So much “outrage” is carefully contrived and amplified that it’s important we don’t fall for it. Take the bunch of professional protestors that constitute the group called “Just Stop Oil’? You are bound to have seen endless media coverage of their antics as they take to the streets of London to cause as much traffic mayhem as possible.
Today is the 8th day in a row in central London where this “protest” group brought rush hour traffic to a standstill – while police officers stood by and watched. Footage from the slow march in Bishopgate showed City of London Police officers watching on as the protesters strolled down the road – with a stream of traffic stuck behind them. Protesters are greeted with applause from passers-by while two police officers can be seen standing in front of a large lorry at the front of the queue of vehicles waiting for the road to clear.
So, who are “Just Stop Oil”, what does it want, and how is this linked to what the Government wants? Well, it’s an environmental activist group that shares the same heritage as Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain. The key aim of the group is to halt new licenses for the exploration of oil and other fossil fuels in the UK. You might think this place it in conflict with the Government which says that it wants to license more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025, but I think you would be wrong because the Government shares the same fossil free vision for Britain. Do remember that the UK Government is legally obliged to hit Net Zero by 2050!
This is where it all comes together. Just Stop Oil and the UK share the same medium-term objective of stopping the production of Oi, thus helping the UK the Net Zero target by 2050. The likes of Just Stop Oil provide a useful service for the Government by having these public protests to keep the issue top of my mind. Naturally the Government pretends to be ever so outraged about the street theatre but this is so it can posture as the “responsible” voice of saying no to oil! Do you see how it has precisely the same aim as the protest group, which begs the question who exactly funds Just Stop Oil?
Well, we know that Aileen Getty has provided some funding to this Protest Group. Obviously, her inherited wealthy comes from Getty Oil. But most of the funding comes from the curious Climate Emergency Fund. This was set up in 2019 and seems to be able to attract many millions of pounds and has a swish online web site that you can visit. We can but guess where it obtains all the cash is splashes.
It’s hard to take the spluttering and faux outrage of politicians to the antics of Just Stop Oil seriously whilst they literally legislate to stop Oil! The only discernible difference between the two is timescale. Just Stop Oil is basically demanding the end of Oil as an energy source right now, whereas the Government plans it over 27 years. The destination is going to be the same point – a country that suicidally cuts off a vital source of energy.
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