Mailwatch(ed) Forum

If ever the right idea was being carried out by the wrong people it's this one. I know there's two sides to every story but I'm struggling to see this lot as anything other than a bunch of entitled brats.


Tearful woman pleads with demonstrators blocking Blackwall Tunnel to let her see her sick mother

https://news.sky.com/story/insulate-bri ... s-12425750

Like many environmental activists they're suffering from a severe case of arse brain.

Yeah. I don't know why they can't engage a lobbying firm or two, and maybe get some Tufton Street think tanks on side, like normal people would.

I've been watching their interviews on TV in the past hour. I'm not impressed at all.

There are ways of persuading, there are already groups who can be led into these policies. But it requires hard work and long-term commitment, which these people do not demonstrate.

It's desperate stuff. If someone wanted to do damage to the sustainability agenda, they could do a lot worse than this.

Rosvanian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:08 pm It's desperate stuff. If someone wanted to do damage to the sustainability agenda, they could do a lot worse than this.

Don’t you mean they couldn’t do a lot worse than this ?

They should have blocked the Tory party conference.

Plenty would have supported that.

davidjay wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:58 pm If ever the right idea was being carried out by the wrong people it's this one. I know there's two sides to every story but I'm struggling to see this lot as anything other than a bunch of entitled brats.


Tearful woman pleads with demonstrators blocking Blackwall Tunnel to let her see her sick mother

https://news.sky.com/story/insulate-bri ... s-12425750

I doubt this group will change most people’s view that insulation is a good idea. But they’re doing their best.

This looks like the worst idea since Extinction Rebellion decided to cause havoc at Canning Town station.

I mean, I know the media doesn't report regular protest, but at least disrupt something more appropriate than electrically powered mass transit. At least make me think, "Well, I'm glad it wasn't me being delayed, but I sort of see their point".

Abernathy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:22 pm

Rosvanian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:08 pm It's desperate stuff. If someone wanted to do damage to the sustainability agenda, they could do a lot worse than this.

Don’t you mean they couldn’t do a lot worse than this ?

It's almost like the fuel lobby has hired a fringe group to discredit the cause.

mattomac wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:23 pm They should have blocked the Tory party conference.

Plenty would have supported that.

Probably very hard to get anywhere near it in fairness.

Where to even begin with this. On the one hand, "won't someone think of the King's horses" but on the other, IB and IXR need to find and deploy something that the UK seems to deem optional at the moment - leadership.

Of course, ambulances need to be let through the cordons but the disruptions are the only measure that seems to be cutting through, for better or for worse. There again, when protest now needs by its very nature to be decentralised, it is very hard to provide and communicate leadership when hashtags are being flooded by the cops and sundry fasho groups.

In the longer term, of course, tons and cities need to mobilise from within local governmental decision making. Free, safe, and convenient public transport along the lines of the best of the NHS, insulation grants for the woeful housing stock supported by the energy franchisees, and transport policies which relegate cars to third-class road users.

Meantime, stop being twats and let the essential services do their vital thing.

There've been some good protests in the past that have been targeted nicely at the government and cut through, like Hestletine having his gates blocked with coal. Then again, that was in 1992, and it maybe much harder to do this now than then.

Back then, Special Branch protection only covered the very top jobs and people such as the NI secretary. Nowadays many more ministers have it, plus heightened home security. Anyone trying the coal stunt would risk a fatal dose of high speed lead poisoning.

Another issue here is what constitutes an essential service? As seen at both the current fuel shortages and the 2000 protests, opinions vary. Ambulances and fire engines, obviously. Police vehicles - depends on where in the country you are. Many taxi drivers would consider their services essential, as would delivery drivers and others reliant on their van - especially in the current climate. And "essential for wider society" vs "essential for me making a living and feeding the kids" is a whole other question. Next level down, the disabled person who needs their car to get about, or the parent who needs to collect their kid from school. Are they essential users? Well, certainly on a personal level again. Maybe that says something about the cult of the self, but the point is, very few people would classify their vehicle use as not essential.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:14 am Back then, Special Branch protection only covered the very top jobs and people such as the NI secretary. Nowadays many more ministers have it, plus heightened home security. Anyone trying the coal stunt would risk a fatal dose of high speed lead poisoning.

Another issue here is what constitutes an essential service? As seen at both the current fuel shortages and the 2000 protests, opinions vary. Ambulances and fire engines, obviously. Police vehicles - depends on where in the country you are. Many taxi drivers would consider their services essential, as would delivery drivers and others reliant on their van - especially in the current climate. And "essential for wider society" vs "essential for me making a living and feeding the kids" is a whole other question. Next level down, the disabled person who needs their car to get about, or the parent who needs to collect their kid from school. Are they essential users? Well, certainly on a personal level again. Maybe that says something about the cult of the self, but the point is, very few people would classify their vehicle use as not essential.

Good point all of them, but in the me-first culture of modern Britain, being filmed preventing a woman from visiting her ill mother in hospital is never going to win any converts.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:57 pm

mattomac wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:23 pm They should have blocked the Tory party conference.

Plenty would have supported that.

Probably very hard to get anywhere near it in fairness.

Someone nearly got a cone on IDS head.... it's a start.

davidjay wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 11:25 am

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:14 am Back then, Special Branch protection only covered the very top jobs and people such as the NI secretary. Nowadays many more ministers have it, plus heightened home security. Anyone trying the coal stunt would risk a fatal dose of high speed lead poisoning.

Another issue here is what constitutes an essential service? As seen at both the current fuel shortages and the 2000 protests, opinions vary. Ambulances and fire engines, obviously. Police vehicles - depends on where in the country you are. Many taxi drivers would consider their services essential, as would delivery drivers and others reliant on their van - especially in the current climate. And "essential for wider society" vs "essential for me making a living and feeding the kids" is a whole other question. Next level down, the disabled person who needs their car to get about, or the parent who needs to collect their kid from school. Are they essential users? Well, certainly on a personal level again. Maybe that says something about the cult of the self, but the point is, very few people would classify their vehicle use as not essential.

Good point all of them, but in the me-first culture of modern Britain, being filmed preventing a woman from visiting her ill mother in hospital is never going to win any converts.

That doesn't win converts in any culture.

I'm skeptical whether their tactics will be able to apply pressure, as the current shower of shite are especially shameful and they'll be looked after by their client journalists.

I've actually looked at their website and how they would achieve this.

It looks like it relies on external cladding for older buildings and there seems to be a lot of mention of ground-source heat pumps as well as solar.

Boiler wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:33 pm I've actually looked at their website and how they would achieve this.

It looks like it relies on external cladding for older buildings and there seems to be a lot of mention of ground-source heat pumps as well as solar.

The retrofitting market will be huge once it eventually takes off (and quite rightly because making thousands of homes more energy efficient is an eminently sensible idea).

Companies are still biding their time for when local councils are desperate and have no choice but to accept silly tender bids from the former though.