Tim Crosland speaking at Saturday’s meeting

MEANINGFUL change will only come about when the majority stop behaving like “good boys and girls” and actively start to challenge the government over environment policy, an NLCop debate was told.

It was standing room only for a panel talk with Plan B Earth barrister Tim Crosland, Just Stop Oil activist Sarah Lunnon, Stop HS2 protester Rollie, lawyer Paul Powlesland and air pollution campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah.

The diverse panel covered a range of opinions but agreed that it was the public’s duty to find its own way of taking the fight to the government – either in the workplace or on the streets.

Mr Crosland said: “If our government is knowingly-committed to courses of action that are destroying whole regions of the world, then to my way of looking at things that is an unlawful regime. The defence of the rule of law requires us to action against that.”

Mr Crosland, who was found in contempt of court for revealing a Supreme Court judgment, said it was “as an act of protest”, adding: “We are trying to get lawyers, who maybe don’t want to hang off gantries, to say ‘we are responsible’. Everything comes through the law. If we refuse to prosecute the brave people who are taking a stand, then maybe we can make some progress.”

He added: “If we keep being good boys and girls, we know what is going to happen.” The meeting heard how there both “accountable” and “non-accountable” forms of protest could work for different people.

Rollie, one of the HS2 tunnel protesters and, below, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah

Rollie, one of the Stop HS2 activists who joined the tunnel protests under Euston Station in 2019, said: “Our campaign was largely non-accountable and that’s why it worked. If everything everyone was doing was accountable, we would all be in prison.

“Prison should never be our end goal. I think if you are willing and able to take action, you should consider non accountable actions. Because you could do 100 things in the timeframe where you could have done one.”

Sarah Lunnon

Ms Lunnon said: “We have got to try everything. Ordinary everyday people recognise that people do not have to just stand by.”

Paul Powlesland – a barrister at Garden Court Chambers – held a moments pause to consider the people in jail trying to stop the climate crisis.

He said: “Fossil fuels and the industry stretches its tentacles into almost every aspect of our life. Every time you protest, people will point to the way you depend on that industry.

“I believe that although that is a massive problem it gives us a space in which to operate. It means we all have a role to play.”

Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter Ella died from air pollution, said: “My daughter breathed illegal levels of air pollution when she died and they opened her up, she looked like a smoker. Until fossil fuels ends this is going to continue.

“When people go to extremes, it is because people are fed up. People are tired of talking. governments don’t tend to listen. I do it differently.”

She said she was often asked about how she felt going “into white spaces” but that she said the more people that supported her the better, adding: “We need to get together on this. As long as it remains a few people protesting the government will do what it wants to do. Imagine if the majority got on board.”