The idiotic Insulate Britain are at it again

[sst1234]

Now they have blocked the port of Dover. On top of Lorry driver shortage and commodity supply issues, these absolute criminals are causing yet more damage to the supply chain. And who suffers? Joe Public suffers yet more price hikes because virtue signalling, well healed, are damaging the country so no benefit whatsoever. None at all. Hashtag less than 1% of global emissions

@Moneysavvymam

Will you refuse free insulation if they succeed then?

I didn't know Insulate Britain were offering it? Last I heard they were causing traffic pollution, killing and paralysing vulnerable people, and trying to starve the poor by blocking food imports.

It's a nice idea, if they're now offering free insulation - through their own DIY skills or a crowdfund type thing. I'd suggest, however, that it might be a good idea if they practiced what they preached and insulated their own homes first.

@Ihaventgottimeforthis

Was anyone on this thread actually stuck in the jams or do you all simply get a thrill from chatting about punitive treatment of people involved in direct action? The amount of fuming and hot air here could in itself replace a tanker full of LNG. I love reading it!

YAWWWWN

@FWBNC At the expense of the woman who died being driven to hospital by her son last week? Trip should have taken 40 minutes, if she'd hit there in 90 minutes- she would have lived. They were held up fir 6 hours by these idiots and her son had to watch his mum die on the motorway.

I really wish people wouldn't throw around things like this without verifying their information. Tragic as the story is, the woman did not die. She had a stroke and was told that an ambulance would take hours to get to her. That is appalling. Her son did what I imagine most people would do in this situation, and decided to take her to A&E himself.

I don't know how long it took for her to ring 999, be told it would take hours (that's not going to be the first thing they tell you is it), arrange for her son to take her to hospital instead. But that's already eating into those vital 90 minutes. He expected the journey to take 40 minutes. It didn't, because of the protest. But what if there hadn't been a protest. What if an accident had held him up. What about all the other people having strokes that day who didn't have someone to take them to A&E. What about every other medical emergency that couldn't get an ambulance that day - or indeed any other day. Why aren't we screaming about the fact that the chronic and deliberate underfunding of the NHS by the government for the last decade is costing people their health and their lives.

Nah. The mucky hippies on the road are a much easier target. They want to save the whole of humanity. Fuckers.

@Patapouf I'm sorry you have been unable to make the connection between well healed/heeled, or is it that you don't understand well-heeled?

Do you not think that all the publicity is negative and the majority of people despising them is not great?

[quote MagnificentOrangeElephant]**@FWBNC At the expense of the woman who died being driven to hospital by her son last week? Trip should have taken 40 minutes, if she'd hit there in 90 minutes- she would have lived. They were held up fir 6 hours by these idiots and her son had to watch his mum die on the motorway.

I really wish people wouldn't throw around things like this without verifying their information. Tragic as the story is, the woman did not die. She had a stroke and was told that an ambulance would take hours to get to her. That is appalling. Her son did what I imagine most people would do in this situation, and decided to take her to A&E himself.

I don't know how long it took for her to ring 999, be told it would take hours (that's not going to be the first thing they tell you is it), arrange for her son to take her to hospital instead. But that's already eating into those vital 90 minutes. He expected the journey to take 40 minutes. It didn't, because of the protest. But what if there hadn't been a protest. What if an accident had held him up. What about all the other people having strokes that day who didn't have someone to take them to A&E. What about every other medical emergency that couldn't get an ambulance that day - or indeed any other day. Why aren't we screaming about the fact that the chronic and deliberate underfunding of the NHS by the government for the last decade is costing people their health and their lives.

Nah. The mucky hippies on the road are a much easier target. They want to save the whole of humanity. Fuckers.[/quote]
She was paralysed. Her son was on the radio and said this. The hospital told him if she had got there in time the damage would have been minimal. These people are responsible for this.

Hundreds of people die each year in the UK from the cold.

