Enough is Enough! march coming down Chatham High Street, Saturday 1st October 2022   Down the canyon of Chatham High Street comes the march. Banner of Medway Trades Council proudly to the fore. Chants and shouts echoing off the shopfronts and the buildings above. “Enough is Enough! Enough is Enough!” Past the pound shops and the charity shops. Past the boarded up windows and the off licenses. Through the battered heart of Chatham. “Tories! Tories! Tories! Out! Out! Out!”  The march, perhaps 150 strong, has made its way two miles from Gillingham. It turns onto the open ground of The ..read more

Police remove Just Stop Oil activists from the top of an oil tanker, Chiswick, London 15th April 2022 At 8.25 on Friday 15th April, as the rush hour traffic poured off the M4 at Chiswick, four activists stepped out in front of an Eddie Stobart oil tanker. Two held up a banner declaring ‘Just Stop Oil’ whilst two others disabled the braking system and clambered up onto the back of the tanker. Passing drivers hurled abuse and soon the police were forced to close the interchange. In a statement to the press, Just Stop Oil declared they aimed “to stop the flow of oil in London”[1]. This was the ..read more

Opening image of ‘Offshore’ – Platform’s documentary film on just transition in the UK North Sea Shell declares it may go back into Cambo and the oilfield’s exploration license is extended by two years. The British government pushes for renewed drilling in the UK North Sea. There is public outcry at the Chancellor’s failure to defend households from the attack on living standards driven by price inflation. The Russian government announces that ‘unfriendly states’ will need to pay for gas imports in roubles. The global oil price rises again to $120 per barrel. Could these distinct events be i ..read more

Standing in the front benches of the Opposition in the House of Commons, Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, declared “Citizens Advice have said they have seen a record number of people in January … Only today Shell announced that their profits had quadrupled to 20 billion dollars. They described the results as momentous, dividends up, profits up and people’s energy bills up too” She announced Labour’s plans would be to impose a one-off windfall tax on those excess profits. Caroline Lucas MP speaking on the fuel poverty crisis and the Green New Deal – February 2022 Caroline Lu ..read more

Vaila Mae sixareen fishing boat under sail in Shetland In July 1881 a fleet of Sixareen boats were working the haaf fishing grounds 30 or more miles West of Shetland in the vast North Atlantic. Each craft twenty foot long, hand built from wood, with a crew of seven men fishing for Cod and Ling. This valuable catch was taken on lines of hooks, sometimes several miles long. Their position at sea, carefully chosen, was above a depth of around 96 fathoms of water (576 feet), at the very point where the continental shelf drops away. An area rich in sea life. A place to harvest the common wealth o ..read more

  Seven twenty in the evening of Thursday 2nd December the news breaks[1]: Shell announces that they are withdrawing from their joint venture with the company Siccar Point that intends to exploit oil in the Cambo field West of Shetland. The announcement is as dramatic as it is unexpected. That same evening it is long since dark in the sea area 100 miles west of Shetland. A Force Four blowing South South West, cloud obscuring the moon. This wild space had been charted out as a place for petroleum exploration in the 1970’s and oil was first discovered in 1990 at the Foinaven Field, 35 mile ..read more

Front cover of The i on 21st September 2021 Hot on the heels of the Petrol Panic comes the Gas Price Panic and the Electricity Price Panic – my head spins as I try to take in each of these fossil fuel driven convulsions. It is worth the effort to unpick this ball of yarn and lay out the tale it reveals. It is a tale of two cities. We can begin by describing each in turn and then see how they interconnect. We shall call one The Streets and the other The Towers. To the City of the Streets comes news to add to the nation’s woes, that the price of gas is suddenly sky rocketing. Householders will ..read more

Do you work in the offshore oil and gas industry? Have you worked in the industry in the past? Join our workshops to determine what a just energy transition looks like and learn how we can fight for our demands.  First workshop: Saturday 13 March 2021 10:00am – 1:00pm over Zoom. Our report, OFFSHORE: Oil and gas workers’ views on industry conditions and the energy transition released in September 2020 showcased what we already knew: the oil and gas industry is a volatile place to work, and the lack of support from industry and government through the energy transition is only making things ..read more

We’re in a climate emergency – so why is the UK aiming to extract 20 more billions of barrels of oil?! Our research, out today, shows just how far out of touch with reality this plan is – and what the UK needs to do instead, not only to protect the climate, but also workers’ rights and industry. The climate emergency, acknowledged last week by UK and Scottish parliaments, means we have to rapidly come off fossil fuels. The government’s Committee on Climate Change recommends a fully ‘net zero emissions’ economy by 2050, and arguably, as a nation that’s reaped its wealth in large part from other ..read more