it breaks my heart to think of what they will face in their lifetimes.
‘That’s why I am willing to put my liberty on the line to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas.’
Essex Police said: ‘Dartford tunnel and two lanes are closed.
‘We are working as quickly as we can to keep you moving.’
There are also protests at junction 20 in Hertfordshire, with police admitting: ‘We are responding to reports of protest activity at junction 20 (Kings Langley) of the #M25.
‘Officers are at the scene. Please avoid the area and seek an alternate route where possible. We’ll update you as soon as possible.’
Surrey Police also leaped into action – after the protester had got onto the gantry.
The force tweeted: ‘Officers are on scene and dealing with protesters who have climbed on to motorway gantries between J8-9 and J12-13 along the M25 this morning.
‘Traffic is currently stopped in both directions at these junctions.
‘Thanks for your patience, we’ll update as soon as possible.
‘Officers are also on scene between J7-8 where a further protester has climbed on the motorway gantry.
Yesterday police made 35 arrests after motorists were held up for five hours when protesters scaled a gantry on the M25.
The Met and officers from other forces moved in after more than a dozen protesters forced the closure of several sections of the M25 during the morning rush hour – despite a court order barring them from disrupting the motorway.
An ambulance was allegedly among the vehicles stranded by the stunts, which meant the emergency vehicle took ‘ages and ages’ to get through the blockage, according to another trapped motorist.
The arrests came after Just Stop Oil activist Louise Harris yelled through unconvincing tears: ‘You might hate me for doing this,’ as she scaled a gantry.
Traffic builds up at the northbound entry to Dartford Tunnel as Just Stop Oil activists occupy a gantry at junction 31 of M25
Despite a galaxy of CCTV cameras protesters were able to carry out stunts again today
Motorists were so frustrated they went into closed lanes to try and get to work on time today
Queues tailed back for miles as protests in Surrey – at junction 6 and in three other locations between junctions 8-9, 12-13 and 13-14 – as well as in Hertfordshire at junctions 20, 22 and 23, east London at junction 25 and Essex at junctions 27 and 30 ground traffic to a halt.
Commuters trying to get to work expressed their frustration on social media, on a day compounded by chaos on Britain’s rail network. Planned rail strikes for Saturday, Monday and Wednesday were called off on Friday – but train companies are running a reduced service because not enough drivers were rostered on.
Harris, a wannabe popstar who previously compared herself to a prisoner of war after football fans pelted her with drinks when she stormed onto the pitch during a match, was one of the activists taking part.
Appearing to choke up in a video filmed from the gantry, she shouted: ‘Hello, my name is Louise, I’m 24 years old and I’m here…I’m here because I don’t have a future.
‘And you might hate me for doing this and you’re entitled to hate me. But I wish you would direct all that anger and hatred at our Government.
‘They are betraying young people like me.’
The protests took place despite a major Metropolitan Police operation to foil their plans, which saw a number of demonstrators, including leader Roger Hallam, arrested last night.
National Highways was also granted a court order which was meant to put an end to disruption on Britain’s busiest motorway.
But the controversial campaigners, who carried out a full month of action in October, were back in force this morning, much to the fury of frustrated drivers.
Most protesters were brought down by police within around an hour.
PICTURED: The German 24-year-old lover of Just Stop Oil mastermind Roger Hallam, 56, who he set up Insulate Britain with as a ‘lockdown lovechild’ – as he is charged over M25 chaos
The founder of the UK’s Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil movements has a lover half his age who helped him ‘organise the coming revolution’ in a London love nest reported to cost £3,000-a-month in rent, it was revealed today.
Roger Hallam, 56, met German Frieda Luerken, 24, when she was a student at Cardiff University around four years ago where she graffitied its buildings because they invested in Shell and BP.
Frieda, who was born in Dresden, moved to the UK via Belarus. Hallam, who has a daughter the same age as his partner, then co-founded the XR movement with the psychology graduate before they moved in together in London and started Insulate Britain as a ‘lockdown lovechild’.
Hallam recently said online: ‘Myself and my partner Frieda are now in a permanent rented flat. It has a spare room in which to organise the coming revolution. It is perfect. But I need money to afford it’.
As part of their self-styled ‘rebel life’, they have since expanded again to help run Just Stop Oil, the unpopular group causing carnage for ordinary Britons by blocking roads including the M25 as well as smashing petrol stations and shutting down refineries.
He was among eight people charged with conspiracy to cause a public nuisance following protest action on Britain’s busiest motorway. He will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today.
The former organic farmer, who blamed the collapse of his business on extreme weather, has said previously protesters should be ready to cause disruption through personal ‘sacrifice’. If necessary, they ‘should be willing to die’, he claimed.
Hallam, whose following has been described as ‘cult-like’ and is funded by supporters’ monthly donations, also wants those responsible for climate change to face Nuremberg-style trials. He once stood unsuccessfully in the 2019 European Parliament election in the London constituency as an independent, winning 924 of the 2,241,681 votes cast, which was around 0.04 per cent of the vote.
Roger Hallam, 56, (left) met German Frieda Luerken, 24, (right) when she was a student at Cardiff University around four years ago where she graffitied its buildings because they invested in Shell and BP
Roger Hallam, pictured being arrested at Heathrow in 2019, was held on Sunday night ahead of Just Stop Oil’s M25 protests, which continue today
Roger Hallam among eight eco-zealots charged over M25 protests
Hallam predicts that climate change will ‘destroy… our ability to grow food’ and then ‘the collapse of our society’. He added: ‘This means war and violence, the slaughter of young men and the rape of young women on a global scale’
Eight people have been charged with conspiracy to cause a public nuisance following protest action on the M25.
