Thread by @libcomorg

Next time there's a tube or bus strike will you be saying this too?

https://twitter.com/FreddieBailey96/status/1452679917511102466

There's plenty to criticise Insulate Britain, but 'stopping ordinary people going about their business' really is not it. Especially when that particular protest is in the City of London and it costs £15/day to even drive down that road.

"Labour Councillor and Cabinet Member for Community Wealth Building at Preston Council - Socialist & Trade Unionist"

'Sick of these extremists disrupting ordinary people going about their business'

There is an incongruity with Insulate Britain in that the disruptive protest tactics are tied to an extremely liberal demand - to reinstate Gordon Brown's 2008 free home insulation policy, that was cut by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition in 2013/14 and replaced with a loan.

Blocking roads is generally a good tactic, but I'm not sure why Insulate Britain have picked it. With XR while there was criticism of them blocking the tube, there wasn't in the same way when they blocked Westminster Bridge - because road traffic is directly linked to emissions.

If we assume IB's capacity stays about the same at a few dozen people doing lock-ons, then disrupting a Wimpey/Persimmon new build construction site seems a bit more linked. Those companies constantly lobby against stricter energy efficiency regulations and build shit housing.

New builds are still being constructed with gas boilers, with a heat pump requirement delayed until 2025. That's hundreds of thousands of homes built in the next four years that will need retrofitting later.

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

The other thing that's weird about IB, is the apparently lack of interest in linking their demands to the cladding scandal. The Grenfell tower fire was in part due a shoddy external insulation retrofit, and UK insulation manufacturers are implicated.

bbc.com/news/uk-northe…

Meanwhile leaseholders are on the hook for bills sometimes in excess of what they paid for their flats, to replace flammable insulation and cladding.

theguardian.com/money/2021/jan…

But instead of that... most of the discourse is about this.

https://twitter.com/libcomorg/status/1445125346228047887