Forum Topic

Scum in the road

Quite distressing watching the video recordings of the idiots on Wandsworth Bridge blocking people trying to take people to hospital etc. The images of emergency ambulance crews having to help the police carry the nutters off the road is hardly good PR for their cause.

Karl Henry ● 1350d33 Comments

Don't worry Matt - intelligent and reasoned discussion is a struggle for many people; it is so much easier to simply name-call and abuse. Pick on the individual when one cannot dispute (or maybe even understand) the argument.

Michael Winstanley ● 1349d

But nationalisation is an anathema to neo-liberals.What we need is people with technical training like they have in Germany.  No wonder parents with children of dual nationality send their kids there to go to college.Changing specifications simply to reduce cost without a full  understanding of the qualities of a product and the reason for its specification in the first place causes problems.Changing something as simple as a front door just because you fancy a different one without any understanding of what the original is and why it was specified and fitted is also a problem.  Makeovers have a lot to answer for!

Philippa Bond ● 1349d

Philippa, given the Grenfell scandall and the importance of insulation in both the current and future housing stock and the UK's commitment to reducing emissions I wonder if there is a case for more government intervention such as nationalising.When you think about it most of the money is likely to come from the government anyway in terms of grants for insulation or even bailouts for leaseholders with defective insulation.I'm fairly neutral on nationalisation if the market is working. But when it is taxpayers money flowing into private companies who are not taking any risk then why not?

Ed Robinson ● 1350d

There are a lot of problems with housing and buildings or rather lack of housing and buildings and the planning that goes or should go with it.  So many initiatives in the past seem to not have been thought through properly and failed causing mistrust and lack of confidence. (We hear more about the failures and not enough about the successes.) Regulation has not been - maybe still isn't good enough.  A pattern book is needed to safely insulate the types of buildings that we already have.  It looks like the Dutch Energiesprong system may work with a lot of social housing units that are the same and various Councils are now using this.It is important that what is built now is built able to deal with the greater fluctuations in heating and cooling that we now expect without huge use of electricity.  I know that there are new "shoe boxes" with windows that don't open and which have a lack of through ventilation and shading as well as the uninsulated ones with condensation and mould.  We need to see many more good examples using the new technology we are supposed to be moving to.This was interesting:https://theconversation.com/affordable-housing-is-a-myth-that-worsens-the-housing-crisis-but-there-is-a-fix-168771?

Philippa Bond ● 1350d

cunningly spotted, Thanks Caroline!Sorry, long day (at work! before anyone accuses me of blocking a road)

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

Who's Catherine.

Barbara Stevens ● 1350d

thanks Catherine.

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

Thank you Matt. I do admire your patience and humour in dealing with the abuse you get from people on the Forum without descending to their level.

Caroline Whitehead ● 1350d

Their argument Barbara (and this is the same as XR's) is that 30 odd years of going on marches etc hasn't cut through to the people in power and therefore more drastic methods are needed.Their (and again XR's) logic for stopping people going to work is that it's minor compared to the disruption that will happen in the future due to the climate crises. The difference between the two groups is the level of disruption they are willing to cause.You are right though, it is mainly older people who are doing this for insulate britain. I can only speculate as to why that is but certainly some of the older XR people have an attitude of 'what difference does a criminal record make at my age'. It would seem to me that they have picked up on an issue that would not only greatly improve the lives of a huge number of people (by some estimate 10k people a year die from the cold) but also single handedly causes a huge drop in our emissions.

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

Why would people want to go to Prison, if you have young children it's really stupid. All the protesting is mainly older people or I suppose younger ones who want to make a name for themselves. Why are they stopping people going to work, this doesn't solve anything. Or are these people wanting to go to prison to enroll more people.

Barbara Stevens ● 1350d

Exactly that, thanks Andy.I fully support the message but I'm not on board with this level of disruption and I certainly cannot agree with Roger Hallams comments about blocking an ambulance with a dying person inside.I will admit to a certain grudging admiration for people that are willing to go to jail for a cause they truly believe in. Although I've been arrested once and had a number of close calls I'm not willing to go to prison.

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

You can support the aims whilst not supporting the method. I think that's been Matt's clear position all through.

Andy Pike ● 1350d

Are you a supporter or not Matt?Earlier in the thread you said this "For the millionth time, I'm not welcoming it at all, I don't support the IB campaign".Now you are saying this "If only people would get as worked up about the number of poorly insulated homes in the country eh"!

Ben Toney ● 1350d

If only people would get as worked up about the number of poorly insulated homes in the country eh!

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

A great piece from you Sue. I couldn't agree more.A few old people on this forum bizarrely support them. I guess when you are retired and just sitting around at home smoking weed you are not affected by the disruption on the road to people going about their daily lives.

Ben Toney ● 1350d

Let's hope they all get their wish then Matt.

Sue Hammond ● 1350d

Yes Sue, what has been going on is disgusting. How would they feel if they found out it was one of their family in the ambulance, how stupid old women and men need to get a life, instead of upsetting other people.

