Just Stop Oil disrupt play at Wimbledon as protestors storm court
Environmental protesters from the Just Stop Oil group have disrupted play on Court 18 at Wimbledon. The protesters ran onto the court during a match between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro and threw orange-coloured confetti and a jigsaw onto the grass, before one activist sat down on the court.
In a statement on their website, Just Stop Oil said: “We can’t leave it to the next generation to pick up the pieces.”
Deborah Wilde, 68, a retired teacher from London, who was one of the protesters who ran on the court shortly after 2:10pm, said: “I’m just an ordinary grandmother in resistance to this government’s policy of serving us new oil and gas licences. In normal circumstances this sort of disruption would be entirely unacceptable, but these aren’t normal circumstances.
“We’ve just had the hottest June on record, breaking the previous record by nearly a whole degree! We don’t need Hawk-eye to see that our government issuing over 100 new fossil fuel licences is a very bad line-call. Forget strawberries and cream – scientists are warning of impending food shortages, mass displacement and war.”
Another Just Stop Oil protester who invaded the court was Simon Milner-Edwards, 66, a retired musician, from Manchester. He said: “I’m here for my grandchildren and everybody else’s. I’m not prepared to let our politicians wreck everything and leave the next generation to pick up the pieces.”
“The last thing I want to do is spoil people’s enjoyment of Wimbledon, but right now, on Centre Court, it’s humanity versus oil and gas – and the umpire is getting every call wrong.”
HUNGER recently spoke with Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland about the groups modes of protest, telling us that “we will only consider ourselves successful when the government meets our demand for no new oil, so until that point, we are going to keep fighting and keep escalating.” You can read the full interview here.
