A six-week campaign of mayhem is being planned by climate change extremists to paralyse Parliament, according to an investigation by The Mail on Sunday.
Next month, Just Stop Oil activists will obstruct important highways and bridges near Westminster as a direct protest against Liz Truss’s Conservative administration.
The organisers anticipate that 3,000 of their volunteers will be detained during the days of protest and commotion intended to tax the police to the limit and snarl up the capital’s courts.
After our undercover writer pretended to be an eco-activist and snuck into a number of Just Stop Oil meetings, the plot’s specifics may now be exposed.
Roger Hallam, the fiery creator of Just Stop Oil, said at a gathering last week in Birmingham that the campaign would begin next Saturday with tens of thousands of demonstrators blocking bridges across the Thames in London “all day.” He bragged, “This is like resistance, British-style.”
Hallam said that the Metropolitan Police would first be “too terrified” to arrest demonstrators, but that as the demonstrations intensify, it would be compelled to do so. People will be sitting on the streets of London every day after that, and police will arrest them.
He said that the organization’s goal was to find and enlist 1,500 individuals who were willing to get detained twice in London during the campaign.
At a meeting in Norwich earlier this month, another activist, a former businessman in his late 40s, said: “We’ve spoken to individuals in the legal system and they feel the system couldn’t really handle with roughly 3,000 arrests.”
We have discovered Just Stop Oil’s intentions to wreak havoc twice in less than a year thanks to our inquiry. A subversive Mail on Sunday reporter exposed the organization’s plans to obstruct oil refineries, roads, and gas stations around Britain in February.
More than 200 people were detained two months later after a series of demonstrations near major oil ports. Activists subsequently blocked the M25 and attacked London’s gas stations during a chaotic spring and summer.
The leaders of Just Stop Oil have now shifted their attention from going after the oil and gas industry to going against Westminster as part of their fall campaign.
Through a series of in-person and online meetings and workshops, the organisation has spent months enlisting people who are willing to serve time in jail for their cause.
In the beginning, a protest march on Saturday would target the bridges in the heart of London. The region close to Parliament Square will thereafter see a series of “rolling” traffic blockades. On October 11, lawmakers return from their break. Only volunteers present on the day will be given specific information about the sites.
In case they are detained, activists will be able to post footage on social media.
An official from the Met said last night: “The Met is aware of planned activities by Just Stop Oil.” There will be a strong police strategy in place to deal with any criminal activity, antisocial behaviour, or unrest.
In a Norfolk meeting hall from the 19th century, the insurrection was building as the country mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth earlier this month.
On the first day of the late monarch’s lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, fifty environmental activists gathered in the Norwich Quaker Meeting House to finalise plans for a six-week campaign to wreak mayhem in Central London while the nation watched in awe.
Eco-terrorists from Just Stop Oil planned how to encircle Parliament Square, the site of last week’s beautiful State Funeral procession, with blocks of major highways and bridges to bring their struggle into the heart of Westminster.
But they were unaware that a reporter working undercover for The Mail on Sunday had snuck into their scheme.
In fact, the MoS recently participated in a number of in-person and online meetings and workshops where ideas for a “October revolt” were explored.
The campaign will be a direct challenge to Liz Truss’s Conservative government and the first significant test for incoming Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. It is being spearheaded by seasoned campaigner Roger Hallam.
Just Stop Oil, an organisation that was founded in April, organised a number of very disruptive demonstrations against oil refineries, gas stations, and highways early this year. The gang will instead concentrate on blocking the road system near the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street in a shift in strategy.
Next weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, protesters are asked to gather at Euston, Paddington, and Waterloo stations at 11 a.m. to participate in an initial wave of action that will target London’s bridges. Protesters have been told to gather around Downing Street every day since October 3.
On September 14, when the Queen’s body was transferred from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, a group of activists assembled in Norwich. An experienced campaigner, a former businessman in his late 40s, presented the plans to the crowd.
“There will be a march on October 1st, and then after that weekend, we’re going to move into this more serious, concentrated road-blocking,” he told the gathering. And the plan is to blockade the highways around Westminster in an effort to disrupt Parliament. And the purpose of it is to create a disturbance in order to start a discussion about this subject.