Barbara Stevens ● 1350d

They are all prepared to go to prison.  That’s quite a remarkable thing. To keep doing something knowing that you’re going to be incarcerated. Crazy or principled?  Or both?

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

They are scum. This story broke on LBC early this morning during the Nick Ferrari show and their reporter Rachel Venebles was at the Blackwall Tunnel as it unfolded. I heard the lady who was trying to visit her 81 year old Mother crying and pleading with the morons to let her through, and they point blank refused. "A climate zealot who founded the Extinction Rebellion splinter group which brought parts of London to a standstill for more than four hours during this morning's rush hour has revealed that he would block an ambulance which contained a dying person.In an extraordinary admission to the Unbreak the Planet podcast, Insulate Britain mastermind Roger Hallam told presenter Mike Galsworthy that he would also have refused to move for a crying woman who was trying to get to her unwell 81-year-old mother in hospital. The chilling exchange comes after a tearful woman trying to get to her unwell 81-year-old mother in a Canterbury hospital slammed 'selfish' eco-morons who had blocked the Blackwall Tunnel, Hanger Lane and Wandsworth Bridge between 8am and 12pm. Tensions flared as a paramedic crew joined furious drivers and pulled enviro-idiots - some of whom are repeat offenders who have been arrested and released by police during past demos - off the road at Wandsworth Bridge, while a woman at Blackwall Tunnel trying to get to her mother in hospital lashed out at the mob: 'How can you be so selfish?' Married father-of-one Bill Wilson, 55, who has serious health problems after spending weeks in a coma after testing positive for Covid, was even forced to cancel three important hi-tech scans at Royal Brompton Hospital due to Insulate Britain's stunt."https://mol.im/a/10056407They are definitely scum.  It is now time to jail these anarchists because they are putting peoples lives at risk.

Sue Hammond ● 1350d

Ash. The posting wasn't targeted at anyone specifically. I have never met and do not know Mr Winstanley. He's neither a friend or enemy. I may agree with some of his posts, I may disagree with others. He does usually check his facts and is very direct; although I wouldn't use some of his more acerbic terms or phrases we all have our individual styles? I don't think that's hypocritical, is it? 

Michael Ixer ● 1350d

The protesters were all dragged out the road by the general public and passing motorists on Wandsworth bridge this morning.Hopefully we will start seeing more of this.

Ben Toney ● 1350d

Why not pop down and sort the protestors yourself if you feel so strogly instead of sitting on your preverbial and spouting insults here. Invite your trolling mates perhaps at the same time - or would that (heavan forbid!) make you all sheep? Just a suggestion.

Freddie Francis ● 1350d

Michael why do you only criticise someone using poor language against one of your comrades?When your friend Winstanley is vile to others you never have anything to say?Hypocrisy springs to mind.

Ash Jones ● 1350d

And some people need to reflect that when they start attacking individuals (verbally, on the forum, I mean) rather produce a rational counter argument they've destroyed their own case by admitting they can't produce one ... (Obviously, I don't condone physical violence either.  One also has to consider the difference between passively sitting in a company's reception dressed as a strawberry or banana split making a point and various degrees of direct action that have an affect on peoples lives - and perhaps - deaths. But as I've said before, history will be the judge of that when the opposing detrimental affects are known?)

Michael Ixer ● 1350d

Here we go again. As I am right and you are wrong,I have the right to free speech and you do not. Geddit.

Hugh Thompson ● 1350d

"Why don't XR and the like spend their time protesting outside the Chinese Embassy who are the biggest polluters in the world?"If you recognise this Ben - why don't you?Or are you just in the Bla Bla Bla category?

Philippa Bond ● 1350d

Hi Ben, That's such a great idea! I have no idea why we havent been doing that up until now! Rather than trying to influence the policy of my own government I should instead give it a go with a country that's 5000 miles away.I'll grab my XR flag and head over now, cheers mate!

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

Why don't XR and the like spend their time protesting outside the Chinese Embassy who are the biggest polluters in the world?Why block working class people going about their daily lives trying to earn a living.It's time XR and the like were treated like the criminals they, are and faced some jail time.

Ben Toney ● 1350d

@ Ash and Pete,No, I do no support that type of action either.But the language both of you use is as objectionable as the  measure taken by Insulate Britain.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1350d

For the millionth time, I'm not welcoming it at all, I dont support the IB campaign.The difference is you lot do actually think its ok to threaten people inside their own homes.

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

They are a splinter group from XR and they get up to exactly the same tricks.As a previous poster pointed out, in one breath you are saying how scandalous it is to protest outside someone's home, and in another breath you welcome blocking people getting family members to hospital. Your type really are vermin.

Pete Elliot ● 1350d

Good luck trying to find a post where I have been supportive of the insulate britain campaign

Matt Palmer ● 1350d

I agree mate, they are absolute garbage.You have people on this forum like Matt who supports this sort of action from the XR splinter groups.Thick as two short planks!

Ash Jones ● 1350d