Why Insulate Britain and XR are Failing to Win Over the Public – Byline Timeshttps://bylinetimes.com/2021/09/28/why-insulate-britain-and-xr-are-failing-to-win-over-the-public/IB was born out of that frustration and its response was to become more radical still. But Read believes that whilst the general public’s awareness of climate change has moved, partly due to actions from groups like XR, the actions that IB are engaged in don’t have the “positive dimension” that will mobilise the 3.5% of the population that XR had always estimated was needed to galvanise change.
He tells Byline Times that there is a “grave danger in actions that appear to target ordinary people” which he dubs blunt instruments that have no power to resonate and to change minds. In fact, Read argues that they may in fact be counterproductive and cause a waning in public sympathy, as well as encouraging more repressive police action.
Read has argued instead for what he calls “Robin Hood actions” by radical groups – such as stealing insulation and installing it in the lofts of social housing residents. He argues as well for more entryism into what he calls “leverage points’, pointing to groups such as Lawyers For Net-Zero. He argues instead for a “mass moderate flank” to put pressure on governments, rather than more radical, smaller groups.
Parfitt and others engaged in IB actions are pursuing another path – in her case on the grounds of obedience “to a higher authority”. She tells Byline Times that she sees the work she does as resisting “the forces of evil that I see residing in the fossil fuel industry.” IB’s protests are due to gather pace again next week. The debate within the environmental movement – as well as amongst the general public – isn’t going to be over soon.