Stroud, the gentle Cotswold town that spawned a radical protest
The founders of Extinction Rebellion dismiss claims that it is merely a product of the Gloucestershire town’s middle-class liberal elite
Blimey, that does explain a lot.
Bramwell, who was arrested after gluing himself to revolving doors at the oil giant Shell’s headquarters last week, said the idea for Extinction Rebellion emerged at a weekend gathering of about 17 activists at Bradbrook’s council house on the outskirts of Stroud almost exactly a year ago. “It was in Gail’s living room last April that we decided to go for broke. We decided to throw all of our energy and intelligence at something that could change the planet,” he said over the phone from London, where he is helping to organise further protests for the coming week. Bramwell dismissed suggestions by some newspapers that Extinction Rebellion is a middle-class movement of privileged hippies: “I’m working-class. I have been a builder most of my life and every other job in between. My mum was a nurse, I grew up in a single-parent family. Gail grew up in the north and her father was a miner. She is as working-class as they come – she is just bloody bright.”
Stroud’s an oddity. All the intellectual sophistication of Slad and the economic modernity of Minchinhampton. Allied with the towering civilisation of Gloucester and this isn’t a winning combination.
“She is as working-class as they come – she is just bloody bright.”
Clearly not that bright if she thinks we’re all about to die in some man-made eco-apocalypse.
Looked at moving there once, a hippy-dippy sort of place, not for me. Other places to avoid for similar reasons: Frome, Bridport. Any more?
If Gail Bradbrook was “bloody bright” then she’d know that climate change is overwhelmingly natural. Even if she is one of the gullible who falls for the lies of activist scientists, surely she should be able to figure out that nothing the UK does, to the point of shutting down the entire economy, will make a blind bit of difference in the face of the expanding economies of the developing world. They should be super gluing themselves to the Taj Mahal and the Terracotta Soldiers.
Surely, there must be a regulation covering local authority owned properties being used for the incitement and planning of civil unrest/public order demonstrations?
If not, there should be and this stupid, self-centered, tunnel-visioned, fool evicted.
In her (long-form) interview in The Times on Saturday, Mx Bradbrook was proposing the removal of all domestic gas boilers and their replacement with electric ones by 2025. How “bloody bright” do you have to be to realise that this would require an increase in electricity generating capacity by something like 4-5x. Powered by pixie dust and unicorn farts, of course.
’We decided to throw all of our energy and intelligence…’
It shows.
@djc: Totnes. Settled by those who found Glastonbury far too close to the real world.
@Chris Miller… Not just generating capacity, all the distribution infrastructure would need upgrading as well. And I mean “all”, right down to the individual supply to each house.
The scientific and engineering illiteracy displayed by these “activists” never ceases to leave me utterly gobsmacked… And the equally illiterate media and politicians treat it as gospel.
djc,
Hay-on-Wye
elite? Stroud? Weird place full of people who were extras in Deliverance and middle-class dropouts running artisan bakeries.
The liberal elite live in Cheltenham.
All of the eco-scum need to be superglued to anything convenient (indeed public conveniences would be ideal) from John O’Groats to Lands End –Spartacus style.
Given that Cressida Dick is comfortable killing the innocent, it’s a shame she doesn’t unleash her death squads on the leaders of these scum.
AtC
” Totnes. Settled by those who found Glastonbury far too close to the real world.”
BoM4
” Stroud? Weird place full of people who were extras in Deliverance and middle-class dropouts running artisan bakeries.
The liberal elite live in Cheltenham.”
Yes, that sounds right. Frome is full of people who probably went to Glastonbury and couldn’t find their way home. Plus people who would have liked to have swapped London for Bath but couldn’t afford it.
Only people who are mad or have absolutely no other choice use electricity for space heating. Even my friend who is an electrician and paid to install electric heating opened up his fireplace so he could burn wood in preference to using the electric radiators in his off-gas-mains house.
“She is as working-class as they come – she is just bloody bright.”
Is he implying the the working class generally aren’t very bright? Very elitist view that
Perhaps instead of unglueing and arresting some of them, they should just leave them.
Glues yourself to a train ? Just shunt it into a siding for a week or two.
Glued to a revolving door ? Just use the side door and leave him there.
Glued your hand to that of a friend down a length of pipe ? Just toss both of you in a cell still glued together.
I think that might make them think twice in future ! Except that in this day and age, leaving someone to enjoy the fruits of their own decisions would probably be considered cruel. Still, send someone up a ladder to feed the ones on the train – see how they feel after a few days without being able to go to a loo.
“Mx Bradbrook was proposing the removal of all domestic gas boilers and their replacement with electric ones by 2025.”
Coming soon to a White Paper near you. Christopher Booker has been warning for a couple of years that this will be government policy before too long.
It already is, I’m afraid – from 2025 all new property’s must have heat pumps – not gas boilers.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/fossil-fuel-heating-systems-are-on-the-way-out-associations-must-be-ready-61076
“Glues yourself to a train ? Just shunt it into a siding for a week or two”
That puts the train out of action. No, sod ’em – just send the train on its merry way. If the bone headed protester suffers a “coming together” with some trackside infrastructure, well tough…
@DocBud April 21, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Met chief condemns “miserable disruption” caused by protests
Notable she says “Please stop unlawful protests”, but doesn’t say “we will enforce law and arrest/forcibly remove you”
Very different when Not Left Eco-Loons
@jgh
Circa 1975, I was sharing a new-build, rented 3-bed terrace in Thame. The heating was electric elements buried in the ceiling. And there was an open stairwell, which meant that the top foot of the living room was nice and toasty and everything below that was bloody freezing (while the bedrooms upstairs were too warm).
I shudder to think what the electricity bills must have been, but they were included in the rent 🙂
‘the idea for Extinction Rebellion emerged at a weekend gathering of about 17 activists at Bradbrook’s council house on the outskirts of Stroud almost exactly a year ago. “It was in Gail’s living room last April that we decided to go for broke.’
Conspiracy to commit a crime – even if the crime is just a misdameanor – is a felony in the U.S.