Police launched a major operation to arrest those suspected of planning to take part in Just Stop Oil demonstrations on England’s busiest motorway this week.
All eight are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police said.
They are: Roger Hallam, 56, of Walworth, south London; Tim Hewes, 72, of Charney Bassett, Wantage, Oxfordshire; Daniel Shaw, 36, of Northampton; Christopher White, 29, of Yeovil. Somerset; Karen Matthews, 60, of Overstone, Northamptonshire; Ian Bates, 63, of Northampton; Alexander Wilcox, 21, of Northampton; and Louise Lancaster, 57, of Cambridge.
The Sun has pictured them today walking down a South London street clutching what appears to be a takeaway or leftovers in a plastic tub.
Frieda attended the exclusive St. Benno Gymnasium, a German secondary school in Dresden.
It is a highly selective elite fee-paying private school founded in 1709 and Latin is mandatory for all students.
Prior to beginning her degree in Cardiff, she took a gap year volunteering with victims of Nazi Germany in Belarus. She spent a year living there.
She and Hallam have repeatedly moved over recent years, with her boyfriend relying on monthly donations from supporters to get by.
In a series of Facebook posts Hallam would beg for somewhere for them to stay. In one he said: ‘I need to leave my present accommodation and need a room for myself and my partner. We both leave early and come back late on most days such is the life of rebels’.
Frieda lists her jobs on LinkedIn as Movement Accelerator Coordinator for the International Planned Parenthood Federation pressure group.
Her other role is listed as Co-Founder of Extinction Rebellion UK. Her duties include: ‘Creating and implementing training plans, facilitating planning processes and ecruiting and onboarding new volunteers’.
On occasions when Hallam has been in custody, Frieda has taken over his Facebook account to update supporters and also urge them to send him letters.
After one post where she said he was on hunger strike in Pentonville Jail. Admitting she was mistaken, she wrote: ‘Apparently, Roger has not been on hunger strike at all – I suppose that kind of miscommunication happens when you don’t allow someone to speak with anyone, including their lawyer, for more than a week’.
She later wrote: ‘Pentonville doesn’t look like it’s ever been the crown jewel of British prisons but Covid 19 has made the situation even worse. Roger is mostly being denied vegan or vegetarian food. It took him 7 days to get hold of a pillow.
Gridlock caused on the Dartford Crossing this morning by the Just Stop Oil protesters again
‘For five days, he could only leave the cell one single time for 40 minutes. What’s possibly worst for him is that he can’t access the prison library, meaning that he spends most of his time writing and watching the evening news’.
The couple may have got together around the time Hallam apologised for comments he made describing the Holocaust as ‘just another f**kery in human history’.
In an interview with the weekly Die Zeit, in which he referred to the Holocaust several times, Hallam said: ‘The fact of the matter is, millions of people have been killed in vicious circumstances on a regular basis throughout history.’
The former organic farmer was quickly condemned by Extinction Rebellion groups in Germany, as well as the German government after his comments to a newspaper in the country.
Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, tweeted: ‘The Holocaust is more than millions of dead and horrific torture methods. To want to murder and exterminate Jewish women and men is uniquely inhumane. We must always be aware of that so we can be certain: never again!’
The German branch of Extinction Rebellion also said: ‘We explicitly distant ourselves from Roger Hallam’s belittling and relativising statements about the Holocaust. In so doing he contravenes the principles of XR, which does not tolerate antisemitism, and he is no longer welcome in XR Germany.’
Hallam, 56, was taken in for questioning on Sunday night after police were informed that his group were planning to scale motorway gantries on the M25 and bring traffic to a standstill.
Despite him and other ringleaders being rounded up, Just Stop Oil campaigners managed to shut down the roads yesterday and today.
Mr Hallam was not at home when the police arrived to arrest him, but they confiscated evidence and later confirmed that a 56-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance.
His group were planning daily action until Christmas, with one member boasting: ‘It is almost impossible to stop. We will not back down.’
Mr Hallam, who also co-founded Extinction Rebellion said: ‘This is not just another action. It’s potentially the most significant act of civil disobedience in decades.’
He added: ‘If it goes on for two days, fine. It it’s three or four days it is the biggest disruption in British history.’
Hallam’s ego is plastered over his website, which is headlined ‘Farmer Mobiliser Revolutionary’.
The global expansion of Extinction Rebellion (XR), which he co-founded in 2018 and has taken off in dozens of countries, may have gone to his head and – like many ‘revolutionaries’ before him – has even accused his ‘own movement’ of turning against him.
But his grandiose claims, which include citing Martin Luther King and Gandhi as influences, appear to contradict his desire to be seen as ‘just a farmer from Wales’.
Born in Manchester, he moved to Carmarthen where he was an organic farmer for 20 years, before blaming the collapse of his business on a series of extreme weather events several years ago.
Later he researched the history of civil disobedience for a PhD at King’s College London while ‘sleeping in his car’.
The divorcee left to set up Insulate Britain, despite owning a farmhouse which was described as ‘poorly insulated’ in an official energy performance certificate six years ago. It is unclear if he has taken steps to improve the rating.
Other incendiary remarks include stating his desire to ‘bring down all the regimes in the world’, starting with Britain, and his belief that those running society ‘should have a bullet through their heads’.
He currently earns £1,258 from 124 ‘patrons’ who have signed up to make monthly donations to support him.
Ironically, a year ago it emerged that Mr Hallam owns a farmhouse which was described as ‘poorly insulated’ in an official energy performance certificate. His 2,000 sq ft farmhouse in Carmarthen, South Wales, was given the lowest possible energy rating on the certificate. It is unclear if Mr Hallam has taken steps to improve the rating since it was issued seven years ago.
