Environmental campaigners Insulate Britain today restarted their road blockade protests – targeting Southwark Bridge, Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street station.
Activists leant on car bonnets and stood in roads with banners in London from 8am, causing misery for rush hour motorists and families on half-term holidays.
51 demonstrators blocked Upper Thames Street near Southwark Bridge, Bishopsgate at Liverpool Street and Limehouse Causeway at Canary Wharf.
It comes after Insulate Britain (an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion) warned last Friday that they would resume their road blockade protests.
The group stated it would ‘rise up to tyranny’ in protest to the Government’s Net Zero reports. It claimed that these reports ‘completely fail’ to address the current challenges.
Insulate Britain had previously said on October 14 that it was pausing its protests – which have brought misery to motorists across London – until this morning.
From 8am today, activists stood on roads outside London Liverpool Street Station with banners
Protesters blocking motorway junctions and roundabouts have led to hundreds of arrests. They have been running onto the roads as the lights turn red since September 13, when they ran onto the road.
To make maximum impact, they have targeted protests at rush hour traffic. Motorists then take it upon themselves to remove them from the roads when police arrive too slow.
A spokesperson for Insulate Britain said that last Friday, Insulate Britain had considered the British Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy and Net Zero Strategy and Cost of Net Zero reports.
“We concluded that, although these would have made a good start 30 years ago, they do not meet the challenges we face now.
We need a wartime-style national effort, not a plan for crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.
“Insulate Britain will continue its campaign of civil resistance nonviolent.”
Insulate Britain claimed that the Government’s ‘plan to decarbonise our homes fails on almost every measure’.
It said the £450million allocated to grants for heat pumps will help only 30,000 households a year, which is a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared with the 900,000 a year required by the Climate Change Committee by 2028.
A spokesperson stated that “Our ancestors fought an civil war to remove such oppression from these islands, and they sacrificed their lives in order to win the rights & freedoms we now enjoy.
“Today, it is our turn, and our responsibility, to stand up against tyranny. This is what we owe to our ancestors, our fellow citizens, and those who come after us in this great chain of life.
A High Court judge extended an injunction to stop Insulate Britain protestors from blocking roads in London on Tuesday.
London’s transport network was granted the order earlier this month, aimed at preventing the actvists obstructing cars on some of the capital’s busiest roads.
National Highways has already issued three additional injunctions to members of the protest group. These injunctions prohibit demonstrations on the M25 and around the Port of Dover as well as on major roads around London.
Insulate Britain members were allowed to address the court last week during the hearing.
Despite the campaign being temporarily suspended, they repeatedly displayed their contempt for the injunctions through disobeying them or burning paper copies.
A court order violation can lead to a contempt charge, which can be punishable with up to 2 years in prison and a fine of unlimited amount.
Last week, Mr Justice Lavender, the judge, stated that the injunction had been extended until a trial was held in the case, or a further court order, or April 8 next.
Dr Diana Warner, a member of the group, stated that National Highways should lower motorway speed limits to 10 mph when Insulate Britain protests along a carriageway.
