Just Stop Oil came to Camden twice

THE fast-becoming infamous protest group Just Stop Oil has twice blocked traffic in Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency– in the week that the Labour Party leader said new police powers were needed to tackle the demonstrators.

The familiar orange banners came out as the group slow-walked through Camden Town during the rush hour last Friday and on Tuesday. Traffic tailed back in Parkway and Camden Road – to a cacophony of honking car horns – as the group made their deliberately snail-like progress to Chalk Farm Road.

The group, which formed last year, wants a commitment from the government to stop licensing fossil fuel production.

There are plans to allow 100 new gas and oil projects, but, in the face of the climate crisis, JSO is demanding more investment in renewable energy.

Last month, the group disrupted the World Snooker Championships when a protester was able to get on to one of the tables and release orange powder. In another protest, JSO activists splattered the waxwork of King Charles III standing in Madame Tussaud’s with gunky cake. As of last week, protesters are now liable to face a six month prison term or a fine for anything deemed “more than a minor disruption”, under new powers drawn up in the Public Order Bill.

Disobedience targeted with stiffer jail terms in the Bill includes ‘locking on’ – when protesters chain themselves together or on to something. It could also include slow-walking if police deem drivers to be “hindered, to more than a minor degree”.

Sir Keir Starmer says measures are needed to tackle JSO

Mr Starmer said this week on ITV News: “Most people say the police need powers to deal with Just Stop Oil and some of their tactics. “They do need powers to deal with that, but, on the other hand, there is a balance to be had which is to protect free and peaceful protest.”

In relation to the new Bill, Mr Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions who is now the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, added: “We need to let it bed in, we need to look at how it operates in practice.

“Just because the police have got a power, doesn’t mean they have to use it in every situation. Guidance emerges, and we haven’t even got to that stage yet.”

Labour has pledged a moratorium on new oil and gas projects if it wins the next election, although last autumn Mr Starmer backed stiffer sentences for JSO activists who cause disruption on the roads.

In 2019, after hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters were arrested in London for acts of civil disobedience, Mr Starmer told the New Journal: “I don’t think anybody would not sympathise with the police and others who have had to deal with this, but there is a place for protest in a democratic society and the message is really important – and I’m glad that we are talking about climate change.”