A new report Extremism Rebellion – A review of ideology and tactics from the think tank Policy Exchange looks into the behaviour and background of Extinction Rebellion.

It’s also discussed in the Telegraph here and here:

As the paper shows, the leaders of Extinction Rebellion seek a more alarming agenda than pure environmentalism, one that is rooted in an ‘open rebellion against the government’ and in the political extremism of anarchism and anti-capitalism. The ‘civil resistance model’ they espouse is intended to achieve mass protest accompanied by law breaking, leading eventually to the breakdown of democracy and the state. Obscured from public view, these objectives mark Extinction Rebellion’s campaign out as a subversive one that seeks to break down the established civil order and liberal democracy in the UK.

One of the authors of the report was interviewed on the Today Programme on Wednesday, see clip here or the full 6-minute interview here from about 1:33. Later in the same programme (about 2:36) they interviewed Rupert Read from ER. Read said “what this is about… is creating a real democracy”. When John Humphrys challenged him about what this meant he continued “the real democracy is the democracy we want to create” and tried to make a bogus comparison with Gandhi, which Humphrys quite rightly shot down. Read’s attitude reminds me of Mark “we need to fix democracy” Maslin.

BBC Radio Bristol say that a man phoned them to say that he couldn’t get to see his dying father because of the XR road block.

On a more positive note, one brave 73-year-old man took matters into his own hands and took down an ER road block. Ben reckons he deserves a pint and a lot of people seem to agree.