Well aren't we meant to nowadays 'live with' risks? I mean, the numbers killed by the cold is drawfed by the amount of Covid deaths. The UK is allowing Covid to kill between 100-200 people per day because of no cheap and easy mitigation measures like the mask mandates other countries have.

And hundreds die from homelessness every year. Too many people don't even have a home to insulate in the first place.

And then we come to climate change. The future killer is heat. Tunnel vision on insulation and the cold has led to overheated oven homes that don't breathe. The vital importance of ventilation is being ignored.

Environmentally friendly? How about we start with the easy. Boris Johnson flew on a polluting flight to hang out in New York for a couple of days. To talk climate change, he said. Well Boris, might be an idea to lead by example. Next time, do it from home by Zoom.

Likewise the CO26. World leaders using their taxpayers money to get on polluting flights, to have some nice food, drink, chats, sightseeing, and a jolly good time had by all. Except the environment. Can't take them seriously when we live in times of modern technology with video conferencing abilities.

"Will you refuse free insulation if they succeed then?"

That really is the stupidest comment I've read in a while. Also, if I understand correctly, it's only social housing they're demanding free insulation for

The mucky hippies on the road are a much easier target.

Hippies? The Privileged more like.

They want to save the whole of humanity.

The whole of affluent humanity. They want the poor and vulnerable to fuck off and die. Their actions speak volumes.

Fuckers

Yes

IMO they don't care about 'The Cause' (whatever it happens to be, or whatever they decide to call it on any given day), they just want to be protesting about something. It doesn't matter what.

How come they're not at work anyway? Lazy good-for-nothing bastards need to get up off their arses and do a proper day's graft.

Send in the army.

@MagnificentOrangeElephant

The son was on the radio. He said he watched the life drain out of his mum. I apologise if I misunderstood that to mean she died, if she didn't, but no, I'm not in the habit of verifying what people say happened to them, I tend to believe them.

Suffering the serious life changing effects of a serious stroke is awful too, one of my close friends basically lost her mum due to a stroke. She was alive, but not living, afterwards.

Your 'whataboutery' is pathetic. Why are you defending these dangerous idiots?

Not to mention that finding their behaviour deplorable & saying so on one thread, does not preclude people thinking the underfunding of the NHS isn't an issue.

When I had an accident (roughly 4 months ago) someone phoned an ambulance, we were told pretty promptly that the wait would be a minimum of two hours (and I was on a busy road, unable to move or be moved).

@Dontgetyerknicksinatwist thank you.

@Dontgetyerknicksinatwist She was paralysed. Her son was on the radio and said this. The hospital told him if she had got there in time the damage would have been minimal. These people are responsible for this.

Yes, she was paralysed. It is tragic, and should not have happened. But the reason she was in that car on that motorway is because our underfunded NHS could not get an ambulance to her for hours. There isn't a magic 90 minutes, but but the longer the root cause is untreated the greater the chance of repetition or extension. So time matters.

I don't know about Insulate Britain, but XR have a Blue Light Policy The media pretends they don't, because evoking the heart rending image of your mum in an ambulance is lazy, but sadly effective, journalism. They plan their actions to ensure emergency vehicles can get through. Given that the police were able to use the hard shoulder to get to arrest the protestors, if she had been in an ambulance they would have got through (and she would have had access to qualified personnel and emergency medicine on route)

So, are you angry about why a person in need of time critical medical treatment cannot get it? Or still just protestors.

And if they really cared about the environment, they actually wouldn't want to save humanity. Humans - we're a destructive species. It goes against our natural survival instincts but the best way to save the environment would be to let the human race die out. Naturally (not murder by Covid).

Perhaps in the future the robots will make the decision for us... 🤖

@Moneysavvymam

Will you refuse free insulation if they succeed then?

Yep, because I've already had the house insulated, for free.

There are idiots gluing themselves to tankers carrying petrol at the Port of Dover. I think I would leave them and let the tanker go with them stuck to it.

