“We have to move quickly. What we do in the next three to four years, I believe, will determine the future of humanity”. Sir David King, 2021.
Emma Smart is expected to read the following statement at HMP Bronzefield on behalf of the Insulate Britain supporters released today.
I have been released from prison today, along with 5 other people who asked the government to protect the British people from the climate crisis and make sure all people in Britain can afford to both heat their homes and eat.
Whilst we have been in prison, families in Britain have been told to expect a 50% increase in their energy bills. This is a disgrace. We know that millions of households in the UK already struggle in fuel poverty, with many thousands of people dying cold lonely deaths every year because they cannot afford to heat their homes. [1]
Insulate Britain believes that Britain deserves better. In the 5th richest country in the world, no family should have to choose between heating and eating. By failing to insulate Britain’s leaky homes or to act decisively on the climate crisis, our government is failing in their most basic duty, to protect us.
Over 9 weeks last year, 174 people from Insulate Britain held the government to account, asking that they protect the British people, the economy and the very fabric of our society. Instead, our government chose to imprison ordinary people for daring to make this request. We could not standby whilst the government betrays children, pensioners, those who are disabled and infirm, the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
Insulate Britain will continue to demand our government get on with the job of cutting carbon emissions, insulating cold and leaky houses and protecting the people of this country from climate collapse. The lives of our children and those of all future generations hang in the balance.
As we leave prison today we want to say to the Police, you are failing to protect both the British people and their property yet are protecting a government that is actively destroying national security. The climate crisis will destroy the economy and bankrupt pension funds (including those of Police officers). House prices will collapse, NHS beds will be covered in the previous patient’s blood when there are no nurses to clean them up. People will be getting assaulted over a tin of baked beans to eat that night. This is the reality and this will be your reality of policing Britain in the coming years.
Whilst on the motorway we met Police Officers who told us they joined up to protect people in their city, town or community, we ask you to realise that arresting Insulate Britain supporters is in direct conflict with this duty. The 174 people arrested on the motorway are some of the few people truly attempting to protect this country. We urge every officer to consider this, will you join us to protect your country or will you continue to enable genocide?
To the public we say, we can demand better but only if you join us. In the past, when governments have failed to protect their people the right thing to do was to highlight this injustice, breaking the law if needed, this is what the suffragettes and Martin Luther King did and it is what Insulate Britain has done.
We call on you to recognise that you also have a duty to act, as our government is betraying us. They can’t even act to insulate Britain. What hope do we have of them protecting our children, our economy or our country?
We say to those who look on in fear and denial: this will impact you and all that you love. Look at what we did. A few hundred people captured the country’s attention for months. Think what 1000 people can achieve? You have a choice. To act, to come and join us and help change the tide of history, or to be a bystander and be complicit in enabling genocide.
It is now or never.
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