Featured Image Credit: BBC Newsnight/Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images
Topics: Just Stop Oil, Money, UK News, Politics
Jess Battison
Topics: Just Stop Oil, Money, UK News, Politics
A multi-millionaire Just Stop Oil supporter is no longer funding the protest group.
You’ll likely know the British group now if not for their cause but their protests – famously putting traffic across the UK at a standstill.
Most recently, Just Stop Oil took to a performance of Les Miserables in London – yes, a musical about protest and revolution was halted by a protest.
The group describe themselves as a ‘nonviolent civil resistance group demanding the UK Government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects’.
They’ve famously long had the funding and support of Dale Vince, the founder of the Renewable Energy Company, shareholder of Forest Green Rovers and generally a green energy big name.
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He’s supported Just Stop Oil since its inception and joined their campaign of slow marches in London over the summer.
However, he announced today (6 October) that he will be pulling his ‘time, effort and funding’ from the environmentalist activist group.
Instead, Vince is going to switch to a new cause; JustVote24.
In a statement, he said: “I’ll no longer be funding Just Stop Oil as I feel that more protest and disruption will just feed the new Tory culture war narrative; it can’t actually stop oil.
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“I believe that the only way to stop drilling in the North Sea now – science, logic and protest having failed - is by choosing a new government at the coming election.
“I will now instead switch my time, effort and funding to a new cause: @JustVote24.”
Explaining his initial support of the group, he also said: “I firmly believe there should be no new drilling in the North Sea for oil and gas. The international political and scientific consensus is clear: we can’t afford to produce more fossil fuels if we are to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. I also believe in the right to protest, and in the power of protest to bring change.
“That’s why I funded Just Stop Oil from its inception through this past summer of intensive action and joined them on a protest myself. I applaud the conviction and the commitment of these activists and their bravery in the face of an increasingly hostile state.”
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However, he says the current government’s recent actions ‘make it clear that no amount of protesting will prevent them drilling in the North Sea’.
So, this new cause Vince is funding will first be about ‘empowering the younger generation to exercise their right to vote’.
The green energy magnate added: “Just Vote will also reach across the political and age-group spectrum, to the millions of Britons that care about the environment, and want to see more action on the climate crisis and the green economy.
“It’s a fact of our electoral system that only one of two parties can form the next government; we want to bring a focus to this reality and to the opportunity that we have – to elect a green government, one that will embrace the opportunities we face, rather than make an enemy of them – and use them to tackle the long list of issues we face as a country.”