But the reason she was in that car on that motorway is because our underfunded NHS could not get an ambulance to her for hours

So there's two choices here. One, campaign (in a non obstructive manner) for a better funded and managed NHS. And use their own money for good, eg. donate to the NHS.

Or what they did. Actively make things worse.

As for the Blue Light Policy. There are 9 million people in London. Including, despite the best efforts of successive governments going back 30-40 years to socially cleanse London, many elderly, vulnerable, disabled, and poor. Then there's all the extra patients from outside London, who travel in to the specialist central London hospitals.

When roads are blocked and traffic delayed and diverted, particularly in an already overcrowded city, journeys to hospital are affected.

Bully for XR. They let the ambulance paas. When it finally gets there. Nevermind that, thanks to their actions, it's taken much longer to reach that point.

Insulate and XR rival Tony Blair and George Osborne in their hatred of the disabled and vulnerable. Their actions hurt people who have to get to hospital by car....because of their mobility needs or being too frail or unwell to use public transport.

Privileged mobs attacking the poor and vulnerable.

@FWBNC Why are you defending these dangerous idiots?

I am not defending the action of Insulate Britain, but I am mindful (and this thread shows) that is it used as an excuse to pile in and bash all protestors. I find that incredibly worrying in a time where activists are literally screaming from the rooftops about our inaction on the climate emergency, and the science backs them up, and yet our government dithers and greenwashes.

What is the point in any of us writing to our MP, signing petitions, making any personal changes when the government and banks are investing our pensions and mortgages in continued fossil fuel extraction. The IPCC report says the only way to prevent a climate change disaster is to stop using fossil fuels immediately. And our government are still allowing further explanation of the Cambo oil field and preparing for in a new coal mine in Cumbria. So what do we do? How do we make our voices heard? It reaches a point where non-violent direct action is the only option left if you want meaningful change within the time we have left to us.

Just think. All the taxpayer money spent on this lot. Policing and clean up costs, road diversions, etc. Imagine if, instead, it was used to fund keeping the £20 extra UC so desperately needed by people struggling to get by.

I know one XR/IBer whose first response when I told them about either the London benefit cap or bedroom tax being introduced (years back) was that that they should move down there and take up affordable housing in order to Do Activism about it 🤦‍♀️

What you don't do is prevent people going about their lawful activities including attending urgent hospital appointments. I don't give two hoots if the protesters think what they have to say is important, not when what I have to do could be urgent and maybe life-saving.

literally screaming from the rooftops about our inaction on the climate emergency

Perhaps they should stop screaming (they'll get sore throats) and do something practical instead.

Go round to people's houses and offer to insulate them for free.

Encourage smaller families (to tackle worldwide human overpopulation) with education and improved access to contraception.

I also assume, being as concerned about it all as they are, they don't drive or use planes themselves? Afterall, they must surely lead by example.

I suppose the problem is really the government whose solution to the climate change is to push all the responsibility onto the general public (change your car, change your boiler) while trying to engineer a situation in which all our trade is no longer done close to home but with countries on the literal other side of the world, which will cause huge environmental damage.
The government should be making it easier for those on low incomes to insulate their homes, instead of these people just having to heat their homes more or choose between heat or eat.
But the government would rather spend our taxes to destroy huge sections of the countryside so their donors get a huge rail building project.
I am not on benefits but have draughty decades-old windows that I cannot afford to replace, so I guess I am using more gas to heat my home than I would do if I didn't have to find many thousands to replace them. In other countries, there is help for this kind of thing.

I don't agree with Insulate Britain's methods, but I do agree with their message and their right to protest. As a democratic country, we should be very concerned about this government's steps to remove our rights to protest and increase police power.

And I don't remember Priti Patel and the police being so concerned about the looney right-wing anti-lockdown or anti-vaxx protests.

Right-wing idiots = OK, left-wing idiots = imprison them.

@Ilikewinter

But they wont succeed will they, the government is not going to give them what they want Meanwhile they are causing chaos to normal people trying to go about their daily lives.

Absolutely agree!

It's UK policy not to negotiate with extremists.