Extinction Rebellion Targets British Newspaper Distribution
Green justice zealots turn on the British press, uniting both the left and the right.
As Americans follow the #BidenRiots via social media and through the analysis of independent news analysis sites, I thought it might be a good time to check on one of the first organized anarchy groups cloaking their antics with the worse of saving the world.
Legal Insurrection might recall that Extinction Rebellion (XR) targeted shopping malls and halted London’s underground as part of its green justice mayhem.
Now, the group is targeting the distribution of several British newspapers.
Distribution of several British newspapers was disrupted on Saturday after climate change activists blockaded printworks used by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, publisher of The Times and The Sun, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Extinction Rebellion said nearly 80 people had blocked roads leading to two printworks, at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, north east of London, and at Knowsley, near Liverpool. Hertfordshire police said they made 42 arrests and Merseyside police made 30.
The Murdoch-owned Newsprinters works also print the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. Campaigners said they had taken the action to highlight what they regard as the newspapers’ failure to accurately report on climate change.
The demonstrations were filled with high drama and costuming. However none of the participants set themselves on fire. Over 70 arrests were made.
XR used vehicles to block roads to the printing plants, while individual protesters chained themselves to structures.
Vans were covered with banners with messages including “Free the truth” and “Refugees are welcome here”.
Hertfordshire Police have charged 51 people with obstruction of the highway following the XR protest at the Broxbourne site.
Two have been remanded in custody to appear before court on Monday.
The other 49 have been released on bail on condition they do not go within 100m (328ft) of the boundary of any Newsprinters Ltd premises or attend any XR protests in the next seven days.
Thirty protesters were also arrested by Merseyside Police at the Knowsley plant.
The protests have managed to unite both the Conservative and Labour parties, who disapproved of the disruption caused by the blockade.
“A free press is vital in holding the government and other powerful institutions to account on issues critical for the future of our country, including the fight against climate change,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Saturday. “It is completely unacceptable to seek to limit the public’s access to news in this way.”
His comments were echoed by others in the party, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who accused Extinction Rebellion of “trying to suppress free speech” and said “they must be dealt with by the full force of the law.” Home Secretary Priti Pratel on Friday evening branded the demonstration “attack on democracy.”
Labour’s Emily Thornberry, shadow secretary of state for international trade, told Times Radio on Saturday: “This is very worrying and I don’t really know what it is that is expected to be achieved.”
“A free press is vital for our democracy,” the Labour party said in a statement, according to ITV News. “People have the right to read the newspapers they want. Stopping them from being distributed and printers from doing their jobs is wrong.”
Members of the American media who have supported our country’s “fiery but peaceful protests” may wish to make a note of how quickly the green justice zealots turned on the British press…and how these tactics have united both the left and the right.
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Comments
At one time Brits understood what ” exercise their opinion” meant. Exercise their opinion.
These people are nuts.
When politics replaces your religious beliefs, you return to the Middle Ages.
All of this is just violent cosplay for bored and sidelined leftists, who lost the last election badly and don’t know what to do with themselves.
My prediction: Those two women in the featured photo have never had an orgasm and never will (battery powered devices excepted).
I used to joke about needing a chisel to remove too much makeup before R&R. Usually, I moved on. I never liked very much makeup.
The costumes make them even more ridiculous.
I don’t take any protesters seriously until they show up with some really big papier-mâché puppets.
That’s the proper way to show that they’re serious about whatever-it-is they’re whining about.
“Green justice zealots turn on the British press, uniting both the left and the right.”
Not this right-wingnut! I am 101% in favor of a Stalin-Hitler cage match between these two groups of commies. Whoever survives we can crush their necks. If only the same thing would happen in the US!
Radicals (who use the newspapers to spew their propaganda) believe they can train the vipers, thinking the vipers will not turn on them.