The second aspect of the goal, he said, is to make the police less effective. The notion is that they have to make arrests and remove individuals off the road on a daily basis, which clearly uses up police resources.
A lot of police personnel are needed to apprehend and detain a single individual. And from what we’ve heard from those working in the justice system, they estimate that 3,000 arrests would be too much for the system to handle. This would make it so clear that the police would go to the home secretary and inform her that they couldn’t stop the civil disobedience by arresting people.
Dr. Larch Maxey, an environmental scientist, talked passionately for 45 minutes throughout the conference with the excitement of an unemployed actor eagerly anticipating their first day back on set. Larch was detained last month for blocking oil supply from an Essex port by seizing a tunnel beneath a motorway.
Dr. Maxey explained how the group aimed to mimic the tactics of the Freedom Riders, civil-rights activists in the US who rode buses in the 1960s to challenge laws on racial segregation, by staging their action in a series of waves. He was wearing a grubby polo shirt and shorts emblazoned with the motif “Rebel for Life.” He said that the Freedom Riders were unpopular to the point that they were generating trouble.
“You’re never.” However, they were taking the appropriate action. Doomsday predictions about the severity of the climate catastrophe peppered the gathering. We will see social collapse if we don’t resolve this, Dr. Maxey said. “This is dreadful.”
A teenage activist afterwards drew the regrettable analogy between supporting the Just Stop Oil movement and Germans fighting the Nazis. A other activist asked people in attendance whether they had any moral principles they would rather die for than see disregarded.
Some attendees at the conference seemed to be alarmed by the group’s violent tactics and theatrical speech. During a break, two elderly individuals shook their heads and walked away. I don’t agree with it, but we’re going, one person remarked. “Climate change is bad, but I don’t see a way out of it,” the speaker said.
An undercover reporter present at the online meeting had doubts as well. Participants were asked to declare their preferred pronouns before engaging in some meditation during the exercise, which was designed to increase trust and bravery among prospective protestors.
One lady in her 60s said when asked how everyone was feeling about the impending campaign, “I believe some of us feel unprepared.” I need to organise my funds.
Her admission of uncertainty seemed to unlock the floodgates for others to share their worries.
Another lady chimed in, “I’m not at all prepared.”
In her fifties, a third lady said, “I believe I would have liked to have had much more role play about court.” We will all be acting independently; have we prepared enough for what the group is doing?
The group’s leadership didn’t give up however.
At a gathering of around 30 potential protestors held last week in a room above a bar in Birmingham, Hallam emphasised the significance of their civil disobedience objective. The most horrifying thing you will ever hear will be shared with you in the next 20 to 30 minutes, he promised. “So, exhale deeply.
“On October 1st, hundreds of people will converge on London bridges and spend the whole day there.”
“And then people will be sitting in the road in London every day from then on, and they will be arrested.”
Just Stop Oil, which Hallam founded just a year ago, has gained notoriety as a result of a number of antics, such as disrupting important sports events and blocking highways with protestors who have taped themselves to the ground.
Experienced protesters from more well-known organisations, like Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Insulate Britain, both of which Hallam helped form, have developed the extreme tactics used by the group.
Just Stop Oil is thought to receive the majority of its funding from wealthy backers in California.
However, the organisation has also started a fundraising campaign in this nation, asking prospective activists who attend its meetings to contribute one hour’s wage each month.
As of this week, 124 contributors have signed up to provide a total of slightly over £1,200 each month.
Through the donation platform Patreon, Hallam solicits support from people to finance his activity.
Ex-Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick acknowledged that the police was “stretched” when she said that the Extinction Rebellion rallies in 2019 and 2020 required the Met to spend £50 million on policing.
A Met spokesperson said last night that a “strong police strategy” will be implemented to deal with any criminal activity, anti-social behaviour, or disturbance.
‘We work closely with a variety of partners to ensure that the business of Parliament can continue,’ a spokeswoman for the Parliamentary Estate said.