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Just Stop Oil stage 'slow cycle' through London (Just Stop Oil)Just Stop Oil begin slow cycling protests
Just Stop Oil has staged its first ‘slow cycle’ through London today, as part of the group’s plans to “evolve” its tactics in the face of what it claims is the government’s attempt to “restrict our legitimate rights to protest”.
The environmentalist group has staged slow marches on the streets of London for the last seven weeks in a bid to draw attention to their demand that the British government puts a stop to “all licences and consents for new oil, gas, and coal projects”.
Until now, all of these protests have been on foot, but this morning at 8am, nine Just Stop Oil activists slowly rode their bikes in London’s West End, as two other groups of supporters marched at Chiswick roundabout and Blackheath.
🚲 BREAKING: 9 Slow Cycle for No New Oil and Gas in West End
🦺 At 8am, 9 supporters began slow cycling down Park Lane to demand an end to new fossil fuels. At the same time, another 2 groups of supporters began slow marching on the A2 at Blackheath and at Chiswick roundabout. pic.twitter.com/0E0ERdbsvU
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) June 9, 2023
An hour and a half after the demonstration began on Park Lane, the Metropolitan Police tweeted that they had issued the group with a section 12 order for causing disruption to traffic, and moved the protesting cyclists onto the pavement.
The decision to usher the bike riding activists off the road and onto the footpath, however, provoked a bemused response on Twitter.
“The same pavement where it’s illegal to cycle by any chance?” wrote one user. “Hi Essex Police, remember when you told me I’d be fined if caught cycling on the pavement in Wickford to avoid getting killed by lorries? I’m taking a leaf out of the Met’s book and using the pavement from now on.”
The very same…https://t.co/xxD9RR9oou
— David (@TwoWheelsGoodOK) June 9, 2023
A spokesperson from Just Stop Oil told road.cc today that the move to riding bikes slowly across the road is a response to the government’s attempts to clamp down on the disruption caused by the marching activists in recent weeks.
“This criminal government is quietly signing off on over 100 new oil and gas projects that will hasten climate collapse and destroy the conditions that make human life possible. It is an act of war against the young and millions of people in the global south,” the spokesperson said.
“At the same time, they are enacting laws to ensure that no-one can stop them. They are restricting our legitimate rights to protest and to march in the road as people have done throughout history to express dissent. So, our tactics will continue to evolve.
“We are happy to show solidarity with cyclists everywhere and ask them to join us in civil resistance. Whether marching or cycling we will continue to do whatever is non-violently possible to end new oil and gas.”
The call for cyclists to join Just Stop Oil’s campaign of civil resistance comes just over a week after a man on a bike made headlines for confronting the protesters during a slow march and claiming that they were “harming the green cause”.
The cyclist approached the activists as they slowly walked down Holloway Road in north London, blocking traffic, as part of a series of Bank Holiday demonstrations. The rider – who pointed out to the protesters that he was “a liberal and a cyclist” – told them: “Everyone is just trying to go about their business, go about their day, and you are f***ing it all up for all of them.
“You might feel better about yourselves, but all you are doing is harming the cause because everyone hates you. I’m a liberal, and a cyclist, and I live in north London – and I hate you.”
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
Latest Comments
- Bungle_52 1 sec ago
Serious question. I've always assumed that the 1.5m applies to all road users, can I ask what it is that makes you think that it doesn't apply to...
- Charles Chevaux 45 min 13 sec ago
The danger is self evident - the penalty proves the non compliance.
- Charles Chevaux 56 min 48 sec ago
"Y" not?
- Rome73 1 hour 24 min ago
Is says in the article that the police were shocked by the sentence and may appeal.
- Charles Chevaux 5 hours 28 min ago
There is always Radonneuring.
- robike 5 hours 44 min ago
Most of the reports are "Car crashes into ..." whereas we know the vehicle is innocent. They should say "Driver steers their car into ..."...
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What happened to the insurance claim?...
- leedorney 7 hours 12 sec ago
An a-typical glowing review for a cycle-computer that lacks in many areas but shines soo bright in others.. Sram truly need to develop this...
- qwerty360 7 hours 17 min ago
While I don't know the area that well (have visited family but only cycled through a handful of times), my understanding is:...
- belugabob 9 hours 48 min ago
An American thing that's smaller than elsewhere - some mistake, surely? 😉
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99 comments
The issue that JSO are protesting is that the UK is planning an increase in oil exploration and drilling. That oil won't be for the exclusive use of the UK, but sold in global markets - that'll likely reduce oil prices and induce demand for oil.
Do you not see why people consider that to be a problem and moving in the wrong direction?
It seems that you believe that they have no valid reason to protest as well as disagreeing with their tactics.
Humans need to move away from petty local issues and adress the global issue of climate catastrophe. Just because we're not directly suffering from floods and fires doesn't mean that we can clap ourselves on our backs and declare it job done.
It's likely to have little impact on global prices.
OPEC+ manipulate their output to keep oil prices in a sweet spot (for them). Saudi Arabia alone recently announced a 1m barrel per day reduction in their oil output to keep prices high. UK production in total is usually less than that. If our oil production disappeared overnight and that pushed up prices too much the Saudis could entirely replace it at the stroke of a pen.
If we're going to use the oil (we are) and it will be produced by somebody else if we don't produce it ourselves (it will) then what exactly is the benefit of not producing it ourselves?
Idealism is great but some issues actually need a pragmatic approach.
OPEC is one of the few legal cartels (capitalist gangsters) and with the power that they have to set prices and production, there's not really a lot that can be done... Hey, unless we let a petrodollar state host COP28 and give their state oil company access to all of the emails etc, that'll work just fine...
