The moment Just Stop Oil supporters are encouraged to role-play as ‘a woman whose child is dying’ in a sick practice protest by organisers

• The group met in London’s Covent Garden for another training session  

In the vibrant centre of London’s Covent Garden, 17 trainee eco-zealots gathered behind the doors of the Quaker Meeting House to be taught how to maximise their ability to cause chaos.

Led by two organisers – both of whom admitted being on police bail following previous arrests – the novice activists were taken through various exercises in ‘civil resistance’, including how to ‘de-escalate’ situations involving ‘angry motorists’. 

During one part of Wednesday’s session, an organiser even suggested role-playing ‘a woman whose child is dying or something’.

The group’s blockades of roads have led to a number of instances in which emergency vehicles have been stuck in traffic, including one in Knightsbridge, London, which prevented a sick baby from reaching hospital. 

Appropriately for the setting –Quakers pledge to build a more peaceful world – the meeting included a discussion about whether the group should stick to non-violence principles, with one participant venturing that they didn’t ‘fully believe’ in the concept, because they were more of a ‘blow up a pipeline person’.

Just Stop Oil (pictured protesting in April) have been holding more training meetings – during one part of Wednesday’s session, an organiser even suggested role-playing ‘a woman whose child is dying or something’

On Friday, JSO protesters were booed off stage when the opening night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall became the latest high-profile event to be targeted

While at the Ashes England cricketer Jonny Bairstow carried off a protester during a pitch invasion

Yesterday, the group tried to put some of the training into practice by holding slow marches across the capital.

Thirteen protesters marched at three different locations at lunchtime – Parliament Square, Old Palace Yard and Victoria Street – but were cleared from the roads when Scotland Yard used the Public Order Act to demand that protesters leave the road or face arrest.

One of the organisers of the Quaker training session is understood to have been Molly Berry, a retired lip-reading tutor from Hertfordshire on bail from HMP Bronzefield for closing the M25 in November last year.

Ms Berry was one of 15 supporters who climbed the overhead gantries at rush hour in a dangerous stunt to protest over oil and gas. She said at the time: ‘The climate crisis is not Left-wing or Right-wing. It’s not an opinion or a point of view or a cause. It’s real, and it’s happening now, and it is getting very close to destroying absolutely everything we love.’

According to a recording of the training session obtained by this newspaper, the activists were told: ‘We’re going to do some role-play. You need to get into threes. There are three roles and we each get a turn at each one.

‘One is the angry person or distressed person. One is an activist and one is watching.

‘You don’t have to be angry all the time. You could be a woman, you know, whose child is dying or something. Do try and put welly into it because it’s so important.

‘This is real for people and if you practice and make yourself act as real as you possibly can, it’s good for you and it’s good for the future.’

A second organiser then says: ‘You could be a parent going to a hospital, you could be missing an important interview, you could be late to work, noisy kids in the back and it’s driving you nuts, you’re a key worker, they are all sorts of different roles. So please put your all into it when you’re being the angry person.’

The group’s blockades of roads have led to a number of instances in which emergency vehicles have been stuck in traffic, including one in Knightsbridge, London, which prevented a sick baby from reaching hospital

Over the coming weeks, the eco-zealots have pledged to ‘paralyse London’ with slow-marching columns ten times bigger than any previous marches

At Wimbledon recently they threw confetti and jigsaw pieces on to the court

On Friday, JSO protesters were booed off stage when the opening night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall became the latest high-profile event to be targeted. Jeers erupted from the audience as staff escorted away two activists who had forced their way in front of the orchestra holding a bright orange banner, just after the BBC Symphony Orchestra had played Sibelius’s Finlandia.

The pair tried to address the crowd as audience members shouted ‘off, off, off’ and ‘throw them off the stage’, before they were ‘forcibly removed’.

At Wimbledon recently they threw confetti and jigsaw pieces on to the court, while at the Ashes England cricketer Jonny Bairstow carried off a protester during a pitch invasion.

Protesters also disrupted a performance at Glyndebourne last month by letting off a confetti bomb and blowing an air horn – but were then widely mocked for failing to do their research. The venue is the most environmentally-sustainable opera house in the world, boasting a 67 m wind turbine which provides more than 90 per cent of the company’s annual electricity needs.

Over the coming weeks, the eco-zealots have pledged to ‘paralyse London’ with slow-marching columns ten times bigger than any previous marches, to force the ‘murderous Government’ – as they refer to it – to scrap new domestic oil and gas licenses.

Commenting on the latest protest plans, Conservative Party deputy chairman Nickie Aiken said: ‘Once again ordinary people are having their lives disrupted by these extremists. And once again, Labour are all too happy to stand idly by while Just Stop Oil’s main funder Dale Vince fills their coffers and writes their policies.

‘It’s time for Labour to do the right thing and hand back the money from Dale Vince.’

JSO declined to comment.

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