Who are Insulate Britain and why does everyone seem to hate them?

Insulate Britain have been making headlines this week for their slightly annoying brand of climate-concerned direct action. But just who are they?

Well, much like how ‘Frasier’ is to ‘Cheers’, Insulate Britain is to Extinction Rebellion: your classic spin-off series. Though not officially affiliated to Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain was set up this August by people in the XR network and the group is specifically dedicated to campaigning for all of the UK’s homes to be fully insulated by 2030 in order to fight climate change. 

Over the past week, Insulate Britain have held daily motorway blockades followed by a protest outside the Home Office yesterday (September 22) after an injunction was passed to stop their activity on the M25. 

Police arrested 338 members of Insulate Britain during the motorway protests, which came under fire for blocking essential services. The blockades upset many people, especially after an air ambulance was called to a huge crash during the protests and saw a woman who had suffered a stroke stuck for six hours on the motorway as her son attempted to drive her to hospital. 

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Of their civil disobedience, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted: ‘Invading a motorway is reckless and puts lives at risk’. Activists are now being threatened with imprisonment if they disrupt the M25 again. 

‘Improving the quality of our homes is fundamental to achieve the British government’s climate-change, fuel-poverty and water-reduction targets,’ say Insulate Britain of their demands. ‘The UK has some 29 million homes and they are the oldest and least energy efficient housing stock in Europe. Every year vast amounts of precious energy is wasted in heating and, increasingly, cooling our buildings.’ 

Boris Johnson said to reporters of the group’s controversial tactics, ‘I don’t think these people do any favours to their cause. I think that what they do is detract from a very important moral mission that is widely shared by the people of this country.’

The tube is gonna get mega hot because of climate change... eek.

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