I jumped with joy last Thursday at the announcement that Just Stop Oil (JSO) has ended its tiresome campaign of public nuisance, before I realised the implications.
What appears on the surface to be welcome news for London's beleaguered residents exposes a far more troubling reality: that the extremists have simply declared victory and gone home, having successfully infiltrated their radical agenda into the heart of this eco-mad Labour Government.
Whilst Londoners can breathe a temporary sigh of relief from the constant disruption these eco-zealots have inflicted, the real damage has already been done.
JSO's theatrical withdrawal comes precisely as the Labour government has capitulated to their core demands, rendering further protest unnecessary. The fox is now guarding the henhouse, and it's pouring concrete over our natural energy resources at a time when our energy bills are eye-wateringly high.
Just Stop Oil vandalising StonehengeJUST STOP OILFor years, JSO activists subjected Londoners to unrelenting chaos – throwing soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers, attacking the Magna Carta with hammers, spraying orange paint on Chester Cathedral during a wedding, and disrupting everything from the British Grand Prix to Les Misérables performances.
Their tactics cost taxpayers £20 million in 2022-23 alone, diverting precious police resources from actual crime prevention.
The tragic irony is that JSO's retreat coincides with Labour's implementation of economically suicidal green policies that will devastate British industry and energy independence.
Whilst Ed Miliband has made a show of approving the Jackdaw and Rosebank developments, this is mere window dressing for an agenda that seeks to dismantle our energy infrastructure with no viable alternative in place.
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GB NewsLabour's environmental policies, crafted to appease their new radical base, will deliver precisely what JSO demanded: crippling restrictions on domestic energy production, punitive taxes on ordinary brits, and the surrender of British energy sovereignty to foreign powers.
The eco-extremists haven't been defeated – they've been absorbed into the government's policy apparatus.
Their "greatest hits" of vandalism and disruption achieved exactly what they wanted – not the paltry 4.4 million barrels of oil they claim to have stopped (which is only as much oil as Britain uses every four days - and we're not even in the top 10 for oil consumption), but rather the psychological terror needed to bully politicians into adopting their radical agenda.
They've inflicted immeasurable damage to our economy and cultural heritage whilst securing political victory.
What we're witnessing isn't the end of eco-extremism but its transformation into official government policy.
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Just Stop Oil have halted theatre productions and sporting events PA/Just Stop OilThe zealots have simply traded their orange vests for bureaucratic suits and ties, in political offices where they can now impose their will through regulation rather than disruption.
The Conservative Government's Public Order Act 2023 may have made their protests more difficult, but Labour's outright capitulation has made those protests unnecessary.
My concern moving forward is that whilst JSO may have disappeared from our streets, its ideology now permeates the corridors of power.
We face a government that has effectively outsourced its energy policy to environmental extremists, prioritising ideological purity over the well-being of British citizens and businesses.
The battle against eco-radicalism hasn't ended – it has merely shifted to a new, more dangerous battleground where the stakes are even higher.