On Britain's Bizarre Theatre-Bashing, Picture-Smashing Climate Activists And The Oil Heiress Billionaire Who Funds Them

"It is time for deeds", apparently...

Our contemptible middle-class climate loons have come back to bite.

Over the summer, Just Stop Oil frequently gripped headlines for their disruptive stunts, ranging from blocking roads (so ambulances couldn’t get to their desired destination), vandalising private and public buildings with orange spray paint, and even destroying a show garden at Chelsea Flower Show.

I thought they’d quite like flowers given their express values but hey ho, brave new world and all that.

Now, they’ve got a new target: theatres.

Last month, five activists bounded onto the stage at Sondheim Theatre in London’s West End during a Les Miserables performance wielding Just Stop Oil flags. Their intent, of course, was to warn of the apparent dire, dire crisis we find ourselves in. The crowd wasn’t best pleased. Boos bellowed as soon as they took the stage and the show subsequently came to an early halt when police arrived to arrest the activists.

Appearing at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this month, on charges of aggravated trespass, Judge Michael Snow told the five activists that the estimated cost of their little tantrum amounted to £80,000. The true cost is likely to be more, as that didn’t include the attendees’ travel costs.

It doesn’t matter too much for the activists if they’re found liable though as the billionaire oil heiress that funds The Climate Emergency Fund (which funds Just Stop Oil) covers their expenses.

Aileen Getty - the oil heiress billionaire who funds The Climate Emergency Fund.

Recent analysis has found that the organisation cost the British taxpayer around £40 million since forming last February. This includes police costs like patrolling the streets during protests, making arrests, and dealing with activists once they are in custody. One of their most expensive stunts involved scaling the Dartford crossing, causing a two-day closure costing £5 million alone. This is just accounting for public expenses. Their cost impact on private business could be as severe.

After the theatre protest, a Just Stop Oil spokesperson told the MailOnline: 

“This summer has shown us the sheer power of a supercharged climate. Scientists are freaking out and even the Pope is sounding the alarm. But, like the citizens of Paris in 1832, we have locked our doors, while our young face slaughter on the streets. They will inherit a scorched earth, unfit to live in and we will be long gone. We cannot let this stand. The show cannot go on.”

Given the immediacy they designate to the crisis - which is echoed by that strange hobbit-like creature occupying the office of Secretary-General of the United Nations (António Guterres) - it is curious how the theatre protestors’ actions don’t really reflect it. One of them, Lydia Gribbin, genuinely asked Judge Snow if he could delay proceedings so she could travel to India for reasons unknown.

This only makes sense if Lydia doesn’t actually believe that we’re on the “highway to climate hell”. Why emit more “young-slaughtering” CO2 if it was the case...

Author of “There is No Climate Crisis” David Craig recently highlighted data to back this reality up. Turns out, while the media and Just Stop Oil bemoaned the record high temperatures we apparently endured this summer, there were dozens of record low temperatures set too:

• The all-time station was broken record in Tongulakh, Siberia, recording –62.4°C on January 14th.

• Nova Scotia saw its coldest wind chills ever recorded, as the temperature plummeted to –43°C (–45.4°F) on February 4th 2023, which topped its previous record of –41°C that was set on February 13th 1967 for wind chill.

• Various other destinations in Canada also set new daily records, with temperatures lower than –40°C. On February 19th, temperatures in Shepherd Bay, Nunavut dropped to –49.6°C.

• The United Kingdom on Tuesday March 7th braved its coldest night of 2023 with the temperatures dropping to below –15 Celsius in several regions. According to the British Met Office, the temperature at Kinbrace in the Scottish Highlands was recorded at –15.2 Celsius, making it the coldest March in the country since 2010.

• Mount Washington Summit in New Hampshire set a chilling new record for the United States in February, with temperatures plunging to a wind-chill low of -78 Celsius. According to the National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine reported unusual seismic events known as "frostquakes," which are tremors similar to earthquakes, caused by sudden cracking in frozen ground due to extreme cold.

• Boston officials took the unprecedented step of shutting down the public school system as temperatures plummeted to -23°C, breaking the city's over-century-old record for the day. Similarly, Providence, Rhode Island, experienced a historic low of -23°C, descending past the previous record set in 1918.

• Sydney woke up to its chilliest June morning ever recorded at Olympic Park, where thermometers read 1.8°C, announced by senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury. A cold snap gripped Australia, with over 100 weather stations documenting their coldest May minimum temperatures amidst persistent frosts and scant rainfall.

• Finland's Lapland region recorded what is one of its lowest June temperatures since 1962, with Enontekiö Kilpisjärvi Saana weather station noting a reading of -7.7°C on June 1st.

• Antarctica welcomed an early winter, as temperatures at the Russian Vostok Station nosedived below -75°C at the start of May. This saw a new early winter record established with lows reaching -76.4°C.

As I wrote this morning, news broke that two Just Stop Oil vandals smashed a priceless, historic painting in the National Gallery. One of the activists involved was Hanan Ameur. The same activist that participated in the £80,000 Sondheim Theatre protest. After vandalising the artwork, she shouted the following in the gallery:

“Women did not get the vote by voting. It is time for deeds, not words. It is time to just stop oil...”

Hanan Ameur

Perhaps Hanan should make sure her jet-friendly pal Lydia heeds her warnings first before lecturing the public...

Forgive me, it might be an obvious point to make but if the actions of Just Oil Stop members do not reflect the gravity of the crisis they purport to want to solve, how can they expect the wider public to perceive them, and this “crisis”, for anything else than a form shallow moral posturing.

Ironically, it appears the young, naive activists that enabled the organisation to obtain notoriety through their willingness to perform radical acts has actually been their undoing. Who would have thought young radicals aren’t the most ideologically consistent bunch. What a dreadful, dreadful shame [insert wink emoji].