That was sort of my point. We can cut our production to nothing and OPEC will just adjust their output accordingly.
JSO's ultimate goal will have precisely zero effect on anything except the UK's tax take.
Not really worth all the grief if you ask me.
The optics of that COP meeting are not going to be great but I'm reserving judgement until I see what they come up with.
The pragmatic approach is to not start drilling for new oil supplies and instead put that investment into alternative energy sources. It's not idealism to want to keep our planet as habitable as possible, but we're already seeing upheavals begin.
£10bn less in tax take is £10bn less to spend on decarbonisation schemes.
Oil drilling is profitable, if we keep the profits in the UK we can use the money raised to subsidise insulation/heat pumps/active travel schemes etc.
Otherwise that profit just goes abroad.
I'm sceptical that the money is ring-fenced. It's a very short term view as continuing to destroy the planet's habitats (for humans, anyhow) is going to cost everyone in the longer term.
The point is that North Sea or no North Sea we're going to need (actually need) fossils fuels for a very long time yet.
The money isn't ring fenced for environmental stuff but the government does spend a lot of money on it and, as recent cuts to active travel budget have shown, when tax take is insufficient it's likely to get a significant hair cut.
£10bn less tax revenue per year will mean a lot more cuts.
sounds wonderful! this would look great as a slogan on the side of a big red bus....
s
JSO are demanding no NEW gas/oil exploration in the UK. They are not demanding a complete halt on North Sea operations. They may refer to Net Zero, but their demand is clear, and I think that most of the UK population would agree with that demand, even if they may disagree with their actions. The main reason that people may disgaree with JSO's aims are the number of media and social media people who strawman them.
Why do you think most people would be happy to let North Sea production peter out to nothing?
We'd lose £10bn+ a year in taxes and global oil production would simply adjust to replace.it.
No carbon benefit but worse public services.
Sounds like a winner to me...
It is clear if you go looking, and I'm open to it (while acknowledging Rich_cb's argument that if we don't produce it we'll just import it (unless, of course, we reduce demand - which we are doing but should do faster and in a way that inspires others to follow suit)).
I'd hazard a guess that most people don't know JSO's specific demand (it would be helpful if their name wasn't misleading, FFS!) and are less likely to be interested or sympathetic as a result of their tactics. You can blame the media but their response is hardly unpredictable. They just haven't thought it through.
They seem more interested in juvenile virtue signalling than actually achieving impact - which is why plenty people here don't support their approach, even if sympathetic to their objectives.
Perhaps they should take their inspiration from the sufragettes and american civil rights movements who famousely enacted change with no disruption at all during their protests?
I agree with you. I'd happily see JSO chained to railings or throwing themselves under a racehorse or going on hunger strike. Those acts would probably piss less people off and get them more sympathy. TBF I quite like the gluing themselves to Oil Co HQs.
The misunderstanding here is that we need people to have sympathy with JSO.
We're in deep trouble. For all the talk of cutting emissions, they are higher than ever before. We need severe GHG cuts this decade, starting now, but it is not happening.
400 wildfires are burning in Canada, and that is just one symptom of a climate that is rapidly spiralling out of control.
Your misunderstanding is that if JSO continue with their alienating stunts they'll get anything from the average person in the street apart from despite and derision.
Best thing they can do is rebrand.
My approach is to be part of the local cycle campaign and engage with the council.
I have to tell you it is incredibly ineffective.
Why don't JSO use the tools of the oppressor, i.e some old cars, to "break down" at key locations? Not their fault if the electrics pack up including the electric controlled handbrake or a wheel needs changing and the bolts get sheared. Make suitable arrangments to have the vehicle recovered and you could probably get a good couple of hours of disruption. As for minor collisions? It can take ages to swap details for even the slightest scuff.
And the obvious effect of this disruption to the public would be to encourage the government to halt oil and gas exploration?
would anyone even notice.
remember delays due to protests or (worse) cyclists are insufferable
but delays due to too many cars, bad parking, break downs or crashes are just one of those things and not something to get worked up about even though group 1 costs people at most an hour a year, while group 2 is probably costing at least a couple of hours a month.
Re; Holloway Road - “Everyone is just trying to go about their business, go about their day"
The same Holloway Road that had roughly one death per year back when I lived in the area? And having a ten second check of headlines it looks like 2019: 2 deaths, 2020: 1 death, 2022: 1 death. The road is long overdue for some serious changes.
*sigh*
I'd have thought that an even more effective protest would have been to cycle at, say, 10 - 15 mph. This is just above the average speed for London traffic, would achieve the point of the protest and it would mean that the protesters couldn't be 'moved along' for holding up the traffic as they'd be marginally quicker than the petrol heads. It would also show that the 'umble bike is better suited to urban environment than the infernal combination engine.
I was thinking this too.
I'm not the fastest cyclist by any means, but my average speed during rush hour traffic is a bit faster than drivers so they can't say we hold them up.
It would be nice... but "average" and of course with motor vehicles it's "accellerate to the minimum speed limit then crack on until the next queue / red light". So cyclists will always be IN THE WAY.
Excellent news.
Personally I don't feel that there is enough animosity towards cyclists.
It's nice of JSO to try and rectify that.
I'm not sure. You might also say that there's so much animosity towards cyclists, so what difference does it make?
It's interesting that we don't for a moment think that slow marches would increase animosity towards pedestrians.
Not really: pedestrians aren't an 'out group' and don't tend to do things drivers find annoying.
Pedestrians don't do annoying things? Clearly you're never been along Tooley Street in rush hour.
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