Dozens of protesters from Just Stop Oil were arrested after gluing themselves to roads in central London today.
The Metropolitan Police said that 32 people had been arrested for ‘wilful obstruction of the highway’ after they blocked traffic near Trafalgar Square.
They ‘glued and locked themselves’ on to the road at the top of Whitehall at midday, with traffic only flowing again at 2pm.
Specially trained police officers detached protesters from the road and they were then carried off into police vans.
Video showed some being carried limply away between officers, while others were dragged.
Catherine Rennie-Nash, 72, who was part of the demonstration, said it was about ‘asking the British Government not to allow 130 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea’.
She added: ‘The disruption that the campaigns cause is minuscule compared with the disruption that is going to happen when the climate breaks down if we continue like we are.
‘It’s always difficult, but we know that civil resistance is the only thing in history that has shown to be effective.’
Traffic around Trafalgar Square was disrupted for two hours, forcing some bus passengers to get off and walk to their next stop.
Russell Wibrew, 77, said: ‘We had to get off the bus and walk – the protest is so stupid and futile.
‘I’m for freedom of speech but not freedom of disruption. Disruption of the general public is not acceptable in any way whatsoever.’
It comes after a week of action from the protesters, who also blocked a road in Westminster yesterday with more than 50 people arrested.
While some people applauded the protesters today, others shouted ‘get a job’ at them and thanked the police for forcibly removing them.
Lynn Jones, 65, from south London, said: ‘It does annoy me – there are better ways to protest than sticking yourself to the tarmac.’
She added: ‘Us taxpayers are paying for idiots to be removed from the pavement and it’s then going to cost the NHS money to repair their hands.’
The demonstrations this week were held in response to plans by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the body that represents the UK’s offshore energy sector, which is hoping to launch a further round of oil and gas licensing in October.
Business and energy secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has approved the plans, saying ‘in light of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and weaponisation of energy, strengthening our energy security is an absolute priority’.
Just Stop Oil are calling for the government to ‘immediately halt all future licensing for the exploration, development and production of oil and gas in the UK’.
They said in a post on Twitter: ‘At approximately 12pm today, 32 supporters of Just Stop Oil peacefully blocked multiple roads surrounding Trafalgar Square demanding an immediate end to all new oil and gas licensing.
‘Oil is causing the climate and cost of living crisis. Rocketing energy prices are funding the companies who are torching the climate. Oil is fuelling wars and causing droughts, extreme heat, wildfires and crop failures.
‘We’ve just seen 40°C in the UK for the first time in recorded history and it’s going to get hotter — enough is enough. New oil and gas is criminal, an act of genocide against billions of people in the poorest countries on Earth, and an act of war against the young.’
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