Tougher laws need to be brought in to stop eco-group Just Stop Oil, according to the Mail’s talk show The Reaction.
Political commentator Andrew Pierce and columnist Sarah Vine agreed in this week’s podcast that the government need to take more stringent action against the disruptive eco-activists.
It comes after the environmental group caused national outrage this week by spraying historic monument Stonehenge with orange paint.
Video footage posted on social media showed two people – wearing white t-shirts with ‘Just Stop Oil’ emblazoned on the front – running up to the ancient monoliths with canisters and vandalising them.
Sarah Vine (left) and Andrew Pierce (right) both agreed that Just Stop Oil activists need to be harshly penalised for spraying paint on Stonehenge
Questioning the government’s response, Pierce said on the YouTube talk show: ‘The Tories are bereft of ideas. They’re all over the place.
‘We had a statement from Rishi Sunak saying it’s outrageous.
‘Why didn’t we get someone saying “we’re going to tackle this wokery, we’re going to toughen up the laws to stop them”.
‘Because there should be a really severe penalty for this because this is a historic monument.’
Vine – also enraged by the issue – agreed, suggesting that JSO should be proscribed as a terrorist group.
She said: ‘All they have to do is say “okay Just Stop Oil is now a proscribed terrorist group, an eco-terrorist group, and if you join it you will be arrested”.
Speaking of JSO’s previous disruptive actions, the pair listed how they have been ‘attacking’ national statues with red paint and even targeted King Charles’ first official portrait.
The protesters who sprayed Stonehenge – who were named as Niamh Lynch, 21, a student from Oxford, and Rajan Naidu, 73, from Birmingham – have now been arrested by police on suspicion of damaging the historical monument.
Describing the incident, Sarah Vine explained the story of ‘these two idiots, one who’s 21 student at Oxford, so they’re meant to be part of our elite, spraying Stonehenge with orange powder paint.
‘The thing is, if you spray the front of the Barclays Bank with orange paint, they can get someone to come and clean it off.
‘Stonehenge is is an ancient Neolithic monument which is by nature porous, so if you cover it in orange, to get that off you’re going to have to erode the monument.’
Pierce, also enraged by the issue, intervened to say: ‘And they also said “Oh, it’s okay, because if it rains, it’ll run away.”
‘But that’s actually not true, because the paint was mixed with this flour they used which thickens it up.
Just Stop Oil protesters have sprayed Stonehenge with orange paint in their latest stunt
‘What’s it called? Cornflour. So it would have congealed, and they would never been able to get it off. So these cretins didn’t even know what willful damage they were doing.
‘A 5000 year old monument, which has got great symbolism for druids and pagans.
‘I mean, not our beliefs particularly, but William Roach from Coronation Street. Let’s not forget Ken Barlow, he’s been at Stonehenge in his druid gear.
‘But it is symbolic and it was just on the eve of the Summer Solstice. I couldn’t believe it.’
Quoting the Mail’s headline, he agreed that the monument means ‘nothing sacred to these cretins’.
To Vine, however, the fact was not ‘just about symbolism’, but the archaeological importance of the monument.
She said: ‘It’s not just the symbolism, it’s the archaeological importance of it. It’s a really important Neolithic monument.
‘We’ve just had a protracted argument, that’s lasted 10 years, about whether or not we can expand the road that runs alongside it, you know?
‘And then these guys come along and just, just chuck a load of paint all over it.’
Discussing the eco-group’s tactics, both co-hosts concluded that their actions do not help garner public support.
Vine said: ‘They are completely, I think, completely disconnected from ordinary people.
‘Ordinary people are worried about the environment, but what they don’t want is that wilful destruction.
‘And I don’t understand why they think this is a good tactic.’
Pierce agreed, adding: ‘Even if you were sympathetic to their aims, you are antagonised, you’re enrage.
‘You know, we’ve seen it before when they’ve sat on roads, they’ve glued themselves to roads, and ambulances can’t get through, people can’t get to work.
‘These terrible, stupid people.’
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