Two Just Stop Oil supporters disrupted a public event featuring Labour Party MP Emily Thornberry on Tuesday 19 March. It was after she failed to respond to a letter delivered to her home last week. However, inadvertently Just Stop Oil weren’t the actual story here – it was Thornberry’s response after she thought they’d left, which exposed her for the kind of politician she really is.
Just Stop Oil: ‘when is Thornberry going to get it?’
As Thornberry was delivering her open remarks, the pair from Just Stop Oil stood up to confront the Labour front-bencher and shadow attorney general for England and Wales.
They threw orange confetti and addressed the assembly, remarking:
We need you to make a commitment to revoke the Tory licences for oil and gas infrastructure which will lock us on to the worst pathways of global warming and climate catastrophe… Labour needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Everyone else has clocked that new oil and gas means more floods, more fires, rising food prices… when are you going to get it?
Members of the audience were repeatedly heard to say “hear, hear!” to these comments.
Security eventually escorted the Just Stop Oil activists away. This wasn’t the end of the story, though – as Thornberry (possibly thinking no-one was filming) gave a brief but telling monologue.
Thornberry: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing wrong’
After the action takers were escorted from the room, Thornberry addressed the audience. She said that the thing about being a politician:
These days is that you’re very used to protests I’m afraid, and it’s kind of odd because I don’t think Conservative politicians get the same protests. I don’t quite know what that means.
Hmm, we think you do, Emily.
It means Tory MPs don’t even pretend to be on the side of, say, poor people, the planet, or Palestinians. Whereas, you say you are and then actually sit on your hands and do nothing (ceasefire vote, anyone?) – or worse still, actively endorse horrifying events, much like your leader.
Therefore, the people who trusted you, looked to you, and saw hope in you say, five years ago – are now rightly angry. This point wasn’t lost to people on X:
“Sometimes when I’m called out as a high profile Labour politician I don’t like being called out. I sometimes think ‘am I the one who should think about my contribution to political life in the UK?’ But then I think no – it’s not me. I’m a Labour. That’s enough. And I roll on.” https://t.co/QEDPlgG7h0
— Andy Greene (@PaddySitsDown) March 20, 2024
‘Poor me’
Thornberry continued:
I have had Just Stop Oil outside my house, I have had Gaza protests pretty much everywhere I go. I assumed it was Gaza then I saw the orange and thought ‘Oh, right! It’s Just Stop Oil’.
The worst thing is that one becomes hardened to it, and actually the messages are important so long as they’re not personal. And I think that if they’re personal, then actually it’s part of a form of intimidation which actually undermines our democracy.
Oh, here we go. Another MP who wants all the perks of being on that gravy train – and yet when the public (who pay her wages) call her out personally over the decisions she makes on behalf of THEM – that’s intimidation. Right. We’ve got you, Emily. But if you think that’s intimidating – try living in a tent in Rafah at the minute:
'I'm not happy for it to be personal.'
Supporting a regime enacting genocide, the abandonment of the much vaunted Green commitment, the promise to tax the wealthiest – what you do IS personal, as you've decided it's fine, and this 'its just business' attitude is not okay https://t.co/ioBloye7hC
— Raphael Dogg (@raphaeldogg) March 19, 2024
Shirking responsibility
Thornberry then said:
I’m happy to argue the issues, I’m not happy to be told I’m responsible for the murder of babies in Gaza, or I’m personally responsible for the boiling of the planet, and I’m not having it.
📢 After Casper and Genevieve were escorted out for peacefully disrupting @EmilyThornberry, she addressed the event audience.
💬 "I’m not happy to be told I'm responsible for the murder of babies in Gaza, or I'm personally responsible for the boiling of the planet.”
👀 Emily,… pic.twitter.com/Ha8yod9qyU
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) March 19, 2024
Problem is, Emily – you kind of are responsible. You are a senior lawmaker in one of the richest countries on the planet. As journalist Owen Jones pointed out:
Instead of her engaging in self-pity, I'd like to ask my local MP @EmilyThornberry about:
a) Her failure to condemn Israel's stated intent to commit war crimes from the start
b) Why she didn't realise this would inevitably mean lots of dead babiespic.twitter.com/9NYs3hdPl8 https://t.co/6Zxm2C3fhw
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 19, 2024
One of those taking action was Casper from North London. He is an ex-Labour member. Casper said:
Emily Thornberry says it’s no time for cowardice on climate – except it’s her Labour Party who are so afraid of fossil fuel lobbyists they can’t commit to revoking the Tory oil licences that we know will accelerate climate breakdown. She and Labour have promised so much and gone back on it all — no wonder they’ve asked her to talk at a fraud conference!
‘Fraud’ says it all.
Thornberry: YOU are the problem – not confetti-throwers or letter-posters
Thornberry was a senior member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – endorsing nearly everything on that policy platform. Oh, how the worm turns – as we now see her endorsing nearly everything on Keir Starmer’s policy platform.
The problem with British politics is not, Emily, that people are angry and therefore throwing confetti in your direction or posting letters through your front door (the horror).
The problem is that politicians like you have left the rest of us in a position where we have no choice but to be angry – because you and your ilk have catastrophically failed us, lack any moral backbone, and will say whatever you think is necessary to keep your jobs – all above care for people and planet.
Nothing Thornberry said after Just Stop Oil’s disruption did anything to change that. In fact, she showed exactly why people have had enough. Shame on her.
Featured image via Just Stop Oil
