Extinction Rebellion activists ‘superglue’ themselves in House of Commons chamber
Climate activists superglued themselves around the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons chamber.
Extinction Rebellion said its supporters have launched a protest in Parliament in support of a Citizens’ Assembly to help deliver change.
The campaign group posted a photo on Twitter showing three members hand in hand in front of the seat, with two other members holding up signs.
One read “Let the people decide” and the other said “Citizens’ Assembly now”.
The group wrote: “Extinction Rebellion supporters have superglued around the Speaker’s chair inside the Commons chamber.
“Right now inside Parliament a speech is being read out demanding a Citizens’ Assembly now: ‘We are in crisis. We can not afford to carry on like this’.”
Two protesters could also be seen with locks around their necks and connected to the front gates of the Houses of Parliament.
‘In a bag’
An XR demonstrator who would only give his name as “Al from Northamptonshire” told PA that demonstrators had smuggled banners into the Commons chamber in a “bag within a bag”.
He said: “The action today was to form a circle around the Speaker’s chair. People glued themselves around the Speaker’s chair, they didn’t damage the Speaker’s chair in any way, and they glued themselves to each other.
“Then they read out speeches reflecting what I have just been saying – that we need citizens’ assemblies.”
Asked how they entered the chamber he said protesters had “just joined a tour”.
Asked how the group’s banners had been concealed he added: “I don’t know. We just put them in a bag within a bag.”
As the protest continued, a group of graduating university students in their ceremonial robes took photographs and threw their mortarboards into the air on the green at Parliament Square.
A House of Commons spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident on the parliamentary estate and are currently dealing with the situation as a matter of urgency.”
The Commons and Lords are currently in recess until Monday.
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What’s this to do with Welsh news? There’s no mention of Wales and nothing specific to Wales.
Other than the”Founder ” is a bankrupt farmer from Carmarthen!
UN report in Feb 2022 said “Continued and accelerating sea level rise will increasingly hit coastal settlements pushing them towards “submergence and loss”.
Well an awful lot of Wales is coastal settlement.
Hope that they had an enjoyable day out in London. The trouble is that the Tory Government does not listen when parliament is in session and less so when it is in recess. I suppose it might just help to keep the topic in the news…
An awful lot of confidence in a Citizens Assembly here. Majority of one cohort is about to give us Liz Truss as Prime Minister of UK so we’d need to be careful about who is being drawn into such as Assembly.
I do like her red skirt.