The climate protestors that have been disrupting First Minister’s Question Time have vowed “shutting down the fossil fuel industry” as they’re set to form “blockades”.
In an interview with The Herald, climate campaign group This is Rigged warned that it would form a “blockade of oil and gas infrastructure” that aims to “take it to the source because oil and gas companies are at the root of these problems”.
At this week’s First Minister Question Time, the anti-fossil fuel campaigners stood on tables and sat on the floor outside the Holyrood chamber as they demanded the SNP strongly oppose all future North Sea oil and gas projects.
Demonstrators claimed Humza Yousaf’s government is falling in the fight against climate change and insisted workers need more support in the shift toward renewables.
At the same time, the new first minister faced demands from Aberdeen-based Greens MSP Maggie Chapman to help stop the Rosebank oil field near Shetland from being explored.
While the protest happened outside, Highland SNP rebel Fergus Ewing was inside the debating chamber branding the SNP’s Green coalition partners “wine bar revolutionaries”.
The Inverness and Nairn MSP’s tirade against the Greens saw him given a ticking off from Holyrood’s deputy presiding officer – his sister Annabelle Ewing.
The protestors claim that they derive inspiration for their actions from historic forms of activism, sus as the women’s rent strikes in 1915 or the shipbuilding protests in 1919.
A spokesperson for the group said: “With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that led to positive change. We are in the middle of these civil disobedient actions but it is only a matter of time until these demands are met and positive change does come about.
“We just wish the Scottish Government do us all a favour and meet these demands now as they are perfectly reasonable.”
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